Here’s the list from Joe’s Shoffee Blog:

• Caribou Coffee French Roast Keurig K-Cups
• Caribou Coffee Sumatra Decaf Keurig K-Cups
• Coffee People French Roast Decaf Keurig K-Cups
• Diedrich Colombia Decaf Keurig K-Cups
• Diedrich Morning Edition Keurig K-Cups
• Diedrich Sumatra Keurig K-Cups
• Diedrich Variety Pack Keurig K-Cups
• Emeril’s Vanilla Bean BAM! Keurig K-Cups
• Gloria Jean’s Special Blend Decaf Keurig K-Cups
• Gloria Jean’s Pumpkin Spice Keurig K-Cups
• Gloria Jean’s Chamomile Tea Keurig K-Cups
• Gloria Jean’s Tea Variety Box of Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain FT Holiday Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain FT Autumn Harvest Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain FT Wicked Winter Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain FT Spring Revival Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain FT Summer Safari Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain Hazelnut Dark Roast Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain Heifer Hope Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Green Mountain National Wildlife Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Timothy’s Colombian FT Dorado Keurig K-Cups
• Timothy’s Mexican Organic Keurig K-Cups
• Tully’s Evergreen Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Tully’s Full City Roast Keurig K-Cups
• Tully’s Madison Blend Keurig K-Cups
• Tully’s Sumatra Keurig K-Cups

I’m not going to get too worked up about this personally since only one of my absolute favorites (Green Mountain’s seasonal FT Holiday Blend) is on this list, but it’s a bit disappointing for sure.

Sumatran varietals in general are consistently among my favorites, so losing Sumatran offerings from Caribou, Diedrich, and Tully’s is also kind of a bummer.

I’d also be willing to bet that more than a couple of people are going to be downright irate about the loss of Gloria Jean’s Pumpkin Spice, although I’m certainly not one of them.

In general however, having tried most of the coffees on this list, my thinking is Green Mountain is mostly clearing out a whole lot of the mediocre – hopefully to make room for something better.

As you may recall from another Shoffee Blog post about a month ago, Green Mountain announced the purchase of kick-ass Canadian Coffee maker, Van Houtte.  My thinking on this is that Green Mountain is streamlining their current offerings to clear a little room for a more general distribution of Van Houtte K-Cups.  As Joe pointed out, Van Houtte already produces the Bigelow, and Wolfgang Puck lineup of K-Cups, but that’s really only scratching the beanskin of the Van Houtte lineup.

If my wishes become reality, this latest news is nothing more than Green Mountain clearing the way for the Van Houtte brand to become the latest K-Cup staple; available through your favorite retail outlets, like Shoffee.com.

It’s March Madness time again, which means it’s time again for Shoffee’s 3rd Annual Shoffice Pool.  This year the prize pool is bigger than ever.  Granted, 3 years isn’t a long time to track these sort of things, but never the less…our friend’s at Shoffee are offering some pretty sweet prizes for coffee-loving basketball fans (or basketball-loving coffee fans).  The list includes:

• Two (2) Top Prizes – This year we have two top prizes, provided by both Keurig and FLAVIA. The top finisher in the Shoffice Pool will choose between a Keurig Prize Package which includes a New Keurig B155 Home Office Brewer and a year’s supply of Green Mountain Keurig K-Cups (24 boxes of Keurig K-Cups to be exact), or a FLAVIA Prize Package which includes a FLAVIA Fusion Home Brewer and 24 cases of FLAVIA coffee, tea and Dove Hot Chocolate.Estimated Value of these two top prizes is more than $600.00 each
• The Second Runner Up will receive a year’s supply of Coffee People Donut Shop Keurig K-Cups (24 boxes) from Diedrich Coffee Estimated Value is $300.00
• The Third Runner Up will receive a case of Green Mountain Island Coconut Keurig K-Cups (4 boxes) and a case of Green Mountain Spring Revival Blend Keurig K-Cups (4 boxes). Estimated Value is $100.00
• The Fourth Runner Up will receive a case of Timothy’s Sugar Bush Maple Keurig K-Cups (4 boxes) from Timothy’s Coffee Estimated Value is $50.00
• The Top 25 Finishers will receive a NEW Shoffee.com Travel Mug Estimated Value is $10.00

My personal disdain for Island Coconut aside, that’s a delicious (and in the case of first prize – incredibly functional) set of prizes.

To enter (or just to check out the details), browse over to the Shoffice Pool website and fill out your bracket.  Assuming your better at it than I am (and it’s hard to imagine you could be worse), you’ve got a pretty good chance at winning a prize package from Shoffee.com – The Web’s Favorite Coffee Shop.

Now until the end of December (otherwise known as the “Holiday Season”), Green Mountain is running a little family and friends deal for their Coffee Ambassadors; guys like me who can’t stop talking about how good Green Mountain Coffee is.  Occasionally, I’ll talk about things like corporate citizenship t00, which is good, but the coffee…the coffee is just great.

Anyway, simply visit the Green Mountain Website, fill your cart full of things like Organic Fair Trade Coffee, Keurig Brewers, or other unique gifts and samplers.  At checkout, enter promo code 3A56-2493.

The offer expires 12/31/09 and excludes Café EXPRESS and other discount promotions.

In addition to their own coffees and teas, Green Mountain stocks coffee from Caribou, Tully’s, and Newman’s Own.  The offer also applies to Green Mountain’s Cafe Escapes lineup, as well as the new Donut House Collection.

If you’re willing to forgo the 10% discount, you can save $2 off every box of Green Mountain coffee you buy through their Café Express programs, which helps ensure that you never run out of delicious Green Mountain Coffee.

To help entice you a bit, Green Mountain has passed along their recipe for Caramel Gingerbread Cream Coffee

• Brew a pot of Fair Trade Gingerbread Coffee.
• Combine 2/3 coffee and 1/3 steamed light cream in a mug.
• Add caramel syrup to taste.  Top with whipped cream and a swirl of caramel syrup.

The Fine Print Details of Me & Green Mountain as it applies to the FTC

As you may or may not know, the FTC recently enacted some guidelines for bloggers centered around disclosure of compensation received for product endorsements.  So in the spirit of full disclosure, here are  the details of my relationship with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters:

As a Green Mountain’s Ambassador, I receive two boxes of K-Cups per month.   Occasionally, I receive other gifts (they sent me a nice fleece vest just last week).  From time to time, I also request a specific product (usually when a new variety comes out), and they’ve been kind enough to oblige.  With the exception of their affiliate program (for which I receive a percentage of all sales generated through Qwowi.com), I receive no monitory compensation from Green Mountain (or anyone else for that matter) for my efforts, which sometimes makes me wonder why I even bother; but I digress.  I’m certainly not on the payroll, and I’m most definitely under no obligation to say nice things about Green Mountain products.  If they send me something, and I don’t like it, you’ll still find it reviewed here at Qwowi Coffee.  Reviews are not submitted to anyone for approval – including my wife  - prior to posting.

Green Mountain has expanded their Cafe Escape lineup to include a new Mocha offering.  Described as “A perfect pairing of chocolate and coffee for a rich and creamy experience.”, as a fan of another coffee house’s mocha, sufficed to say this is one I’ve been looking forward to trying for quite sometime.

Green Mountain has also announced a new Donut House collection.  Following in the footsteps of the wildly popular Donut Shop Coffee (Coffee People), and Original Donut Blend (Timothy’s), Green Mountain has upped the ante by releasing not only a “Donut House” coffee, but they’ve also added a Decaf version, and two flavored offerings; Chocolate Glazed Donut, and Cinnamon Roll.  If nothing else, it’s going to be interesting.

Canadian coffee company, Timothy’s has just released its Kahlua Original Coffee.  Here’s how they describe it:

Explore your curiosity with an extraordinary new coffee experience. Timothys World Coffee, in collaboration with Kahlua, the worlds number one coffee liqueur, presents the new Kahlua Original Coffee Keurig K-Cup. The Kahlua Original Keurig K-Cup offers a distinctive coffee tasting experience that it is sure to stimulate the palate in an unforgettable way. Timothys Kahlua Original is the first ever liqueur branded K-Cup available in the market. It is packed in single serve portion packs, specifically formulated for use in Keurig Single Cup Brewing Systems.

You may recall that I enjoyed Coffee People’s Kafe-Lua (the original Kahlua blend). They’ve discontinued it, so hopefully, the Timothy’s offering will prove to be a worthy replacement.

Timothy’s Kahlua Original is available now from Shoffee.com.

Coffee People has announced their new Treehugger blend.  While the name perhaps doesn’t make the blend sound all that tasty, the description I have (“A chocolaty medium roast with sweet berry notes”) sounds absolutely delicious.

Coffee People has also announced the return of the seasonal Santa’s Buzz.  Look for both at Shoffee.com.

Finally, Gloria Jean’s has announced the arrival of their Holiday Traditions blend (as the name suggests, another winter/holiday seasonal).  It’s described as “a flavorful coffee with undertones of milk chocolate fudge and caramel”.  If you’ve follwed my reviews at all, you might have noticed that I’ve been particularly hard on Gloria Jean’s in the past (see my mudslide review), but that doesn’t mean I don’t have high hopes for Holiday Traditions.  Coffee, Chocolate, and Caramel are 3 of my favorite things, so I don’t see how this can miss (of course I’ve been wrong before).

Look for K-Cup Challenge reviews of all of these new blends coming in the next few week.

As is their tradition, my friends over at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters have announced two new Summer Seasonals for 2009.  Both Perfect Peach and Summer Safari Blend are available in Autodrop (ground) or K-Cups (which is why I’m excited).  

Here’s the Descriptions and Tasting Notes for both:

Fair Trade Summer Safari Blend

Description:

A spirited blend of South American and East African coffee. Destination Delicious.

Tasting Notes:

What do you get when you take the crisp, clean flavors of South American coffees and blend them with slightly wild East African beans? If you’re lucky — and you are — you get our Fair Trade Summer Safari ™ Blend, a spirited, slightly tropical take on summer.

Summer Safari is sweet-toned and light-bodied, refreshing and remarkably balanced. Enjoy it just-brewed, or over ice.

Fair Trade the Perfect Peach

Description:

Deliciously refreshing. Bursting with the flavors of a ripe, juicy peach.

Tasting Notes:

Folks said we were crazy when we introduced our Fair Trade Wild Mountain Blueberry™… and then insisted we offer it year ’round. People called us loony when we created Island Coconut™… now customers write us all winter long and ask when we’re going to offer it again. And now that we’re introducing our latest seasonal offering— The Perfect Peach ™ —now they say we’re nuts. We say, no… peaches are drupes. But that’s not the point. The point is… wow, this stuff’s good.

From its juicy aroma of fresh peach nectar to its surprisingly complex flavors of gorgeous, sun-drenched stone fruit, we think you’re gonna love this one — just-brewed, iced, sweetened if you care to. And maybe it goes without saying, but, peaches and cream? Divine.

The Perfect Peach — reason enough to fall in love with summer all over again. 

I haven’t tried either yet, but Green Mountain definitely has a history of doing these Summer Blends right.  They’re also one of  the few who’s figured out how to do flavored coffee without it turning into a total disaster.  I’m really looking forward to trying (and reviewing) both of the ’09 Summer blends offerings.

Both Fair Trade the Perfect Peach and Fair Trade Summer Safari Blend are available for $13.95 per box (K-Cups) and $8.49 bagged from GreenMountainCoffee.com.

As is ALWAYS the case, Green Mountain’s Café EXPRESS subscribers will save $2 on each box of Green Mountain Coffee (including Perfect Peach & Summer Safari) you purchase through the Green Mountain Website.

Green Mountain also offers a Refer A Friend Program. If you refer a friend to Green Mountain and that friend buys a Keurig Brewer, you’ll both get two free regular variety samplers. Free coffee rules, it’s a fact.

Act quickly though;  Green Mountain Summer Blends will only be around until the leaves start to turn.

While you’re here, check out the growing list of K-Cup reviews in my K-Cup Challenge.

I’m a little late in getting this information out (I’ve been busy), but there’s some pretty cool stuff happening over at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that I wanted to make sure to mention before I get back to the K-Cup Challenge next week.  If you read my review of the original Green Mountain Hot Cocoa, you probably already know that I wasn’t a fan of the first draft (so to speak) from my favorite little Vermont coffee company.  I’m happy (actually beyond happy) to report Green Mountain Hot Cocoa just go a whole lot sweeter (and more chocolaty too)  Not too long ago, my friends at Green Mountain sent me a box each of their two new Hot Cocoa varieties.  Without going into too much detail, sufficed to say, they fixed the glitch.

The new Milk, and Dark Chocolate Cocoa K-Cups are part of a brand new lineup from Green Mountain called Cafe Escapes.  While I’m not 100% positive, my take on the new lineup (which will be expanded shortly to include Cafe Mocha, Vanilla Latte, and Chai Tea varieties), is that Green Mountain will fill it with coffee house style beverages, that aren’t quite coffee and aren’t quite tea.  You can think of Cafe Escapes as that frou-frou niche we all love so much at Sta…well, that other place anyway.  I’ll be writing full reviews of both of the new hot cocoa flavors shortly, but in the meantime let me just say that each has a very distinct flavor, they’re both extremely good, and are leaps and bounds better than the original.  I also can’t wait to try the Cafe Mocha and to find out if Green Mountain has finally been able to capture the true mocha experience in a K-Cup.

Also relatively new from Green Mountain is the availability of 8 varieties of Caribou Coffee K-Cups.  If my recollection is correct, I’ve already sampled 5 of the 8, and while the Mahogany variety is my favorite of the bunch, Caribou Blend, Sumatra, and Daybreak blend are all very good in their own right.  As a fan of both Green Mountain and Caribou Coffee (as are many of my friends), it’s absolutely awesome that Caribou is now available through Green Mountain, and as part of Green Mountain’s Cafe Express Program (details below).

Green Mountain carries the entire lineup of Keurig Home Brewers, including my personal favorite, the B70, as well as the brand new, highly portable, highly awesome B30 Mini Brewer (available in red) (review/video).

For all you caffeine junkies out there, I highly recommend, you sign up for Green Mountain’s Café EXPRESS program, where you’ll Save $2 on Every Box purchased through the Green Mountain Website.

Green Mountain also offers a Refer A Friend Program.  If you refer a friend to Green Mountain and that friend buys a Keurig Brewer, you’ll both get two free regular variety samplers. Free coffee rules, it’s a fact.

While you’re here, check out the growing list of K-Cup reviews in my K-Cup Challenge.

Here are the details: