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.