But this is cool. Folgers announced that they are accepting entries for their Home for the Holidays Contest. You have from  September 30 to November 7th to tell Folgers what is the best part of waking up at home during the holidays. Make it sappy, y’all..think about those tear-jerker commercials they do!

From the entries five winners will be chosen to receive a seven day and six night trip home…As long as home is somewhere in the lower 48 states. You get to take three guests with you, too. The trip includes:

• Airfare
• Hotel
• Rental car
• Folgers gift basket
• $1,000 in spending money

That is pretty cool I think. Anyway..head over to Folgers Home for the Holidays for all the info…Good luck!

image:SXC

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No purchase is required but they will only be doing giving them away Friday August 7  from 2 to 3 p.m. It is national so if you live near a Peets you are in luck. Here is the store locator if you aren’t sure.

People can complain about the cruddy economy all they want. Look at all the free stuff we are getting out of it! Would someone please email me when someone starts giving away free steaks? Thanks.

image via Peet’s

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Yeah, me too…Let’s see who our lucky winners are, shall we?

If you have won, please email me at maryeaudetATgmailDOTcom.  Remember to replace the AT and DOT with @ AND .

I will email you as well in the next day or so and you will have three days from the date of my email to claim your prize.  Ready?

The first winner is of the Kusmi Detox tea.  I have tried another of their teas, soon to review, and YUM!  Nice big tea leaves, wonderful mix of herbs and spices.

And the winner is Maggie!

The niext item is the amazing tea box from Teatulia.  Wow…I would have loved to keep my hands on this!  And the winner of this is Kelly Ann T!

Thank you so much for participating!  Keep reading because there are more giveaways in the works.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

Teatulia

Kusmi

image:teatulia tea

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If you remember the reviews I did on Teatulia Tea you will be very excited about this giveaway.  You will get a beautiful wooden gift box like the one pictured filled with a variety of Teatulia Organic Teas.

These teas are some of the best I have ever had.  I am not kidding or exaggerating, they are amazingly clean and crisp tasting.  The ethics of the company are top notch, and they are involved in building community in the areas that the tea is grown.

Here’s how you enter to win.  Each thing you do is one entry.

• Leave a comment
• Blog about this contest and leave a comment telling me that you did (with the address)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed and leave a comment telling me you did.
• Go to Teatulia and read the About page.  Leave a comment naming one thing that teatulia is doing to improve the lives of those in the Tea Cooperative.
• Go to Teatulia Flavors page and name one flavor you would LOVE to try

Ships to US and Canada

You may enter until February 1, 11:59 P.M.

There you go, five ways to win.  Good luck!

image: courtesy of Teatulia Tea

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Kusmi Tea sent me two large (and I mean large) tins of tea to review and give away.  The review is still to come but I am giving away the tin of the Detox Tea.

In this day of pollutants, toxins, chemicals, and personal stress detox tea can help keep your system clean and running efficiently.  This means that your metabolism will also be working more efficiently and, hopefully, burning more calories.

The tea is described on site as:

Blend of Maté, chinese Green Tea and lemon grass full flavored with lemon.

Tasting advice: delicious plain or sweetened.

The combination of Maté and green tea virtues — diuretic and stimulating properties, richness in antioxidant — makes Kusmi Detox the perfect companion for slimming and detoxifying diets. Known for its tonic properties, mate does not have the side effects generated by caffeine.

This is a large tin of loose leaf tea.  I have it here at the house so I will send it out within a week of the completion of the contest. This contest is open until 11:59 p.m. Feb 1, 2009

To enter:

Leave a comment for one entry

Blog about the contest and leave a link to you blog post in a separate comment for a second entry

Subscribe to the RSS feed and leave a comment that you have, or if you are all ready a subscriber leaver a comment and let me know.

ships to U.S. only

Image:Kusmi Tea

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I know, it’s a hard job but someone has to do it right?

I was up dark and early this morning.  Here, not only was it 3:30 a.m. but it was dark, coldish, and drizzling.  Not the morning you want to crawl out of bed and head anywhere. Since I was up so early Marc hadn’t gotten up before me to start the fire in the kitchen or make coffee.  Say it with me…”Awwwwwwww”

But I had a purpose.  I was headed over to Panera to meet with Marketing Manager -Krista Moberg,  The General Manager Jason Russell, and Stan Sears, Panera’s Bakery Training Specialist in this area.  And they promised me coffee.

You guys know that coffee will lure me out of almost anywhere.  Even at 0 dark thirty, even on a drizzly, chilly day.

It isn’t that Panera hasn’t had coffee in the past.  It is that they decided that they wanted to upgrade their coffee to the same artisan quality of their bread.

Did they do it?  Yeah they did.

I will be honest and tell you that I did not try the decaf.

The dark roast is sweet and slightly smoky in a pleasant way.  None of the scorched flavor that some other coffees have.  It was smooth when black, and handled the cream well.  The coffee presented full bodied winey  characteristics on cupping.  The beans are 100% El Indio from Tarrazu.  El Indio beans are known for a deep flavor that is characteristic of European coffees.  A perfect choice to accompany the artisan European style breads.  Tom Gumple, Panera’s head baker, created a list of pairings for each type of coffee.  His suggestions for the dark roast are:

*Pecan Braid

*Sesame Seed Bagel

*Sesame Semolina Toast

The regular roast is very well done.  As you know, my tastes tend toward the dark roast but this was a very nice full city roast.  It presented bright notes at cupping and is well balanced and sweet.  Great for people that just want a cup of coffee.

Suggested pairings are:

• Blueberry scone
• Asiago bagel
• Cinnamon raisin toast

The last coffee I tried was the Hazelnut.  By now I was on a caffeine buzz in a major way.  The hazelnut flavor was intense at first sip, fading into exotic vanilla before leaving a classic coffee finish.  Obviously the flavor is not covering up inferior beans in this coffee.

Pairing suggestions are:

• Croissant
• Cinnamon Crunch Bagel
• Whole grain toast

They have great coffee plus espresso, caramel lattes, cafe mocha, and other espresso based drinks. Honestly, Panera blows Starbucks out of the water.   And that is without even considering their breads and sandwiches.  Consider the following:

• Coffee, much better than Starbucks.
• Most companies will either buy from big multinational sources and/or not disclose the source for their coffee.  Panera has made a commitment to small, sustainable Central American farms.
• The coffee for all Panera stores is roasted at a Tyler, Texas roaster, Distant Lands.  Doing a little research let me know that Distant lands is committed to sustainable coffee raised without herbicides or pesticides.  It is not certified organic because of the fertilizers and fungicides used.
• Free WiFi
• Fireplace for ambiance
• Really smells GOOD
• Tables are comfortable
• They open at 6 a.m.  Seriously.  I did not know this.  I knew about Panera for lunch but did not have a clue about breakfast.

If you need to meet a client, work online, or just relax with a really good, honest cup of coffee, skip Starbucks and head for Panera.  the pastries are fresh, the coffee is good, and the price is right.

Now, on Wednesday Panera will be giving away samples of the breakfast sandwiches and granola as well as free coffee.  It is a great time to taste for yourself what I am talking about.  And, if you are in Dallas/Fort Worth, I will be live blogging from the Panera on Pleasant Run in Cedar Hill from about 8 a.m. until who knows.

I will be giving away Panera Coffee cups until they run out, so stop by and visit and pick up your coffee mug.

I will be publishing a lot of images and information about the bakery side of the business on Baking Delights a little later.

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Love your coffee? Gotta have your lattes and espressos?  Well then, you might need something like this to make life bearable.

You know you want this.  You know….I want this!

Starbucks online is having a giveaway and you can enter to win this Ascaso Espresso machine.  This machine is touted as being the flagship of the Ascaso line.  It just doesn’t get better than this..and look! It comes in orange! (I am one of those weirdos that loves orange)

You have only until December 31, 2008 to register so you better get over there!

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This week is The Quarterly Bloggy Giveaway Carnival…

On Baking Delights I am giving away a very cool cupcake book so once you are finished here get over there and register!

I had really thought of alot of things..I could give away a gift certificate to Adagio, or Green Mountain, or Starbucks..but all of those things would be gone so soon..And I like to give away things that last..

The item I am giving away will, I hope, give you hours of enjoyment for a long time to come.

Shelly Richardson has owned the renowned Elmwood Inn for fourteen years. This book is a compilation of recipes and images that will really inspire you in both the foods you place on your own tea table and the decor and arrangement of it.

I hope you enjoy it!

In order to enter you must leave a comment on this post. If you leave a comment and also blog about it on your own blog (leaving me the link) you will get two entries. Any other duplication of entries will be disqualified.

I can only ship within the Untied States, however if you are international and would like to enter you may, leaving me a note in your comment that you are not US, and I will be happy to give you a gift certificate to Amazon in lieu of the book.

The drawing for this book will be on April 27. You must contact me within 3 days in order to win. If the book is unavailable for some readon beyond my control I will send a gift certificate instead.

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