Community Coffee Review and Giveaway!

 THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNER HAD BEEN NOTIFIED!  THANKS TO ALL YOU ENTERED AND CONGRADULATIONS TO THE WINNER!

 PLEASE CONTINUE TO READ THE REVIEW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL COMPANY AND PRODUCT.  THANKS!

 

Community Coffee is located in the home of Mardi Gras, New Orleans.  Honestly, that alone is charming enough to give their coffee a try.  New Orleans is like no place on earth.  Having travelled a bit within and outside of the United States, I have always said New Orleans is one of my favorite spots.  So, when I had the chance to try one of New Orleans own, I was thrilled.  I will admit my expectation was pretty high and I wondered if I would be a bit unfair.  Were my expectations too high?  Well, maybe but we all have our biases right?  Besides, Community Coffee being the largest family owned retail coffee brewing business in the United States should live up to pretty high expectations. 

Here’s a little Community Coffee history for you!

Community Coffee Company has sold the finest fresh-roasted premium coffee in Louisiana since Henry Norman “Cap” Saurage began selling coffee out of his country store in 1919. Today, Community® coffee can be found in grocery and convenience stores, offices, hotels and some of the best restaurants throughout the South. It is also served daily at CC’s Community Coffee House® locations in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans, and is available worldwide through CommunityCoffee.com. Community Coffee Company is the largest family owned and operated retail coffee brand in America.

Now before we get into how Community Coffee measured up, we need to discuss a few things.  I not only review a product but a company in whole from customer service to ease of website use.   

Let me give you a quick rundown:

Customer Service:  Excellent!  You feel like you are their only customer. 

Website:  Quaint, easy to use, loads fast and gives ample information about the product and the company.

Shipping:  Quick to put in your order and shipment came on time.  They use UPS. 

Packaging:  Let me tell you this in pictures:

 This is how my package looked when it arrived.  You see the Fragile sticker?  Yeah…I think that was missed by the guy loading the truck.  No hard feelings UPS, I just thought this was funny. 

 

 

 

This is how my beautiful package looked once I opened the banged up box.  The package was in perfect condition with not one thing out of place.  What you see here is exactly how it came out.  Community Coffee prepares its packages for anything. 

 

 

 

Alas, beauty is only skin deep.  What really matters is what’s inside those perfect little vacuumed sealed pouches of coffee. 

The package you see above and more clearly below is called the Valentine’s Day Gift Set.  It comes in coffee or tea.  I love both but coffee is what interested me most. 

The Valentine’s Day Gift Set includes:

• 12 oz. Private Reserve House Blend ground coffee

2 oz.  bag of French Vanilla

2 oz. bag of Cinnamon Roll

coffee scoop

travel tumbler

the cutest coffee cup shape wicker basket ever!

Now, when I reveal the retail price you are going to die!  Personally, being a Starbucks fan, I am used to paying a pretty penny for coffee.  So, I fully expected the price of this to be well over $20, right?  Well, it’s $19.95.  That’s right, you can afford to wish the neighbor who always parks in front of your house or steps on your lawn a Happy Valentine’s Day this year.  Be a hero and buy your long lost Aunt Mabel a Valentine.  Send it to yourself! 

As you can imagine, when this arrived the first thing I did was brew a cup of coffee.  I wasn’t sure what to choose to brew first.  I finally decided on the House Blend.  House Blend is a combination of Colombian and Brazilian coffee beans.  The roast is medium-dark.  The aroma is fantastic.  It’s a smooth blend roasted to a perfect rich medium-dark.  I hate to sound like a commerical..but I really loved this blend.  I enjoy using flavored creamers for a few reasons.  One, I love the taste and second it covers up bad coffee.  Yes, I’ll admit it, sometimes I end up buying cheap coffee.  House Blend required nothing but a mug.  I was equally impressed with the French Vanilla and Cinnamon Roll.  I drink all kinds of coffee from Starbucks to Gevalia to Maxwell House to McDonald’s.  I always ranked Starbucks as my #1.  Well, now Starbucks has some hefty competition.  To get a flavor so rich from your own coffee pot anytime you want is  a treat! 

I also have another treat to share with you.  Community Coffee has some of the most fun flavors I’ve seen.  One of those flavors is Bread Pudding.   Yes,  you read that right, Bread Pudding.  I was lucky enough to get to try a bag.  Now, this is where I reveal my insanity.  I have never had bread pudding.  However, the flavor intrigued me.  I am happy to report that I truly enjoyed it.  I would describe it as a fun cup of coffee.  I know I will be sharing this with friends who come over. 

Another fun flavor they carry is Carnivale Cake.  It’s a Mardi Gras special.  You can get a gift basket with a travel tumbler, the coffee and beads!  How fun is that?  Well, I’ll know soon because for $12.95, I’m off to order it. 

After such a fun time drinking coffee and finding a cool spot for my new coffee shaped wicker basket.  My daughter makes fun of me because of the fuss I  make over it.  It sits on my counter with packets of tea, hot chocolate and honey sticks in it.  I have the pleasure of offering one lucky reader a Valentine’s Day Gift Basket to call their own!  Yep, the basket you see pictured above can be yours! 

Giveaway Rules:

* Comment on this post telling me who the gift basket would be for and get 1 entry. (If it were me, I would keep it myself..lol)

* Subscribe to this blog and get 2 more entries.

* Members of Friends Following Friends get 1 more entry.

* Members of Mom Link Round Up get 1 more entry.

* Followers of Under the Golden Apple Tree Get 2 more entries.

* Tweet about it and get 2 entries.

* Blog about it and put the permalink in the comments and get 3 entries.

* Follow Community Coffee on Facebook and get 3 entries.  (They have over 42,000 fans!)

I cannot wait for the winner to get basket of goodies!  Just be sure to invite me over for coffee, okay?  Winner will be announced Sunday, February 7, 2010. 

 

Complimentary products given in exchange for an honest review by Community Coffee.  Giveaway provided by Community Coffee.