For those of you who get to take the day off, enjoy. For those who don’t, know that your contribution makes a difference! 

(Mug available from Café Press).

We also want to thank all the workers around the world who help bring us the delicious coffee and products that let us give you Choices @Work.   Especially to those who support the mission of Coffee Kids, a non-profit organization that works with coffee-farming families to improve their lives and livelihoods.

Last Chance to Take Our Survey

If haven’t already, please take our Coffee Survey. The deadline was extended, so you have until Labor Day to share your answers to questions such as:

• Would you tell someone if they have coffee breath?
• Do you order frou-frou drinks when no one is looking?

You could win a free month of coffee for your home or office*, or a new Tassimo single-serve coffee machine.

Take our survey now.

Thanks, and Happy Labor Day!

The new deadline for our survey will be Labor Day, Monday September 6, 2010.

You could win a free Tassimo coffee maker from Filterfresh!

Think you know your coffee? Show your true coffee connoisseur colors and take the 2010 Filterfresh Coffee Survey.

 Win Free Coffee and Coffee Maker!

You could win free coffee service for a month for your office (current Filterfresh customers only, see contest rules). You’ll also be entered into a drawing to win a free coffee maker  and one month supply of coffee for your home!  Anyone can win, so please share the link with friends:

Share this link: Coffee survey:  http://bit.ly/9woiE8

 See content rules.

Do you drink your coffee in a rush in the a.m.? Sip it slowly in the afternoon? Or stand impatiently at the office coffee pot waiting for another cup to brew?

What kind of coffee drinker are you? Take the Filterfresh survey and win free coffee.

 Whatever your coffee style…we want to know. And we’re prepared to reward you for taking the time to tell us. Have you taken the Filterfresh coffee survey yet? You have the rest of August to tell us, but why what until the last minute?

Take the Filterfresh survey and you could win free coffee service for a month for your office (current Filterfresh customers only, see contest rules). You’ll also be entered into a drawing to win a free coffee maker  and one month supply of coffee for your home!  Anyone can win, so please share the link with friends:

Coffee survey:  http://bit.ly/9woiE8

 See content rules.

Enter to win a Tassimo single serve coffee maker!

So go ahead and spill the beans, we’re waiting to hear the scoop! And feel free to tell your friends about it too. (Share the link).  

Share with a friend: Click on the (Share This) link under the post headline to email this page.

According to a recent study published by the Daily Beast, an online political and social news aggregator site, the top coffee-drinking city in the nation probably will come as no surprise: Seattle, Washington. As the home of the one of the world’s most well-known coffee house chains, Seattle is a city that knows good coffee.

So, how were the cities ranked? The Daily Beast used market research from NPD Group to choose the cities with the largest number of coffee shops per capita. Then, they considered the total caffeine consumption as measured by the most recent annual caffeine survey, commissioned by HealthSaver and conducted by Prince Market Research in 2008. In addition, they considered data on the average monthly spending on coffee purchases in the first quarter of 2010. We’re not sure if that factors in coffee consumption from office-delivery services such as Filterfresh or not, but either way, you can be sure that you’ll get your Joe in these towns.

Top 10 Coffee Cities

According to the Daily Beast, the top coffee consuming cities are:

1. Seattle, Washington
2. Portland, Oregon
3. San Jose, California
4. Denver, Colorado
5. San Francisco, California
6. Chicago, Illinois
7. Phoenix, Arizona
8. Los Angeles, California
9. New York, New York
10. Boston, MA

To see the full list of the top 20 coffee cities, visit the Daily Best web site.

How about a little nostalgic fun? Do you remember this little song   from the children’s TV show, Sesame Street?:  “One of these things is not like the others?”

Let’s play it the Filterfresh way. We’ll give you a list (in words, rather than pictures). You have to figure out which one doesn’t belong.

Maybe the song will help. Come on, sing along with us:

 “One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others, by the time I finish my song?

Round I: Which of these things is not like the others?   

A. Flavia

B.  Latte Lounge

C.  Keurig

D.  Tassimo

E.  Starbucks

F.  Seattle’s Best

Answer: If you guessed, F (Seattle’s Best): You’re right. Filterfresh carries all of these brands, but A through E offer beverage machines through Filterfresh, while Seattle’s Best does not.

Let’s try again:

Round II: Which of these things, is not like the other things?

 A. Wolfgang Puck

B.  Peets Coffee

C.  Van Houtte

D.  Seattle’s Best

E.  Bigelow

F.  Keurig

Answer: If you guessed, E;  You’re right. Bigelow Tea is the only beverage company on the Filterfresh line-up that doesn’t offer coffee.

And one more, just for fun….

Round III: Which of these is not like the others?

 A. Kraft Foods

B.  Nestle

C.  Hershey’s

D.  Source H2o

E.  Swiss Miss

F.  Timothy’s

G.  Revolution

The correct answer is: F: Timothy’s. All of the other brands carried by Filterfresh are pantry and accessory products (including a water purification system), while Timothy’s is a coffee brand, available in Keurig K-cups.

How’d you do?

For a complete list of brands offered by Filterfresh, flip through our product catalog.

Committed to Caring

One way Filterfresh strives to help improve our global community is by participating a social and environmental program started by our associate company, Van Houtte,  called Committed to Caring. We do this by:

• Recycling paper and waste products, and encouraging electronic, rather than paper, communication in our plant and offices to reduce waste.
• Implementing green measures in our coffee plant, such as avoiding roasting systems that pollute, and using recycled heat and energy, and fluorescent lighting.
• Developing programs with global and community non-profit organizations, such as Coffee Kids, which helps to improve the quality of life of children and families in coffee-growing communities.

Green @ Work

We offer you green and sustainable choices for coffee & beverage programs to help you create a greener workplace. Your Choices@Work for environmental responsibility include:

• A variety of Fair Trade & Organic coffees and teas in many brands and blends, including Swiss Water Process decafs.
• A number of environmentally friendly brewers and brewing programs for customers.
• A large selection of earth-friendly accessory products.
• The Source H₂O water filtration system (exclusively through Filterfresh)
• Waste-to-Energy program recycling for Keurig K-cups and Terracycle for Flavia Filterpacks (in select markets).

Terracycle is a unique combination of a recycling and reusing program that turns used Flavia Filterpacks into new products.

Have some green ideas?

If you have more ideas for us, we’d love to hear them. What is your company doing to be green?

A man walked up to a vending machine, put in a coin, and pressed the button labeled, “Coffee, double cream, sugar.” No cup appeared. Then two nozzles went into action, one sending forth coffee, the other, cream. After the proper amounts had gone down the drain where the cup should have been, the machine turned off. “Now that’s real automation,” the man exclaimed. “This thing even drinks it for you!”

*****

Freddie was eighteen years old, friendly, and eager to do things right. Unfortunately, he wasn’t especially bright. He had just started his first job, as a delivery boy and general go-fer at a furniture warehouse. His first task was to go out for coffee. He walked into a nearby coffee shop carrying a large thermos. When the counterman finally noticed him, he held up the thermos. “Is this big enough to hold six cups of coffee?” he said. The counterman looked at the thermos, hesitated for a few seconds, then finally said, “Yeah. It looks like about six cups to me.” “Good,” Freddie said. “Give me two regular, two black, and two decaf.”

*****

One morning, a grandmother was surprised to find that her 7-year-old grandson had made her coffee! Smiling, she choked down the worst cup of her life. When she finished, she found three little green Army men at the bottom. Puzzled, she asked, “Honey, what are these Army men doing in my coffee?” Her grandson answered, “Like it says on TV, Grandma. ‘The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup.’

And know for some real groaners …(or sound we call them grinders?):

How do you know coffee beans are juvenile?

They’re always getting grounded.

*****

A man went to his psychiatrist and said, “Every time I drink my coffee, I get a stabbing pain in my right eye,” the psychiatrist said, “well, have you tried taking the spoon out?”

*****

A man says to his wife: “Honey, this coffee tastes like dirt. “

His wife replies: “That’s not surprising, dear, it was just ground this morning. “

*****

This guy walks into a coffee shop and asks the waitress: “How much is the coffee?”

“Coffee is three dollars,” the waitress says. “How much is a refill?” the man asks.

“Free, “says the waitress. “Then I’ll take a refill!”

*****

A man in a coffee shop calls the waiter over and says, “Waiter, this coffee is cold.”

The waiter says, “Oh, I’m glad you told me. Iced coffee costs a dollar more.”

*****

And finally…our Top Ten Signs that you drink too much coffee:

1. You’re offended when people use the word “brew” to mean beer.
2. All your children are named Joe.
3. You don’t sweat, you percolate.
4. You walk twenty miles on your treadmill before you realize it’s not plugged in.
5. Your life’s goal is to amount to a hill of beans.
6. You want to come back as a coffee mug in your next life.
7. You’d be willing to spend time in a Turkish prison.
8. Your three favorite things in life are…coffee before, coffee during and coffee after.
9. You have a picture of your coffee mug on your coffee mug.
10. You introduce your spouse as your coffeemate.

The debate about whether or not coffee is good for you, has been lobbed back and forth for years like a tennis ball, but a number of studies in recent years seem to indicate that java offers substantial health benefits.

For instance, one study recently published by the American Association for Cancer Research (source)  stated that people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day were 39 percent less likely to develop head and neck tumors.  For the report, scientists pooled results from nine earlier studies on head and neck cancers, and compared information on coffee or tea drinking. Drinking tea didn’t appear to have the same positive affect as coffee drinking.

Other recent studies have shown that coffee drinkers may be at lower risk of liver and colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease. (source)

What makes coffee healthy?

So what is it about coffee that seems to reduce the risk for certain cancers, diabetes and heart disease? You might guess the caffeine, (which does improve alertness), but it’s not what gives coffee a health punch.  A number of other beverages contain caffeine, even in equal amounts to coffee, but they don’t have the same health-enhancing properties. So what is that makes our favorite beverage special?

A couple of theories exist. One is that coffee beans, like many fruits and vegetables, contain antioxidants, healthy compounds that help your body get rid of cancer-causing free radicals. Polyphenols or flavonoids, the type of antioxidants found in coffee, are also found in other foods and drinks, like tea, red wine, and chocolate. But according to at least one study (source),  coffee is the number-one source of antioxidants in the American diet. That could explain why it has such an impact!

Other possible reasons for coffee’s health power-punch might be that coffee contains natural compounds that discourage the growth of harmful bacteria, or that it contains those that encourage the growth of helpful bacteria (called probiotics). It’s also been shown that coffee may help manage levels of hormones in the body that control things such as hunger and fullness.  (That’s good news if you’re trying to watch your weight).

So whether it is for the antixodidants, probiotics, or just to give you energy to clear the three o’clock hurdle, a cup of Joe is good idea any time of the year.

 What’s your reason for drinking it?

 Take our quiz (to the right).

Is barista a real word?

You might think that a Seattle chain invented the term “barista” to make their employees feel special, but in reality, the term has been around for centuries…in Italy. As history would have it, in past centuries, the profession of barista was quite an art form. Although the modern term usually refers to someone who tends an expresso machine, its past and current definitions have extended beyond that version.  (See barista definition here). 

 “The word barista is of Italian origin, and in Italian, a barista is a male or female “bartender“, who typically works behind a counter, serving both hot drinks (such as espresso), and cold alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, not a coffee-maker specifically.” 

But that doesn’t mean the term hasn’t received some flack. Take this definition from Urban Dictionary, for example: 

“Barista: Pretentious sounding word used by dejected art history and drama majors that describes their employment in order to make themselves feel better about serving coffee. 

Example: 

-So what have you been up to since you graduated?
- I’m a barista at the Coffee Bean, but only until I get a sitcom.” 

Why Filterfresh is a better barista

Certain coffee houses may be taking heat for attempting to elevate their brand of coffee production to art. Here are our five reasons to make Filterfresh your barista: 

1. You’ll save time. With your convenient in-office coffee service from Filterfresh, you never have to “make a run” to the coffee shop again. Choose from a variety of flavors, styles and brewing types to meet your office needs.
2. You’ll save money. Even if your employer doesn’t completely cover the cost of your office coffee service, you can bet your bottom dollar that a cup of fresh Joe from Filterfresh costs less (way less) than you’ll spend at a fancy shmancy coffee house (and it there’s a good chance it’s free).
3. We don’t hate you. (See Six Reasons Your Barista Hates you. ) Your Filterfresh coffeemaker will never scold you, rush you, or put you down for trying to order a fancy coffee the wrong way.
4. Fewer headaches. You have a choice of coffee styles and flavors, but you won’t go dizzy trying to decide between them. 
5. Choices @work. You can get the latest choices in K-cups and coffee blends from some of the world’s finest coffee roasters.