Copco Customer Service Appreciation

These days it is pretty common to hear about poorly designed items and crappy customer service, especially with how connected today's consumers are thanks to social media and the Internet as a whole. I thought it would be nice to share a positive customer service experience.
I drink a fair amount of coffee (and sometimes tea). 2 years ago I picked up a Copco Eco-First hot mug because it was BPA free, affordable, and looked pretty durable.  I was quite happy with my travel mug and used it pretty regularly. I had a few other travel mug's but this one was definitely my favorite and was used most often. A few weeks ago I noticed the lid to my mug had cracked in a few places - probably the result of me dropping the mug or beating it up, not at all due to poor construction. Hoping to be able to purchase a replacement lid for my mug I turned to social media and mentioned on twitter that the cap on my mug was cracked, and if anyone knew if they would sell just a replacement top. A few days later someone at the helm of the Copco twitter account let me know they were looking into this and would get back to me. Hours later I was asked to privately message my mailing address to the Copco account, and was told that customer service would replace my cracked lid.
I was extremely happy, though purchasing a $10 mug would not break the bank I thought it was a great gesture by the Copco folks to replace my lid, and all it took was a shot in the dark over twitter. I got a package in the mail a few days ago from Copco, but the box was a bit bigger then I was expecting, mainly due to the fact that instead of replacing my cracked lid Copco decided to send me a new hot mug - no questions asked!

I know it isn't that big of a deal to replace a relatively inexpensive piece of plastic with a new one, but I feel that Copco customer service went beyond my expectations in providing me a new mug instead of simply sending me a new cap, and for that they have earned my appreciation and support. So if you are in the market for a travel mug, hot or cold check out Copco - they may have one you like!

Coffee Giveaway Winners!

Congrats to Bobby Fontaine of Norwood, MA & Meems (be sure to check her blog out, it's great!)of Staten Island, NY you were randomly selected as the winners of the 2 boxes of coffee!

It went down like this: I received 27 entries. Each was randomly assigned a number. I used a random number generator to pick the 2 winners.

I've contacted both winners! Congrats!!!!

Local Coffee Giveaway!

This is extremely long overdue. I had been planning to do this late February/early March in the midst of the dark days challenge but life happens, and sometimes I lose the motivation to post. Better late then never!

I am going to be giving away 2 mixed boxes of some delicious and wonderful local coffee. Here is some information from the roasters as well as the varieties I will be giving away:

New Harvest Coffee Roasters - New Harvest calls Pawtucket. RI home. They were founded in 2000 they roast beans and educate coffee consumers and fans five days a week. Their active and entertaining blog can be found here. New Harvest has generously provided samples of the following coffees: Costa Rica Lourdes(Rainforest Alliance Certified), El Salvador 'Optimismo', and Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (Organic & Fair Trade)

Dean's Beans - Dean's Beans has been roasting 100% Fair Trade & Organic certified coffee's in Orange, MA for a number of years. Their commitment to sustainability and fair trade is a foundation of their business model. Dean's Beans has provided samples of the following coffee's: Uprising, Marrakesh Express, Italian Espresso Roast, Sumatran French Roast, Peruvian, and Peruvian French Roast Decaf. Please note all of the coffee from Dean's Beans is ground, not whole bean.

Black Bear Micro Roastery - The Black Bear Micro Roastery is a small operation out of Center Tuftonboro, NH. They bring a combination of love, science, and dedication to the art of coffee roasting. They have also been involved in a bit of copyright litigation with coffee giant Starbucks. For some background information about the case follow this link. Black Bear sent down samples of their Guatemalan roast and Hibernation Blend.

Barrington Coffee Roasting Company - The Barrington Coffee Roasting Company roasts all their beans in small batches in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Since 1993 they have strived to produce quality, sustainable and equitably roasted coffee. They sent over their Colombian Don Telmo Reserva & Ethiopian Nekisse Micro Selection One. Of note: The Ethiopian Nekisse won a 2011 Good Food Award, and in May 2010 Coffee Review gave them a total score of 93.

All the coffee was generously donated from the roasters. As much as I love coffee and would love to keep all this to myself I was sent the coffee under the guise of giving it away, and that is what I am doing!!
Here is a picture of the coffee haul that is going to be randomly split up and sent out for 2 lucky winners:

The details:

Email me at grownaway@gmail.com with the subject line: coffee giveaway.
In the body of the email please include your full name and location. 1 entry per person. On Sunday May 29th I will pick 2 winners from the emails I receive and will send out their coffee on Tuesday May 31st.

Please pass along the giveaway details to anyone who might be interested!!

and we're back... with coffee!

Gail and I returned from a wonderful yet all too short vacation at the Paradisus Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in the early hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. We spent the better part of a week sitting on the beach enjoying the sun, cocktails and the company of some great people. At night we were lucky enough to be entertained by my favorite band moe.
We were treated to an acoustic poolside set the first night followed by 3 2-set full electric shows on the beach. There are few things that can compare to dancing barefoot in the sand surrounded by palm trees and twinkling stars!
We enjoyed a local spirit, Mama Juana a blend of rum, porto, honey, and native plants, herbs and flowers blended together and left to sit and soak. The taste was light and sweet but it did pack a punch! We also ate... and ate quite a bit as the resort contained 12 restaurants. In terms of quality the food varied from passable but nothing special to downright tasty. Here is a look at 2 beautifully plated desserts we enjoyed at the 'contemporary french-romantic' restaurant. First off is a dark chocolate 'sailboat' with a whipped marshmallow center. Next up is coffee mouse stuffed tulip horns with a hazelnut & chocolate ganache all shaped into a grasshopper:

We even brought a piece of the Dominican Republic home with us in the form of 2 bags of local coffee! A bag of Organic Biodynamic coffee and a bag of shade grown Karoma estate coffee. Our grinder is broken so I won't be able to try these until the weekend but they sure do smell nice!

Finally I leave you with a picture of Gail and I at the beach... this trip definitely didn't suck!