Corporate Essentials named to Inc. 5000 list

Corporate Essentials was recently named to Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest growing companies.

To learn more about Corporate Essentials being featured on the list, click here; to read Corporate Essential's official news release click here.

Timothy's coffee introduces new Emeril K-Cups!

Timothy's coffee has just announced that they will soon be releasing an exclusive line of Emeril Lagasse's signature blend coffees.

The first two varieties in the line have been announced, and are Big Easy Bold and Jazzed Up Decaf (see images below). As many of Emeril's branded products do, the k-cups will be strongly influenced by the city of New Orleans.

Timothy's Emeril branded k-cups will be available in the coming weeks from Corporate Essentials and at drinkcoffee.com.

Too Hot for Coffee from a K-Cup? Never!

After a week of vacation (and a week away from the office Keurig Brewer), I was happy to arrive this morning and see some summertime, iced drink recipes for Keurig K-Cups setting on my desk. I was so excited, the first thing that I wanted to do was make sure that I shared them with everyone who visits the Corporate Essentials' Java Cafe. So without further adieu, here are two great summer (iced drink) recipes that can be made at your office Keurig brewer:

Iced Tea: Fill a 16-ounce mug or cup (even plastic) with ice. Brew your favorite tea K-Cup at 8 ounces, and you'll have a great 16-ounce tea in seconds!

Iced Carmel Latte: Pour 1.5 to 2 ounces of half-and-half into a cup, and swirl about 2 ounces of caramel syrup along the cup walls. Stir the caramel and half-and-half together, pack tightly with ice, and brew about 4 ounces on top (I used two separate cups to make it easier). Then you can top off with whipped cream, a bit more caramel and cinnamon (as you can see from the cell phone pic below, I went with the low-fat version and left off the whipped cream). The same recipe can be used to make a mocha latte by simply replacing the caramel syrup with chocolate.



In my personal opinion, the second recipe works best with any of our Extra Bold K-Cups from Timothy's or Green Mountain; but I strongly recommend trying it with Green Mountain's Kenyan AA Extra Bold or Timothy's Kona Blend k-cups (these are the two that I tried so far).

Do you have any summer drink recipes that your office enjoys? Send me an email about them, and we'll send you a free gift.

Top 10 Uses for Used Coffee Grounds

While browsing the web last night, I came across a great posting from our friends over at curbly.com. They give us some interesting uses for your used coffee grounds. If you'd like to check out the original posting on curbly.com, click here.

Without further adieu, here are what curbly.com lists as the top 10 uses for used coffee grounds:

10. Deodorizer. Dry them out on a cookie sheet and then put them in a bowl in your refrigerator or freezer, or rub them on your hands to get rid of food prep smells.

9. Plant food. Plants such as rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreen and camellias that prefer acidic soils will appreciate the leftovers from your morning cup. Also, grounds can add nutrients to your compost bin.

8. Insect repellant. Sprinkle old grounds around places you don’t want ants, or on the ant piles themselves. The little buggers will move on or stay away. Used grounds are also said to repel snails and slugs.

7. Dye. By steeping grounds in hot water, you can make brown dye for fabric, paper and even Easter eggs.

6. Furniture scratch cover-up. Steep grounds and apply a bit of the liquid to furniture scratches with a Q-tip.

5. Cleaning product. As they’re slightly abrasive, grounds can be used as a scouring agent for greasy and grimy stain-resistant objects.

4. Kitty repellent. To keep kitty from using the garden as her personal powder room, sprinkle grounds mixed with orange peels around your plants.

3. Flea dip. Follow up Fido’s shampoo with a coffee ground rub down, working them down to his skin. Not only are the fleas suppose to vamoose, but puppy’s hair will feel soft too.

2. Dust inhibitor. Before you clean out the fireplace, toss wet coffee grounds over the ashes to keep the ash dust under control.

And, finally, the #1 use for used coffee grounds....drum roll here....

1. Cellulite reducer. Mix 1/4 cup warm, used coffee grounds and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. While standing over an old towel or newspaper, apply the mixture to your "problem areas". Next, wrap the areas with shrink wrap and leave on for several minutes. Unwind the wrap, brush loose grounds off your skin and then shower with warm water. For best results, it is recommended to repeat this procedure twice a week. A little weird to be sure, but as high priced cellulite creams have coffee in them, it just might work.

While myself (or anyone else at Corporate Essentials) can verify that we have tried all of the above uses for coffee grounds, we strongly urge you to give number nine (plant food) a try. To take that one even a step further - try using your used coffee grounds (or even single-cup pods) as compost for your garden. Because the material used to make the pod filters is 100% biodegradable, you can bury them in your garden just the way they are.

Do you have any other uses for coffee grounds? Let us know in an email, and we'll send you a Corporate Essentials t-shirt.

Star-Ledger features Corporate Essentials in "What it takes to make Happy Workers"

Corporate Essentials was featured in a recent article in New Jersey's Star-Ledger. The article, by Beth Fitzgerald, was part of the Sunday, June 24th Star-Ledger.

Focused on in this piece was Corporate Essentials' relationship with Newark's Gibbons Law Firm:

Gibbons: Starting with a cup of coffee

Attorney Cheryl Gorman has her first cup of coffee in the morning when she arrives at work. She is a director at Newark's Gibbons law firm, which provides its entire staff with fresh-brewed Starbucks, 24/7, for free.

"It really makes a difference," Gorman said. "We can be here 'til past midnight, and coffee helps pick me up."

There are coffee lounges on every floor, with marble counters and a high-tech machine that brews Starbucks by the cup. Legal secretary Allyson Deloatch explained why she likes this particular employee perk: "Let me tell you - I've experienced bad coffee."

By providing this amenity, the firm "is saying look, we value you and want you to be happy," attorney and director Bruce Levy said. "And when I want a cup of coffee, I can get one in five minutes instead of a half-hour to go out to Dunkin Donuts."

"Good, free coffee is one of the least expensive benefits you can provide your employees, and the workers get that benefit all day, every day," said Judson Kleinman, whose Fairfield (NJ) company Corporate Essentials supplies the coffee service for Gibbons. "People are really emotional about coffee, and it also helps them work. It gets their day started and keeps them focused on the task at hand."

Not that anyone ever took a job for coffee. But Patrick Dunican, managing director of Gibbons, said, "This, to me, is one of the most important things a 21st-century employer should be aware of and should be doing for their employees. The quality and availability of coffee is important to employee morale, and it has increased productivity."

Click here to view the Full Article at nj.com.

The cost of employees leaving the office

I came across this statistic today, and felt that it was something that needed to be shared. I guess we knew that running to Starbucks was expensive, but never knew it could cost this much:

According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, one quarter of the employees will leave the office to get a hot beverage if none is provided. When employees leave to get their hot beverage, companies are losing money. With 75 employees, 18.75 will leave the office, daily that equals 155 days annually of lost productivity. Based on an average salary of $40,000, the lost revenue for the company is $23,484.

About Corporate Essentials:

Corporate Essentials is Manhattan, Northern New Jersey and Westchester's premiere office coffee service. Stocking more than 1,200 products for your office pantry, including hot & cold beverages, paper products, cleaning supplies and health aids, Corporate Essentials is the only Office refreshment vendor you need.

Take a Coffee Break.

Just wanted to add a little fun to your day. Give Tetris a try. Simply use the arrows on your keyboard to control the falling pieces. Enjoy!!!

TimberFrog.com

Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner Bottle Saves Goat

For about a month now Corporate Essentials has been stocking the Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day line of chemical-free cleaning products. When we decided to bring in the Mrs. Meyer's line, we knew that we'd be giving our customers an opportunity to help our environment (by going green with Mrs. Meyer's chemical-free products), but we never knew that these products could also be used to save an injured, pregnant goat. That was until we found this letter on Mrs. Meyer's website:

Dear Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day,

Your All Purpose Cleaner bottle is currently on a leg of one of our pregnant goats. Cookie broke her back leg and when I first saw it I thought it was all over for her, but I called the vet and he told me how to splint the break. The empty bottle (with top and bottom removed) fit perfectly over her leg! She has been proudly sporting her Mrs. Meyer’s cast for almost 8 weeks. I am sure the bottle’s support has contributed to her leg mending. Cookie and her expectant kid thank you, and so do I.

Sincerely,
Mary Jane
Mansfield, MO



To see our full line of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products, click here. If you'd like to request a sample of Mrs. Meyer's products simply send an email to joes@drinkcoffee.com.

New Green Mountain products now in stock

This week Corporate Essentials began stocking two new Extra Bold K-Cup varieties (Kenyan AA and Fair Trade Organic Espresso Blend), as well as the much-anticipated Hot Cocoa K-Cup from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

While we have given the most attention recently to the long-awaited release of Green Mountain's hot chocolate for Keurig brewers, the two Extra Bold K-Cups are already some of the best available.

While grouped into Green Mountain's Extra Bold Collection, the Kenyan AA is actually a medium roast coffee. In the past few years this same roast (Kenyan AA) has been rated as high as 96/100 on CoffeeReview.com in whole bean and ground varieties. And from my best judgement, the translation to a single-serve k-cup has taken nothing away from this great brew.

While these three products are not limited editions, we do expect the demand to be very high.All of these products are available now at our online ordering website MyDrinkCoffee.com.

Mrs. Meyer's makes "Going Green" easy

Corporate Essentials is proud to try and do our part in helping more and more organizations to "Go Green" when it comes to office cleaning products.

This week, Corporate Essentials became the first Office Refreshment company to carry Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day (chemical-free) cleaning products.

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day makes honest, hardworking cleaners that work like the dickens on dirt. With Mrs. Meyer's, keeping clean is easy. All you need is a sensible pair of shoes, a little elbow grease, and the right soap.

The Mrs. Meyer's product line features solutions to replace such everyday office cleaning items as Clorox Wipes, Fantastik spray, AJAX cleanser, Mr. Clean and more.

Something that you will perhaps find even more pleasing than the fact that all Mrs. Meyer's products are phosphate-free, is the wonderful scents that the products come in. Each product is available in three scents; lavender, geranium and lemon verbena.

Mrs. Meyer's has been recognized in many national publications such as In Style, Family Circle and Oprah Magazine.

Click here to see the entire line of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products at MyDrinkCoffee.com.

Green Mountain Hot Cocoa K-Cups on the way...

We told you a few months back, but the day is almost here - you will finally be able to purchase Hot Chocolate K-Cups at MyDrinkCoffee.com. We expect to have these K-Cups available in approximately two weeks. Please check back often to check availability.

WSJ Article Spotlights Gourmet Office Coffee

The Wall Street Journal recently published an interesting article about companies upgrading their office coffee in hopes of keeping more employees from taking their coffee breaks at places like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.

The piece talked about more and more employers switching to single-serve coffee solutions like the Keurig B300 and the Starbucks interactive-cup brewer.

Here is a portion of the article, as published in the Baltimore Sun on Monday, March 26, 2007:

The coffee break refuses to die.

As more workers flee their cubicles to get a latte fix, the office coffee machine has become a forgotten stepchild. Of people who drink coffee at work, the percentage who drink the in-house brew dropped to 52 percent last year from 64 percent in 2003, according to the National Coffee Association, an industry group.

Now, in hopes of keeping their employees on the premises -- and sparing them the pain of a $4.95-a-day habit -- some companies are trying new measures. First and foremost: upgrading the java...

Click here to read the full article on the Baltimore Sun's website.

Even dogs love our Donut Shop Blend.

Corporate Essentials' very own Renee Kymack was kind enough to share some recent photos of her dog Drew enjoying one of her favorite treats - our Donut Shop Blend coffee.

Check out the pictures of Drew below, and if you try our Donut Shop Blend, and mention that you saw Drew here, we'll send you a coffee mug. Yes, the same coffee mug (the now semi-famous) Drew is drinking from in the pictures.

Thanks Renee for sharing these pictures with us.

Do you have any interesting photos featuring Corporate Essentials products? Share them with us, and if they show up in the Java Cafe, we'll send you a free gift. Simply email them to joes@drinkcoffee.com.

It's Official...Hot Cocoa K-Cups are coming.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters announced this week that, after years of waiting, a hot cocoa K-Cup will be available starting next month for use in all Keurig brewers.

Because this announcement has just been made by Green Mountain, we do not have full details as to things like price or exact date of arrival.

Green Mountain calls their new K-Cups, 'the perfect compliment to an office's coffee selection.' According to the news release, in a recent office survey, 90 percent of respondents expressed interest in the hot cocoa K-Cups after trying them.

Check back at www.drinkcoffee.com, www.mydrinkcoffee.com and The Java Cafe blog for more details on exactly when this new K-Cup will be available.

We expect to begin selling these at Corporate Essentials around the week of April 16th.

Sacrifices for the Cup

What would you give up for a cup-a-joe?

As reported by The Detroit News online, a recent survey by OnTech Operations, Inc. found what coffee drinkers are willing to sacrifice for a cup of brew. Their results show the following:

• 42% would trade in the morning paper, television, or radio for a cup of joe.
• 20% would swap lunch for coffee.
• 12% give up three hours of sleep for coffee.
• 10% would skip brushing their teeth for a cup

The survey also found that:

• 67% of Americans identify themselves as coffee drinkers.
• Nearly 50% half drink at least one cup every day.
• Men drink more cups per day than women.
• People in the Northeast consume more coffee than drinkers in any other region.
• 33% of of coffee drinkers consider themselves social drinkers, who use coffee breaks as a time to catch up with family and friends.
• Almost 25% like the hot drink because it warms their hands.
• 37% of coffee drinkers ages 18 to 24 drink the caffeine booster to help them accomplish tasks, presumably after a late night out on the town.

OnTech Operations Inc., a manufacturer of self-heating containers, surveyed 1,015 adults by telephone in January.

Happy Valentine's Day from Corporate Essentials

While we're not going to ask you to be our Valentine, we do have two sweet surprises for you today. We hope you'll enjoy the two video clips below; the first is a Valentine's Day greeting, and the second is a video montage of clips from The Office on NBC. Click here to send an email, and let us know what you thought. Have a great day.

Timothy's to introduce two new k-cup teas

Corporate Essentials will soon be carrying two new flavors in tea k-cups from Timothy's World Coffee. The two new flavors are Cranberry Twist Green Tea and Orange Indulgence White Tea, and both will be available in the coming weeks. Check www.DrinkCoffee.com for more information, or send us an email, and we'll let you know when their available.

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CoffeeReview.com rates Java Cafe Colombia Las Hermosas 92

Corporate Essentials' Java Cafe

Colombia Las Hermosas (Medium Roast)

Reviewed: February 2007

Overall Rating: 92 points

• Aroma: 8
• Acidity: 8
• Body: 8
• Flavor: 8
• Aftertaste: 8
• Roast (Agtron): Medium-Light (59/71)
• Origin: Southern Tolima Department, south-central Colombia

Notes: This coffee reflects an ongoing partnership between Reunion Island Coffee and the Las Hermosas Cooperative of small farms in southern Tolima Department of Colombia. In the last two years of the project partnership Reunion Island Coffee has donated funds to build drying beds and a cupping laboratory for the cooperative.

Blind Assessment: Sweet, delicate, floral-toned aroma with hints of lemon and a buttery chocolate. Reveals weight and power in the cup, with a rich acidity with continued floral, lemon and butter notes. Clean, rich finish.

Who should drink it: A classic breakfast cup, sweet but powerfully bright and rich.

To order Java Cafe Colombia Las Hermosas today, click here.

Spilling the Beans

Coffee. We sip it, slurp it, demand it, flavor it, all while debating its benefits. Drink in these health answers from the caffeine experts.

Have you heard the latest news about coffee? It can be hard to keep straight on whether coffee is A, good for you; B, not so good; or C, it depends on who’s drinking it; D, all of the above; or E, none of the above.

It’s enough to make you run out and order a double-shot espresso.

In the interest of coffee drinkers everywhere, here are the latest thoughts from leading researchers about coffee and whether it can enhance—or not—our health. We are “spilling the beans” on who should and shouldn’t be drinking coffee, especially if you suffer from certain conditions.

Click here for the full article.


About Corporate Essentials:

Corporate Essentials is Manhattan, Northern New Jersey and Westchester's premiere office coffee service. Stocking more than 1,200 products for your office pantry, including hot & cold beverages, paper products, cleaning supplies and health aids, Corporate Essentials is the only Office refreshment vendor you need.

Lipton Cup-a-Soup takes a look inside the office

Check out Lipton's new ads for Cup-a-Soup. Do any of these people work in your office? Tell us about it, anonymously in our Refreshment Zone.

The Busy Guy