Posted By BuzzMug on July 17, 2010

The summer sizzle is on and for coffee lovers that often means taking a break from their beloved beverage.  But you don’t have to!  Try iced coffee.  Here are a few tips for making a great cup or glass of iced brew:

Plan Ahead:  Brew your coffee ahead of time to give it time to cool before you prepare your iced coffee.  Some recipes call for hot coffee to start with, but if you chill it down in the refrigerator you’ll get a head start on being extra frosty.  In fact, for safety reasons you should not leave the brewed coffee sitting out for too long.  Put it in the refrigerator after it reaches room temperatures to cool it down and to keep bacteria at bay.

Use a Cocktail Shaker:   This is a nice touch if you’re serving your iced coffee drinks while entertaining guests.  Giving your drinks a little shakeup will make them extra frothy and you’ll look like a pro!

Use Coffee Ice Cubes:  Don’t let your coffee drinks get watered down by using plain ice cubes.  Freeze some coffee ahead of time in an ice cube tray.

Coffee Soda Recipe:  This is an interesting mix of rich creaminess and bubbly fizz.  It’s kind of like an ice cream float but with coffee & cream:  Ingredients: 

• 3 cups strong coffee chilled
• 1 cup half & half
• 4 scoops coffee ice cream
• 3/4 cup club soda
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• whipped cream

Preparation:  Mix coffee, sugar and half & half.  Fill 4 tall glasses about halfway.  Add 1 scoop of ice cream to each, then fill up with soda.  Top with whipped cream.  Serves 4.

Now you need a great mug to drink it out of.  May we suggest our Frosty Hector.  It’s a big 20 oz. mug that has a stainless steel interior to keep your drinks both hot and cold.  Use it for iced coffee drinks in the summer and your favorite hot brew the rest of the year!

Category: Coffee | 1 Comment »
Tags: Coffee, Coffee Mugs, coffee recipes, coffee travel mugs, iced coffee, stainless steel travel mugs, tips for making iced coffee

Posted By BuzzMug on May 27, 2010

The 12 oz. Microwavable Autotray Travel Mug

Do you suffer from an embarrassing case of “ring around the travel mug”?  You know, that coffee or tea stain that just won’t wash off no matter how hard you scrub?  As you sip your beverage and the level continues to get lower, the more the stain becomes prominent and it looks to all the world like you’ve never even bothered to wash the mug at all….ever.  Yuck!  Well, here’s a simple trick to try that should brighten up your inner lining with little effort:  

Fill your stained mug with water and drop in a denture cleaning tab and let it sit for 15 minutes.  It will work on the ceramic or stainless steel just as if it were cleaning a set up Grandpa’s teeth! 

This trick also works on coffee carafes, tea kettles and thermoses that have coffee stains or mineral deposits.  For larger items try filling them with water and plopping in 2 tablets and leave it sit overnight.  The next morning clean with soap and water and it’s ready for more use.  Try it and let us know how it works for you.  Then feel free to order one of our WHITE microwavable stoneware travel mugs, knowing that you can keep it looking clean without resorting to hazardous chemicals!

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Posted By BuzzMug on May 17, 2010

The 16 oz. Board Room Travel Mug sitting on Andy's desk (red circle) on "The Office". The red arrow is pointing to the Board Room on Dwight's desk.

Have you ever been watching a t.v. show and spotted one of the main characters using a product just like one you have?  “Hey, Dr. McDreamy has the same cordless phone in his house that I do.” or “That guy on C.S.I. is wearing a shirt just like mine.”  Well, here at BuzzMug.com, we had the same reaction when we noticed that the “employees” of Dunder-Mifflin on t.v.’s “The Office” each have a travel coffee mug on their desk that we sell on BuzzMug.com.  It’s the 16 oz. Board Room Travel Mug from Trudeau.  We’ve seen it on Pam’s desk as well as Jim’s, Dwight’s and Andy’s (pictured).  Obviously, the producers of the show wanted to pick a high-quality, good-looking travel mug.  It’s stainless steel with a leartherette wrap around the body and handle.  And it’s leak-proof.  It will fit nicely in your car’s cup-holder or sit handsomely on your desk at work.

The 16 oz. Board Room Travel Mug from Trudeau

When your friends and co-workers ask you about your new travel mug (and they will), tell them you saw it on “The Office”… but you bought it at BuzzMug.com.

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Tags: Andy, coffee travel mug, Dwight, Jim, leak-proof, leatherette, Pam, stainless steel, The Office, travel coffee mug, travel mug, Trudeau

Posted By BuzzMug on April 27, 2010

The 12 oz. Microwavable Autotray Travel Mug

Welcome back to the BuzzMug Blog.  We’ve partnered with our friends at the At The Fence blog to giveaway one of our most popular coffee travel mugs: the 12 oz. Microwavable Travel Mug.  It has a sleek design that will fit in your car’s cup holder and it’s dishwasher-safe.  It also has a sip-through lid that reduces splashes and helps with heat retention.  Click here and follow the registration instructions for your chance to win.  And be sure to browse At The Fence.

Category: Coffee, Coffee and Tea Cups | 1 Comment »
Tags: coffee travel mugs, contest, dishwasher safe, giveaway, microwavable, travel

Posted By BuzzMug on March 29, 2010

NOT an ugly mug. The 20 oz. Microwavable Ceramic Travel Mug could be YOUR new mug.

Are you still drinking your morning brew from a cold-war-era, coffee-stained, chipped, smelly relic?  You could win a brand new travel mug from BuzzMug.com.  Send us a picture of your ugly mug.  We’ll post the pictures on our Facebook page and the owner of the ugliest mug will receive one of our hottest travel mugs: the 20 oz. Microwavable Ceramic Travel Mug in blue.  Runner-up winners will get a package of our BuzzMug Chocolate Almond Coffee.  Here’s your chance to get rid of that science project you call a coffee mug and replace it with one you can be proud to put in your car’s cup-holder or on your desk at work.  Send pictures of your ugly mug to sales@buzzmug.com.  Show us your ugly mug!  And good luck.

Category: Coffee | No Comments »
Tags: Coffee, coffee travel mug, coffee travel mugs, flavored coffee, microwavable travel mug, microwavable travel mugs, travel coffee mug, travel coffee mugs, travel mug, Travel Mugs, ugly mug, ugly mugs

Posted By BuzzMug on March 10, 2010

Imagine enjoying your morning coffee, then instead of throwing away the used grounds, you put them in your fuel tank and they power your drive to work.  It may not be practical but it is possible, thanks to some industrious Brits.  You can see the full story by clicking here.

The 1988 Volkswagon Scirocco that runs on coffee grounds.

If the technology reaches our shores (and if you can stand to drive a 1988 Scirocco, we’d recommend drinking one of www.BuzzMug.com’s flavored coffees from Julian Coffee Roasters.  Our Chocolate Almond Coffee would make for some chocolaty emissions.  As the accompanying story points out, using coffee grounds to power your car isn’t exactly cost effective right now.  But who knows.  If it catches on, someday instead of getting our fuel from the oil fields of the Middle East, we may get it from the coffee bean fields of Colombia.

Category: Coffee | No Comments »
Tags: buzzmug, car, Coffee, Coffee Beans, coffee grounds, Colombia, flavored coffee, Julian Coffee Roasters, Scirocco

Posted By BuzzMug on February 12, 2010

You might not be able to start your day without your daily cups of java to get you rolling, but there may be more benefit than you were even aware of to your coffee habit.  According to Health.com, coffee has a whole bunch of perks:

1) It’s a Brain Food!  A mug a day could help you stay sharp.  A study from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences found that a daily dose of caffeine may block the disruptive effects of high cholesterol that scientists have linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

2)  It’s a Stress Buster:  We associate coffee with the jitters, but inhaling the scent of roasted coffee beans just might actually help you de-stress.  The aroma of roasted beans triggers a relaxation response, helping to ease stress according to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

3)  It’s a Body Refresher:  Did you know that coffee is an all-natural exfoliant?  The Spa at Mohonk Mountain House in New York has a great rejuvenating skin smoother recipe.  Mix together 1 cup cooled used coffee grounds, 1/2 cup sugar (also a dry skin reliever), and 1/2 tablespoon jojoba oil (which hydrates skin without leaving it greasy);  gently rub this mixture all over your body in a circular motion, then rinse and pat dry!

4)  It’s an Odor Eater too!  You can freshen up your fridge with unused coffee grounds.  They’ll actually neutralize air by sucking up the smelly moisture, while giving off their own great scent according to Sara Snow the TV host and author of “Sara Snow’s Fresh Living.”  Just place a small bowl of grounds in the back of your refrigerator or freezer or hang a cheesecloth pouch filled with grounds in the cabinet where you keep your garbage.  Throw away after a few months.  That’s all there is to it!

If you’re looking for a great cup of joe to test these tips out on, just check out BuzzMug.com’s extensive variety of single origin, blends and flavored coffees:  Click here

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Posted By BuzzMug on February 4, 2010

The inspiration for today’s coffee blog is in the cup right next to me.  It’s a hot cup of Burundi Bwayi.  Just one of the many new choices of coffee at BuzzMug.com, courtesy of our new roaster, Julian Coffee Roasters.  We’re excited about bringing Julian Coffee Roasters into the BuzzMug family.

At Julian’s state-of-the-art facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, they find the best green coffee beans form around the world and hand-roast each one to its peak flavor.  And what a great selection of coffees… Single-origin coffees from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Panama and more… Delicious blends including our current Coffee of the Month, French Kiss (for Valentine’s Day, get it?)… And a huge variety of flavored coffees like Peppermint Patty, Blueberry Cobbler, Almond Joy, Cherry Cordial, Chocolate Hazelnut and the list goes on.  All of our Julian Coffee Roasters flavored coffees use the Powerbean Flavor Technology, which is a revolutionary method of flavoring coffee without using chemical solvents and without the environmental impact of traditional flavoring methods.

Try Julian Coffee Roasters coffee for yourself and we’re confident you’ll be coming back for more.

Category: Coffee | No Comments »
Tags: Coffee, Coffee Blends, flavored coffee, Julian Coffee Roasters, single origin, variety