Free Coffee at Starbucks

Starbucks is giving a free, large cup of coffee to its customers. It's all in honor of President-elect Barack Obama's historic inauguration and his plea to get more people involved in community service and volunteer work. In exchange for a hot beverage of your choice, Starbucks is asking customers to sign a pledge card promising they will volunteer for five hours this year. The goal of the effort is to raise pledges in excess of one million hours of service from all over the country.The "I'm In" campaign starts January 21 and runs until January 25, 2009.

A Free Starbucks Sample Party On January 13, 2009

A friend gave me a coupon for a free tall cup of Tazo Tea Lattes so this morning I tried the Vanilla Rooibos Tazo Tea Latte. For me the description of the drink sounded far better than the actual taste. It is described as a full leaf African rooibos tea (naturally caffeine free), also known as red tea, paired with Tahitian vanilla and cinnamon. Sweetened with classic syrup and topped with steamed milk and velvety foam. Now doesn’t that sound yummy? The price, not so much.

As I said mine was free but I don’t think I will be headed back to spend my money there. I was also given a card which allows me to get a tall Tao Tea Latte or Tazo Tea Infusion for $2 after 2 pm.. If you are feeling Starbucks deprived I did receive an email invitation letting me know that my local Starbucks would be holding a Tea Time Event on January 13, 2009 at 2 pm. It will have complimentary tea and food samples.

Here’s the low-down if you want to sample their tea and are uncertain which one to ask for. Remember, be thrifty have someone look for the free coupon for you or just attend the free sample event. Keep hold of your wallet. Most of the tea offerings are less than 200 calories for a tall size (12 fl oz) and most provide more antioxidants than an 8-ounce glass of orange juice, which are essential to protecting the body’s immune system.

Starbucks new Full Leaf Tazo® Tea Lattes are our first handcrafted tea offerings to use full-leaf tea bags in our stores, allowing customers to steep to their own taste preferences. Starbucks Tea Lattes are made from a soothing combination of steamed milk and Tazo® tea and are available in three new varieties:

Vanilla Rooibos Tazo® Tea Latte
A caffeine-free South African botantical carefully blended with vanilla and spices.

London Fog Tazo® Tea Latte
Delicate, floral earl grey tea with Italian bergamot, vanilla and lavender.

Black Tazo® Tea Latte
With a bold, invigorating aroma, black tea has hints of dark caramel, malt and black cherries.

Berry Chai Tazo Tea Infusion
A handcrafted blend of berry juices, Tazo® tea and exotic spices.

Apple Chai Tazo® Tea Infusion
Crisp apples meet black tea and exotic spices.

Starbucks New Teas at Special Price

Offer valid for tall (12 fl oz) tea lattes only at participating US and Canada Starbucks locations from 1/6/09 to 1/18/09. Limit one per customer per day. Must pay with a registered Starbucks Card. Offer not valid with Starbucks Gold cards. Offer not valid at Barnes & Noble locations.

This email is sent from an account we use for sending messages only. So if you want to contact us, don't reply to this email - we won't get your response. Instead, use this web form or mail your comments to PO Box 34067, Seattle, WA 98124-1067. Thanks.

Copyright © 2009 Starbucks Coffee Company. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Statement

CHRISTMAS GIFT RECIPIES FOR THE COFFEE ADDICT IN YOUR LIFE

Although I don't drink coffee, I know that many people do and some people are willing to even pay $4 for a small cup of coffee. Want to give that coffee drinker in your life a special gift? I've included some made to order coffee recipes below:

Less Bucks Cafe Vienna

Ingredients:
1/2 cup instant coffee
2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk

Directions:

Stir ingredient together.
Process in a blender until powdered.
Pour in decorative jar or small plastic container and attach the following instructions: Use 2 teaspoons to one cup of hot water. 35 calories each


Less Bucks Morning Mocha Expresso

Ingredients

1 cup instant coffee
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk
1/2 cup cocoa

Directions:
Stir ingredients together.
Process in a blender until powdered.
Pour in decorative jar or small plastic container and attach the following instructions: Use 2 tablespoons to one small cup of hot water. Serve in demitasse cups 60 calories each.

Less Bucks Alpine Mocha

Ingredients:
1/2 cup instant coffee
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons cocoa

Directions:
Stir ingredients together.
Process in a blender until powdered.
Pour in decorative jar or small plastic container and attach the following instructions: Use 2 tablespoons for each 4 ounce cup of hot water. 40 calories each.

Less Bucks Cappuccino

Ingredients
1/2 cup instant coffee
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

Directions:

Stir ingredients together.
Process in a blender until powdered.
Pour in decorative jar or small plastic container and attach the following instructions: Use 2 tablespoons for each cup of hot water. 40 calories each.

Less Bucks Butter, Nut, & Rum Coffee

Ingredient:
1/3 cup ground coffee
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon butter, nut, & rum flavoring

Directions:
Blend coffee and dry ingredients in a blender.
Blend in flavoring and extracts.
Scrape sides of blender and blend 15 seconds more.
Place coffee mix in a filter. Place filter on a square or plastic wrap. Draw together with a ribbon. Make this gift extra special by placing the wrapped filter in a coffee cup. Bonus points for a personalized one. (Remember that's why people pay $4 for coffee at Starbucks because they write your name on the paper cup)
Makes an 8 cup pot of coffee.

Make your gift special by branding it. Starbucks does with their little mermaid. Use your computer to create a logo and attach it to the gift. We call mine Less Bucks but I'm certain you can come up with just as good a name for yours. Perhaps your logo can include a picture of your family and something like: Copeland's Coffees a pleasant morning jolt of inspiration. It's all about presentation.

Now go get busy because Christmas is just a few days away.

Do You Regift?

Today’s Thrifty Moment is a touchy one for some, it’s regifting. Surveys show a slight majority of people believe that regifting is acceptable. Which means that the rest of those surveyed think regifting is, well cheap.

So how can you regift without appearing tacky?

My first suggestion is don’t regift a gift to the original gift giver. We’ve all heard horror stories about such events. I remember going to a bridal shower once and the bride opened the gift to find a pair of silver engraveable goblet’s. As she pulled the goblets out of the box a small card fell to the ground. The card revealed the proof that this was a regift. On it was a card that said “Best of Luck always to you both Elizabeth and Bill. Love Alma” The problem was Alma, the bride to be had originally given the goblets to Elizabeth who had not only regifted the goblets but forgot to remove the original card before wrapping.
.
You can avoid this faux pas by keeping a notebook for this purpose or even sticking a colored 3 x 5 card in the box with the name of the gift giver and the date given written right on it. Make sure you TAKE THE CARD out of the box before wrapping.

In the same vein don’t give partially used gift cards. Some gift cards say clearly they are for $50. Even if you still leave $25 on the card it still looks tacky. Unused gift cards can be nice gifts but make sure they are for things that the recipient would like. I certainly doubt that my seventy year old father will be buying anything from the Express store in the mall.

One of the worse gifts I ever received was a perfect example of regifting gone awry. I was given a vacuum cleaner for Christmas by a relative. Now perhaps the fact that the gift was “wrapped” in a trash bag should have signaled to me the quality of the gift. Now I’m no vacuum connoisseur but even my untrained eye could tell that the vacuum had been used before. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness but to this day I will remember that I had to change out a full vacuum bag before I could use it the first time.

While I’m at it let me suggest that you wrap the gift with fresh paper. Nothing screams regifting so loudly as torn is torn or crinkled. Oh and trashbags? Not always such a great idea.

So do I regift? Yes. As a matter of fact that’s what we are going to take a look at right now. The other day I received this cute little door hanger. I really don’t have any use for it, but like many regifters, I’m hoping that it will find a nice home elsewhere. This regifting is the perfect kind. The person who gave this to me does not even know the recipient. It’s also a perfect regift because I can use the original packaging. Talk about being green.

As a matter of fact as long was we are talking green let me show you the next gift. I’m using a Starbucks bag. I love these little bags because they have the handles and Starbucks SCREAMS indulgence. In this gift I’m placing a small cosmetic case that I won. The case had an ARV of $10 so just throwing that someone’s way might be nice enough if you were doing a secret Santa. Because I actually work directly with the recipient I’m adding some special touches. I’m enclosing some lipstick that I got as a free sample earlier this year. It’s a full-size sample and most importantly it doesn’t say sample. I’ve also placed

So Merry Christmas and a Regift New Year.