Love & LavAzza

I've been enjoying the flavours my my LavAzza coffee packs for about a month now.  I use a four-cup Cuisinart drip coffee maker at home - or rather, my husband does...I'm too sleepy in the morning to be much use.  Special coffees are love at work in our home.
 

We started off with the Gran Aroma which is a medium roast.  I love my morning Special Coffees which consist of about a third a cup of coffee, topped by milk foam and cinnamon.  Here is my first Gran Aroma cup and you can see that there is a a lot of foam!  The first sips are sweet and warm, perfect morning waking comfort.  Then the coffee comes through and its a warm nudge of deliciousness and awakening aroma.

The aroma on this coffee is amazing.  From the first opening of the package - which has a round air seal by the way - its just dreamy!  I stood there inhaling the scent of the grounds in my slippers one morning and I could have gone back for more later in the day.

The taste of the Gran Aroma is a standard medium roast - a bit acidic, not very deep - although there is a sense of quality in the liquid - it truly has become coffee, not hot water and coffee.  For myself, medium roast is an okay roast - I prefer the dark.  The Gran Aroma is a medium roast I would go to for the quality if I couldn't find any dark roast.

Onto the Gran Selezione.  THIS is the roast for me.  Oh how amazing it tastes in the morning and blends into the foam like its in a lover's arms.  Yes, the Gran Selezione is so delicious its making me poetic.  It is dark, velvety, smooth, and deep with a hint of quality chocolate.  This is the one I will be looking for in stores.  I'm so sorry that my package is almost empty!  Again, I could inhale the scent of the grounds themselves for hours. 

If you are a dark roast lover, I recommend the Gran Selezione.  My price-checking has come up with $12.99 a package at London Drugs.  I did find Gran Aroma at Superstore, but only that roast.   Don't forget to scour the internet for a $2 off coupon, and I also found Sample Source tear-off coupons for $2 off a package at Superstore.

My BzzKit came with a few $4 off coupons, if you know me, you may be one of the select few recipients. 

It's Here!! LavAzza Coffee BzzKit!

Arrived this morning.  Can't wait to try it!

LAVAZZA Italy's Favourite Coffee

A BzzCampaign!  Hooray!

Notification came today to participate in this BzzAgent campaign for Lavazza's new drip coffee.  How deliciously exciting!

My previous experience with Lavazza has purely "bean" with espresso  (they have the best decaf around), so this will be an interesting venture into whether or not they have been successful with the drip coffee/French press variety.

Drip/French Press coffee varieties by Lavazza include:

Gran Aroma

Medium Roast

A balanced, highly aromatic blend of 100% Arabica beans with fragrant floral notes and a citrusy flavour profile.

 

Classico

Medium Roast

This blend’s start-stop roasting method produces its intense aroma of dried fruits and rich, full-bodied flavor.

 

Gran Selezione

Dark Roast

A full-bodied Arabica blend with intense flavor and chocolate undertones that comes exclusively from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms.

 

Perfetto

Espresso Roast

Made from 100% carefully selected Arabica beans, this dark and velvety blend is bold with lingering caramel notes.

The campaign officially begins February 26th.  The BzzKit is slated to include:

• A FREE 12 oz bag of Lavazza Gran Aroma Specialty Drip Coffee
• A FREE 12 oz bag of Lavazza Gran Selezione Specialty Drip Coffee
• A travel mug per me (that's "for me" in Italian)
• $4-off coupons to share with other coffee drinkers (would that be you???)
• Lavazza magnets to pass along, too
• An Italian Gestures Game for my Passion Party (not the lingerie party, a coffee party!)

 The game idea makes me smile.  I hope it will be a good laugh.

Grazie, BzzAgent & Lavazza!

Johnson & Johnson Healthy Essentials

Way back in mid-Fall, the Healthy Essentials™ program site of Johnson & Johnson™ had a promotion.  You were allowed to sent an invite to the site to five specific email addresses.  If one of them accepted, they said you would get a gift bundle.

I dutifully plugged in my five and waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  I knew at least one person had accepted long before Christmas.  Still no word.  I was getting annoyed  - perhaps I had submitted this information under false pretenses and these people were getting spammed.

Lo and behold, Friday, January 17th in my inbox I receive an email from Healthy Essentials™ subject line "The Special Trial Gift Bundle is Yours!".

Hi ,

Great news, we’re sending you one of the great trial gift bundles of Johnson & Johnson Inc. products for you and your family to enjoy. It's just our way of saying thanks for sharing the benefits of the Healthy Essentials^™ program.

Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for your trial gift bundle to be processed and shipped. In the meantime, thanks again for being a valued member of the Healthy Essentials^™ program.

Take Good Care.

OK, so great that it is coming, a trial gift bundle!  Woo-hoo!  I'm excited by the prospect of a bundle - my head is filled with images of gift bundles and gift baskets.

Yesterday, February 3rd, a little box appeared at my doorstep:

The size is reminiscent of the Proctor & Gamble™ seasonal sample boxes that I used to get.  It is not really the gift basket I envisioned or felt was advertised, but it is still free stuff.

Inside was:

The Neutrogena™ is a For Men product with SPF 20. The long Splenda™ is a French Vanilla flavour for coffee flavouring.  Expiry dates for Reactine™ is October 2015, for Tylenol™ for January 2015, and for the Motrin™ March 2014.  Um, that is less than a month away.  Not so good on that one, J&J! 

I'm happy that it was all free, but I feel a bit mislead about the size of the bundle, and of course it doesn't look good to give a pain killer sample that expires in less than four weeks.  3/5 stars including the wait. Still worth doing again if the occasion arises.

The Health Essentials™ program allows you to collect points mainly via printing and using coupons from their site.  You can earn two points per week by printing coupons, and two points per redeemed coupon.  One-time point offers include signing up, completing your profile, your Health Grade™, and signing up for a survey panel (no points for surveys themselves).  Once you do these four, you end up with 45 points.

To get a themed product package requires 100 points.  If you print one coupon and redeem one coupon each week, it will take you 25 weeks to earn enough points for a gift bundle.  That is two per year, and there is usually a selection of at least four from which to choose.  I think twice per year is decent, although personally I do not use enough of the product to need one coupon per week.  A larger family would do well with this, so if that is you, go for it!

 

Recently Free in the Mail...

Here are a couple of things I recently received in the mail gratis.

The first is two two-packs of Advil™ liquid gels.  They came with a bonus $3 off coupon good on a 24-count or higher bottle, expiring at the end of April.  The samples themselves expire at the end of October 2014.   Great to pop in the travel first aid kid or purse.

The second is a sample of Cloud 9™ cat treats.  That is what looks like a pack of gum!  They are indeed in a blister pack.  I guess for keeping fresher, although since blister packs are almost impossible to recycle, that kind of sucks.  Bonus though is the 15% order code also included.

Both these offers were from internet sign-ups at the brand sites.

Third but not shown is a small sachet of Burt's Bees™ gud™ body lotion.  It came  with a coupon, too.  I was disappointed that the sample was only a single-use sachet and not a small purse-sized bottle to use for travel.

Fourth but also not shown is a travel-sized tube of Colgate Sensitive Relief™ toothpaste, plus a coupon. Win!

If I remember correctly, these last two were from liking and registering on their Facebook™ pages.

I am currently awaiting an $8.99 rebate from purchasing an 8lb bag of World's Best Cat Litter™, and a gift basket from Johnson & Johnson Healthy Essentials™ program.

Earning Free Gift Cards

Where to Get Free Gift Cards

I just discovered a website where you can earn free gift cards!  100 points = $1 towards a gift card.  There is a wide variety of card choices, and this is where to get Starbucks™ gift card as well as Macy's™, Amazon™, Sephora™, and more.

It does take awhile after the first 100 points if you do not want to register for a whole bunch of things.  I've found the easiest is to watch for codes and listen to their internet radio.  You can always turn your volume off and have it open in a window behind what you are working on.  But you do need to check periodically - every 10 minutes reveals a code you need to type in to get your points.

The link is below.  Happy earning!

http://www.instagc.com/starbucks/242670

This is the logo of the site:

Quite obviously, it is called instaGC. 

Nutrience Pet Food Campaign from BzzAgent

Yes!  A BzzAgent Campaign for my furballs!  I love my cats and purchase high-end food for them, both because I love them dearly and because one of them has digestive issues (he's a barfer). Previous dry food brands have been Nutro and Royal Canin.

The campaign I was selected for is for Nutrience pet food.  It has both dog and cat varieties.  I have three cats.  Two are indoor, and one is outdoor.  The outdoor one is a feral cat who we eventually after 2+ years convinced to come inside at night when it is cold outside.  Of the two indoor cats, one has been a indoor cat all of his eight years (he's the barfer), and the other came to as a stray older kitten, now about three years old.  He is inside but does have supervised outside time on a harness and leash. 

Here is what my Nutrience BzzKit came with:

Nutrience BzzKit Contents September 2013

As you can see, a coupon for a full free bag for me was included!  Also five coupons of $5 off a any bag to share, two flavours of sample bags, and a French/English information booklet on all the varieties of Nutrience dog and cat food.

Our first plan of action was to mix the sample bags in with all of our cats' current dry food to give an adjustment period.  This lasted 10 days.  Both indoor cats seemed to like it, our outdoor cat seemed to LOVE it - not a kibble left in the bowl the first few times.  The indoor barfer cat was fine with the mixed days, and fine for about a week with only Nutrience.  He has had one big "sicky" recently and we will be watching him closely.

We are concerned about our second indoor cat and are seriously considered switching him back to his old food.  He seems to be having bathroom issues since the full switch - he'll be in the litter box with the "I'm-trying-to-go" stance/look for 10 minutes+ at a time, over and over.  There is only a tiny piddle if anything each time.  He does seem to be pooping at other times.  We are worried about crystals or something else as this is a totally new thing for him and there is no other change to his diet, litter type/location, or habitat. 

Now, in terms of finding a vendor in order to use the free bag coupon...

We started by first calling a private pet food store close to my place of work where we had recently picked up a bottle of Vetericyn for our outdoor cat's hot spots.  No luck there, but they did offer to order it in for us.  Since it was for a free bag, we declined otherwise we'd feel guilty.  We called our regular private pet food store and they did not carry it.  Next we tried one of the bigger chain stores, no luck.  Finally, the fourth try - PetSmart - had it.  I would have preferred to support a smaller local store, but no avail.  The flavour selection was limited, but we were able to get the big bag for free, almost a $40 savings.

After 10 days of mixed food and about 10 days of solely Nutrience the initial verdict is that it is good for our outdoor cat, but varying results for our indoor cats.  We'll keep monitoring the situation.

The indoor "barfer" cat eating Nutrience dry food