Coffee Bean Direct is very happy to offer our new spice collection. These are the secret ingredients we have used in our tea blends for years. Our culinary grade herbs and spices are exactly what your life has been missing.

Blend them with your teas!

Add new life to your old favorites by adding a dash of spice to your loose leaf tea before steeping. Add warmth to your English Breakfast by mixing in cinnamon or add some zing to your Peach flavored tea with a pinch of ginger. Make your Sencha green tea brew up a pretty pink by adding organic hibiscus. You can even make your own chai mix and compare it to ours.

Use our collection of herbs and spices to turn your daily routine into something new and exciting every day.

Enjoy them on their own!

Many of these herbs and spices can be steeped as is, without being blended with other teas. Hibiscus and Lemongrass are popular herbal elixirs worldwide. Many people drink them for purported health benefits, while others simply drink them because they love the taste. Fans of Jasmine green tea might enjoy a cup brewed from our pink rose petals. Spearmint is a sweet alternative for fans of spicy peppermint tea.

Cook with them!

We use these spices for blending with tea, but who are we to limit you in how you use them? These are culinary grade herbs and spices and can absolutely be used for cooking. You may even find them to be fresher and more flavorful than spices from the grocery store shelves. We buy from the same reputable growers worldwide that supply major companies who then take the spices, grind them up, pack them into little jars and ship them off to retail stores.

However you plan on enjoying our new collection, we know you will love all your new flavor options.

Ekobrew and Coffee Bundles

You may have noticed that we’re getting a little obsessed with our Ekobrew Reusable Filters for Keurig Single Cup Brewers. We blog about them, Facebook about them, and spotlight them in almost every newsletter with no sign of stopping anytime soon. That’s because the response to these nifty, cost effective, and environmentally friendly filters has been overwhelming! To keep the pace going strong, we have decided to add product bundles to the website; Ekobrew filter and coffee combos that will save you money and help you decide which varieties of coffee to use in your Keurig machine.

We looked closely at what coffee varieties our fans have been ordering when they buy their Ekobrew filters. We used this information to hand pick coffee for the best bundles possible. After much deliberation we settled on 3 unique bundles:

Ekobrew Bundle #1 – Flavor:

1 lb Hazelnut flavored coffee

1 lb Jamaican Me Crazy flavored coffee

1 Ekobrew Reusable Filter

Hazelnut and Jamaican Me Crazy are our 2 most popular flavors. They are sure to please any fan of flavored coffee. Can’t decide which one to try first? Using your Ekobrew in your Keurig brewer is so easy you can treat yourself to a cup of both.

Ekobrew Bundle #2 – Greatest Hits:

1 lb Italian Roast Espresso coffee

1 lb Colombian Supremo coffee

1 Ekobrew Reusable Filter

Many households are split when it comes to coffee preferences: Dark, rich coffees versus lighter roasted coffees with more subtle flavors. No more arguing over which coffee to make a full pot of every morning. Our Greatest Hits bundle matches the Ekobrew filter with a pair of our most popular dark and light roast.

Ekobrew Bundle #3 ? Double Bundle:

1 lb French Roast coffee

1 lb Breakfast Blend coffee

2 Ekobrew Reusable Filters

We were surprised at how many of our fans have been buying more than one Ekobrew Reusable filter at a time. It makes sense when you think about it though… People love their Keurigs because they are quick and convenient. With two Ekobrews, you can have your next cup ready for brewing before your first one is even finished. The Double Bundle comes with French Roast and Breakfast Blend, 2 extremely popular blends that are sure to please any palate.

Whether you are buying them as a gift or for yourself, we are sure you will love all 3 bundles. As always, we love comments and feedback. Feel free to comment on other products you would like bundled with your Ekobrew filter. Maybe a 3-pack? How about one of our popular sampler packs with an Ekobrew? You tell us.

it’s never too early for iced coffee!? Obviously the summer months are the best time to enjoy a nice big glass of iced coffee but we’ve started the party early here in Jersey.? Gorgeous weather this past weekend and forecasts of 80 degrees have us stocking up on ice.? So far we’ve made a nice pitcher of our Iced Coffee Blend and a second pitcher of Dark Costa Rican Tarrazu.

What’s your favorite coffee to drink iced?? Most people prefer dark roast coffees ? they tend to hold their flavor longer as the ice melts.? Lighter roasts and flavored coffees can be delicious ice cold as well, but it helps to brew the coffee stronger than usual.? Another trick is to fill ice cube trays with coffee instead of water.

Feel free to comment on what coffees you love iced or any tricks you have for making that perfect batch of cool, refreshing iced coffee.? Anyone use CBD coffee for iced lattes and cappuccinos?

You may be wondering what Mad Marchness flavored coffee tastes like.? Names like French Vanilla and Hawaiian Hazelnut are easy.? Even coffees like Jamaican Me Crazy and Vermont Maple Crunch are fairly easy to infer what they taste like.? But what the heck does Mad Marchness taste like?

For that answer we need to take a trip… to the bar.

For many people, St. Patrick’s Day is equated with drinking.? While I am not Irish, I will admit that going to the bar after the parade was my favorite part of the holiday after I turned 21.? For me, it just wasn’t a successful St. Patrick’s Day without drinking at least one Irish Car Bomb.? What is an Irish Car Bomb?? It’s a beer cocktail of immense magnitude.? My dad refers to the drink as a boilermaker — dropping a shot of liquor into a beer.? What distinguishes an Irish Car Bomb are the ingredients:? You start with a shot glass of Irish Cream (usually Bailey’s brand)? with a layer of? Irish Whiskey floating across the top (typically Jameson Irish Whiskey but it’s your choice? — I know better than to argue with someone over which Irish Whiskey is best).? Next you drop the shot glass into a nice big glass of Guinness Stout and drink it “bomb” style… that means chugging it as fast as you can.

Mad Marchness is a wicked little combination of Chocolate Stout flavor, Irish Cream flavor and yes, Whiskey flavor.? It won’t get you drunk, but it also won’t leave you hung over.? When we first tested our coffee version of an Irish Car Bomb we were very surprised at how well chocolate, liqueur, and whiskey flavors complimented coffee.? Even people who never had the alcoholic beverage still enjoyed their Mad Marchness.? Who would have thought that a popular bar drink would make for such a popular coffee?? Especially a bar drink that is so intensely delicious at night then immensely regrettable the next morning.? Mad Marchness has become so popular we had to also offer it as a tea.

Try Mad Marchness soon, it will soon disappear from the website again until next year.? Just remember, if you’re going to drink it “bomb style” let it cool first.? Chugging scalding hot coffee is NOT recommended.

Ever notice that green gets all the attention on St. Patrick’s Day?

Yes, we know it’s called the Emerald Isle and there’s no denying that it’s great fun to celebrate the holiday decked out in all green. Drinking green milk shakes and green beer, and eating snacks mysteriously dyed green has become a strange but festive tradition.

But green, white and orange are equally represented on the flag of Ireland – where are these other colors? Why do white and orange get left out of the fun??

Call us hippies if you want, but we believe in equality — Our Irish Pride Tea is Green, White and Orange!

GREEN: There are many green teas, but Dragonwell Lung Ching is often considered the quintessential green tea. Full flavored, with less of a vegetal taste than other greens, Dragonwell is the perfect base for our Irish Pride tea.

WHITE: Next we mix in our premium Peony White tea. White teas are made by picking only the youngest leaves and buds then steaming and drying immediately, before oxidation can occur. This process leaves the tea with a subtle, earthy flavor. Mixed with the Dragonwell green tea, Peony White makes for a balanced cup — perfect for anyone who is used to hearty black teas but wants to try something new.

ORANGE: The final piece to our St. Paddy’s Day puzzle is orange. Real orange peel and a splash of orange flavor make the green and white teas come alive.

The key to a truly great tea blend is simplicity. Sure we could have added random flower petals, extra flavors and maybe some herbs you never heard of which would raise the price and “ooh factor” of the tea but add little to no actual taste. Much like the flag of Ireland, green, white and orange are all you need.

Represent all your true colors with Irish Pride Tea now before it’s too late. This tea is available on the web for a limited time — unlike that green food dye, that stuff stains!

Many of our Facebook friends have been asking about the Ekobrew K-Cup reusable filter.? One of the big questions is whether or not they’re easy to clean.? The makers of Ekobrew use its ability to be quickly cleaned as one of its main selling points, but we weren’t going to simply take their word for it — We put it to the test.

The first thing we noticed is that the bottom of the Ekobrew has no cracks, crevices or smalls spaces for wet grinds to get crammed in, trapped forever.? This is very different from other brands we tested – brands that left us rinsing, re-rinsing, and rinsing some more.? After all, the little cups are too small to scrub so we had to scrape the grinds out of the cracks with a fork like some sorta early primate that just learned to use tools.

Next we filled our Ekobrew and made a quick cup of coffee on our office Keurig (yes, even we have a Keurig but if you call us out on it we will claim it’s only for research purposes).? The photo below is the Ekobrew immediately after brewing, filled with wet grinds.

Step 1 to cleaning the Ekobrew: 1 quick tap over the trash (or storage container if you reuse your spent grinds for? composting) to get the majority of the grinds out.

As you can see, there is a layer of grinds still on the bottom.? Worried?? Don’t be…

Step 2: Rinse.? I held the Ekobrew under the faucet while Marcie timed me.? I let the water fall down into the cup first, then turned it around a few times letting the water flow through the mesh on the sides and bottom of the cup.? The filter was completely clean after 25.5 seconds.

Completely clean in under 30 seconds with no scrubbing or scraping with make-shift tools necessary.? That’s not too bad, especially if you’re like me in the morning -? Before I get that first cup of coffee I make early primates look like Einstein.

I know it was long time ago , but we had a Chili cook off back in October and boy was it fun! We had a fixins’ bar with white cheddar cheese, sliced avacado, green onions, sour cream, fresh limes, Fritos and tortilla chips!

This is the chili that took the win. Mike, our flavor czar, made a General Tso’s chili, it was awesome. Sweet, spicy and just plain amazing.

Anthony ?made a BBQ vegetarian chili. It had a ton of layered flavors and didn’t taste a thing like it was vegetarian.

Niki made a pumpkin chili! She used pumpkin beer, our own pumpkin spice coffee and pumpkin puree. This is one of the chili’s that was empty at the end of the contest.

Diane made a white grilled chicken chili that was really tasty…her’s went super fast.

Here is Meg’s Vegan Bulgar Wheat Chili. It was chock full of veggies and super spicy. Meg made so much chili it overflowed her crock pot!

Josh made his Dad’s famous chili. This one was emptied in no time.

David who made chili for the first time ever made a red chicken chili.

Here is Molly’s tofu chili…she was not very happy with the results…since it came out more like a soup.

Marcie made a traditional beef chili using beer, coco and Dark Costa Rican.

Here at CBD we wanted to show you what the?convenience of?K-cups is really costing you, and what better way of doing that than a handy dandy infographic!

Now don’t get us wrong we really like the Keurig machine we are just not fans of the stale coffee, the high cost and the trash associated with the K-cups. We use our Keurig regularly here at the CBD offices, it sits right next to our French Press and auto drip machines. The only difference is we brew our coffee in it using a Ekobrew.?Now, thanks to the Ekobrew Reusable Filter, your Keurig can have the freedom it deserves. Choose any coffee you want ? it’s finally up to you! We love it so much that we are offering $5 off your order of $35 or more with the purchase of an Ekobrew.