Blenz Coffee

You talked, we listened! As temperatures across BC have started to rise, more and more customers have been asking us “what happened to your Hibiscus Burst iced tea?” Today we’re excited to announce that this delicious drink from last summer is back! And just in time for the sunny and warm weather of the late spring season. BLENZ Hibiscus Burst iced tea is a refreshing, organic drink that is made with all natural ingredients (no artificial flavours or sweeteners). We brew it with hibiscus flower and other natural herbs and fruits which give it a vibrant red colour and smooth taste profile, making it the perfect drink to cool down with this spring. To celebrate the re-introduction of Hibiscus Burst, we are hosting an online contest and we're giving away a $25 BLENZ Gift Card every week until June 7^th. Entering is easy! To be eligible to win, all you have to do is: 1)      Follow @BlenzCoffee on Twitter 2)      ‘Like’ our Facebook Page 3)      Leave a comment on this blog post telling us why you love BLENZ Hibiscus Burst Thanks friends and enjoy!

Green is the new Black! Between March 22^nd and April 23^rd, we are featuring our amazing BLENZ Matcha drinks to help people realize the benefits of drinking Matcha green tea as a daily beverage. BLENZ 100% organic Matcha is a premium green tea powder from Japan that is used as the base for several of our specialty hot and cold drinks. Because Matcha is ground into a fine powder, when you drink it, you consume the entire tea leaf which provides up to ten times the benefits of traditional steeped green tea. What’s more, at BLENZ, we offer Matcha in a variety of beverages to suit anyone’s taste preferences. You can get BLENZ premium Matcha in our sweet or non-sweet Matcha Latte, Shaken Matcha Lemonade, Iced Matcha Latte or MatchaChillo. Never tried BLENZ Matcha before? No problem. To celebrate our delicious Matcha drinks, we are hosting FREE Matcha tastings at our participating stores every Wednesday (2-3pm) from March 27^th to April 17^th. Come to a BLENZ during those times and try a sample of the featured Matcha drink for that day – or better yet, come every Wednesday and try them all! PHOTO CONTEST Did you know that Matcha gives you a relaxed energy that can last up to six hours without a caffeine crash? Or that Matcha is chock-full of vitamins and antioxidants that provide great health benefits? How about that Matcha even helps you burn calories? For these reasons, Matcha is a drink that can act as an excellent complement to and/or substitute for coffee as a daily specialty beverage. And we need your help to spread the word! Over the next month, we are running a photo contest to help enhance the visibility of BLENZ Matcha. Entrants have a chance to win one of twenty (that's right, there are twenty prizes!) custom BLENZ Matcha kits that include a Matcha bowl, whisk, spoon, whisk stand and a tin of 100% ceremonial Matcha (retail value of the kit is $130). And entering is easy! For a chance to win, all you have to do is: 1)    ‘Like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter 2)    Submit a photo of your ‘BLENZ Matcha experience’ and tell us what your favourite BLENZ Matcha drink is and why. We encourage you to get creative with this!   Contest winners will be chosen at the start of each week during our promotion. Email your photo to contest@blenz.com before April 19^th for your chance to win! We look forward to your submissions and we encourage you to join the conversation about Matcha on social media. Check out our Facebook page for regular updates or follow #BlenzMatcha on Twitter to add your thoughts. Happy shooting friends!   *By entering our contest, you agree to allow BLENZ Coffee to use your photo(s) on our website and/or social media channels*

We were very excited to be a sponsor and exhibitor at the Vancouver Celtic Fest this past weekend! Our Elite Barista Team was on hand Saturday, March 16th & Sunday, March 17th in our tent just off Granville & Robson streets serving complimentary Irish Cream flavoured coffees to festival guests. Celtic Fest was a very fun event and we were happy to be a supporter and the official distribution sponsor for the second consecutive year. We would like to thank all of the event organizers and volunteers as well as BLENZ Elite Baristas Kaitlynn, Stephanie & Hank who helped make the festival such a great success!

On Tuesday, March 5th, our Elite Barista Team was on hand for the Opening Gala of the 13th annual Vancouver International Dance Festival. Elite Baristas Kaitlynn and Hank represented Blenz by serving complimentary lattes to the estimated 200 guests that were in attendance. The Opening Gala kicked off what will be a great few weeks of creative dance in Vancouver. For more information on the festival including a schedule of performances and how to get tickets, visit the VIDF website at www.vidf.ca.

Blenz Coffee was honoured to present the Make-A-Wish Foundation BC/Yukon with a donation cheque for over $10,000 this week, funds that will go towards granting wishes for children facing life threatening medical conditions. Blenz raised the funds for Make-A-Wish during a campaign that ran throughout December 2012 and for the third straight year the company’s donation to the charity surpassed the $10,000 mark. “We are proud to contribute to a great organization like Make-A-Wish that does such important work in our communities. We have so many children who suffer from life threatening medical conditions and it is truly heartbreaking, so anything we can do as a company to give back and help make their dreams come true is a great opportunity for us” says Mark West, General Manager of Blenz Coffee. He went on to note that the Blenz/Make-A-Wish partnership has been very positive over the past three years and that the coffee company looks forward to future collaborations with the charity.

Blenz is excited to announce that we have partnered with The Beat 94.5FM Radio Station to heat up the airwaves for a contest called “Breakfast in Barbados.” The promotion will run for two weeks starting on Monday, February 18^th. During this promotion, people can call into the radio station every hour from 6:10am to 4:10pm and the 25^th caller each hour will win a $50 Blenz Gift Card. They will also be entered to win the grand prize of an all-inclusive trip to Barbados to see Ne-Yo and Demi Lovato live in concert! We encourage our customers to call in to The Beat for a chance to win a Blenz Gift Card and maybe even the trip of a lifetime to beautiful Barbados! To learn more about the contest, check out the Breakfast in Barbados page on The Beat 94.5FM website.        

BLENZ COFFEE launched our third annual “Red Band” campaign this morning in an effort to help single people make new connections in coffee shops around BC just ahead of Valentine’s Day. This unique initiative encourages our customers who are interested in meeting new people to indicate what they are looking for (friendship, casual, dating or relationship) by marking a special coffee sleeve that others can read before approaching them. We have designed the Red Band campaign to make it easier and more comfortable for people to meet and start talking. "If you are single, Valentine’s Day can be a lonely time it can also be hard to meet new people these days. We wanted to simplify that process for our customers by allowing the Red Band sleeve to do the work of making the first introduction” says Mark West, General Manager of BLENZ. “A coffee shop is a great place to make new connections and our Red Band sleeve makes it easier for people to come in for a beverage and leave with a new friend or even a date.”

We will be promoting the “Blenz Red Band” through Facebook and Twitter from February 4 to 14, 2013. We want to hear your thoughts about dating, relationships and meeting new people so anyone who tweets using the hashtag #BlenzRedBand or comments on daily Facebook posts during the campaign will be entered in a contest to win one of two special gift baskets. Good luck!

Starting today (Friday, January 25^th) until February 26^th, we are offering our customers a special price on a double shot Blenz Americano. You can enjoy this delicious beverage, which is made with our competition blend espresso and hot water, for $1.99 plus tax during the promotion. That is lower than the price of a regular size brewed coffee! Americano is a great alternative to drip java for anyone who loves a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Our Americano drinks are made fresh at the time of ordering so you are guaranteed to get the freshest cup every single time. And for all those out there who don’t know what Americano is or are afraid of the taste, have no fear! Americano has a very similar taste to brewed coffee so if you’ve never ventured away from your classic drip, now is the perfect time. To celebrate this special offer, we have partnered with VanCity Buzz to give away two $50 Blenz Gift cards in a social media contest. For instructions on how to enter, check out the Blenz Americano post on the VanCity Buzz website.