Reunion Island Coffee - review/giveaway!

It all started a few years back when the cafe in my doctors building lured me in with the sweet aroma of their coffee. When you're waiting roughly an hour to be seen, you NEED a coffee to keep you going! Instantly i fell in love with all the offerings of what i learned was 'Reunion Island Coffee'. I quickly became addicted, and looked forward to doctors visits(or driving my mom to her appts) because i knew i could get some GREAT coffee for my wait. Much to my absolute disappointment, they stopped selling R.I Coffee, so I had to look into where I could get my hands on it again. So i found them on twitter (and Facebook!), and popped them a quick tweet, and things spiralled and i was suddenly looking at reviewing the coffee! What luck!

Reunion Island Overview:
Reunion Island is a wholesale specialty roaster featuring gourmet coffee, espresso and tea, including organic and Fair Trade products. Our specialty is roasting 'perfect' whole bean coffee that looks as good as it tastes, however, we are also leading the industry in developing new formats like single cup coffee pods. We are a proud supplier to many of the finest cafés and restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and throughout Canada and the United States.

Reunion Island blends and roasts gourmet Arabica beans handpicked from the world’s finest growing regions. Our specialty coffees are imported from over 20 countries and offered as single origins or combined to create our signature blends, including Italian-style espresso. As a wholesale foodservice distributor, Reunion Island offers the coffee, tea and allied products that coffeehouses need to meet growing demand for Fair Trade, organic and other sustainable coffees. We are also the exclusive Canadian distributor for Victoria Arduino handmade Italian espresso machines.
(from http://www.ricoffee.com/)

Reunion Island Origins:
Reunion Island Coffee was founded in 1995. Its president, Peter Pesce, is a past Chairman of the Coffee Association of Canada and has played a key role in the development of the national specialty coffee market. In a recent feature article, the Toronto Star referred to Peter as “reputedly the best ‘cupper’ in Canada… Not only is Pesce a cupper (taster) par excellence, he is a walking encyclopedia of coffee facts, figures and esoterica.”

Peter’s reputation is the result of over three decades of experience in sourcing, blending and roasting coffee for the high-end foodservice market. Building on this foundation, Reunion Island has expanded to serve the unique needs of hotel, retail and office coffee service operators.
We cultivate loyalty through consistency, flexibility, quick turnaround and virtually limitless variety. Our team of sales, marketing and operations professionals have decades of industry experience, allowing us to offer value-added services that secure long-term partnerships.
(from http://www.reunionislandcoffee.com/)

Let me just pop in here and say that the service and courtesy that i've received from the staff at Reunion Island has been absolutely amazing. They were always very quick to answer my many emails(even after business hours!), they are very active on Facebook(and have recently been having giveaways DAILY!), and are also very active on twitter too! There is absolutely no shortage of public relations with this company! And if you follow their feeds you'll find they are quite active in the coffee world (for instance this weekend they'll be at Canada's Baking and Sweets Show in Toronto! and are at 2 more events in Oct!)
 
Reunion Island also has a VERY comprehensive website, where you can find info on their Coffee Sustainability Initiatives, Coffee Production, Coffee Farming, and Coffee Preparation.

But what about the actual coffee right? As said above, i knew that i was going to love it, I seriously missed it being at the cafe, but what do other people think?

After receiving my fantastic review pack from Reunion Island I decided to throw a coffee and board game night with some mom friends of mine (because most moms LIVE on cofffee!). First up we brewed a pot of the Rainforest Alliance Costa Rica (Floral nose to start, with the sweetness of toasted almonds and a light citric finish) and this one was definitely a hit! The pot was emptied VERY quickly with lots of talk about which brand of coffee it was, from where, how much, etc etc!

Next up we decided to delve darker, and brewed up a pot of the Fair Trade Organic Privateer Dark (flagship blend features the best of Central America, Java and East Africa). This led to talk about the variety of fair trade / organic offerings R.I has, and that 2 of the 5 bags of coffee i was sent were fairtrade/organic. This pot of coffee was also a big hit, especially with my picky 'i drink it black' coffee-snob friend. She was VERY impressed, said it was very smooth, no bad after-taste, and was definitely something that she would drink and serve in her home. This is a very big kudos!

I HIGHLY recommend Reunion Island coffee. You should see the amazing variety of products on their site, from the WIDE selection of coffee, to the wide selection of merchandise. I was lucky enough to be sent a gorgeous copper coloured travel mug with my kit and I've been asked about it many times when out and about with it. The etched coffee tree on the one side is BEAUTIFUL!

While you're browsing around, keep in mind that thanks to the generosity of Reunion Island, they're offering FREE SHIPPING on orders over $19! Just use promo code 'ohm'. (special promo only last 1 month!)



And now for the giveaway! There will be THREE winners who will receive a WONDERFUL coffee prize pack! Trust me it's wonderful! :)

** GIVEAWAY CLOSED - WINNERS SELECTED! **
Contest open to Can/US, ends Thurs Oct 13 @ 9pm EST. Please make sure to leave your email address so i can notify you if you win! And leave 1 comment per entry! Please leave links for bonus entries!


Mandatory Entry:  must be a follower of 'Home of OHM' on GFC, and tell me which coffee you'd be excited to try!


Optional Entries:
*  Follow Reunion Island on Twitter (1 entry)
*  Follow me on Twitter! (1 entry)
*  Like Reunion Island on Facebook! (1 entry) (make sure to do this ASAP because there is a facebook fan contest going on to win a Bunn My Cafe! winner picked at the end of Sept!)
*  Like me on Facebook! (1 entry)
*  Share my Facebook page! (can be done 1x daily!)
* Tweet about the contest! (can be done 2x daily, at least 2 hrs apart please!)
" ReunionIslandCoffee review/giveaway from @orangeheromama, 3 winners!, Can/US, ends 10/13 9pm EST, http://tinyurl.com/3s26yeh "


* Share the contest on facebook! (1x daily)
* Make a purchase from Reunion Island coffee! (bonus! 5 entries! woot!)
* Blog about this contest! (must be a REAL blog entry, not just a 2 line linkie blurb, maybe you could write about your love of coffee!) (bonus! 5 entries! woot!)
* Grab my blog button! (3 entries!)


Thanks! and Good Luck! <3