An Inside Look at Green Mountain Coffee and Cruising with Nell Newman

 
Coffee tastes better this way.
 
This is the face of organic. Clean air, blue skies and nature growing wild. I took this picture from my hotel room in Vermont, minutes from the Green Mountain Coffee Plant.
 
Last month I was invited, along with three other bloggers, to visit the plant in honor of McDonald’s FREE coffee week  promotion. It was a unique and rare opportunity to tour the plant and participate in a live coffee talk taping with Nell Newman, Paul Newman’s daughter and founder of Newman’s Own Organics.
 
For those that don’t live in the New England area, I can see your brow furrowing with a…Huh?
 
What does Green Mountain Coffee + Newman’s Own Organics + McDonald’s have to do with each other?
 
Green Mountain exclusively produces a special Newman’s Own Organics coffee which is sold in McDonald’s throughout New England. The blend made for McDonald’s is exclusive to them, it’s not sold in stores anywhere. It’s kind of like an A + B = C equation.
 

 
Now this is the kind of university I’d like to attend! These are the different departments on the campus of Green Mountain. A degree in a cup of Joe sounds yummy!
 

 
Behind the coffee plant I found this hidden meditative spot, like a page out of Little House on the Prairie. I wish I had time to sip some coffee in that gazebo.
 

 
Train tracks right through the plant makes it an easy and scenic ride up. All this beauty outside led to a special meet and greet inside…
 

 
This was my seat for the live coffee chat. There was quite a set up behind me. Yes, I was getting comfortable, no sweater, and I took a big chomp off that banana bread. I was hungry.
 

 
That’s my coffee. I had a lovely prime view of the coffee talk chat with Nell Newman. That’s her, the blurred blonde lady. I had to blur out everyone, the coffee enamored me. Did you know it’s certified Organic and Fair Trade?
 
What’s Fair Trade?

Fair Trade means that farmers in coffee producing countries can enjoy a better life. How about 10.3 million dollars better? That’s how much Newman’s Own Organics has given to farmers worldwide. What we buy matters.
 

 
After the tour and live coffee chat, I hung out with Nell Newman…for 4 hours. I don’t get starstruck. I grew up in LA, celebrities are everywhere, at all times of the day. But meeting her was different. Paul Newman is legend.
 
Meeting Nell, the founder of Newman’s Own Organics, was, refreshing. She’s not celebrity, she’s salt of the earth. She’s like the friend you don’t care overeating with. You know, the one you act really real  with? That’s Nell. She lives organically and has her hand on the pulse of the company, just where it should be.
 
So how did the four hours happen? She rode back to Boston in our car. No plane, train or limo here. We all chatted like a bunch of teenagers gossiping while our parents (PR peeps) drove us home.
 
It’s organic, fair trade and there’s good people behind it.
 
I drink coffee I can be proud of. Do you?

 
Disclosure: McDonald’s sponsored my travel and accommodations, no other compensation was provided. All thoughts and experience are mine alone.Being able to chat up Nell Newman, priceless.