A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Folger’s Coffee and asked to sample some of their new flavors and blog about it.

I was delighted.

Only a few days later, a large box arrived in the mail, and it smelled good even through the cardboard. I opened it, and Mmmmmmmm, lovely.

I do love to smell a good coffee.

The only thing is, I don’t drink coffee. So, I arranged to have these new flavors sampled even more thoroughly than I ever could have done it alone.

I took them to class with me today, and let my students sample them.

Listen, Santa Claus himself wouldn’t have been more welcome. The weather today was cold, and wet, and dark, and when I brought out these coffees, my students lit up like Christmas trees.

Folgers, I think you’ve got three hits.

We started with the Morning Cafe (Light Roast). It was, after all, morning when we started. The women absolutely loved it, and the men drank it and asked for more. The smell started wafting down the hall and attracted some attention from the classroom next door. We would have been glad to share, but there wasn’t any left.

And for once, all of my students were AWAKE when we began our lesson!

At break, we began on the Lively Columbian (Medium Roast.) Here is where the male students found Nirvana, for the women barely had a chance to finish their first cup before the men had emptied the pot. The men were outnumbered by the women, too. All of the men wrote down the name of this one.

A few hours later, when the class was over, I asked if anyone was interested in staying late and sampling the third coffee, and every single student stayed! We ended our great-smelling day with Vanilla Biscotti, and they all agreed that it was just like dessert.

Folgers, I thank you for sending me these samples. (They weren’t tiny little typical samples, either; they were 11 oz. bags! Three of them!) I’m not ashamed to admit that I held back some of it to serve to guests, later on.

My students thank you, too. Your three coffees were sampled by 23 adult students in a community college setting, and the overall consensus was: awesome.

If you ever want to send me anything else for free, in return for opinions, please do so. You’ll get not only mine, but I’m a kind and generous woman who shares. Honest.

Ask anybody. And if they bring up those candy bars wrapped in foil and labeled ‘chicken fat’ that I used to keep in the freezer, don’t believe it. Besides, it was a long time ago, and I got the idea from Erma Bombeck.