A huge thanks to all who came out and sipped coffee with Vita and Ask.com at Seattle-area park and rides yesterday! We had fun passing out travel mugs and lots of hot Queen City blend to sleepy commuters. We also fueled up a few Metro drivers in the process!

As we all enjoy the long weekend, we hope that Tuesday is the last thing on your mind. But once the holiday comes to a close and everyone heads back to the daily grind, we’re doing everything we can to brighten your morning commute. Vita is teaming up with Ask.com at half a dozen park and rides around Seattle to start your week off right.

Join us at Northgate, Tukwila, Burien, South Kirkland, Issaquah-Highlands, or Kent-Des Moines, and we’ll send you on your way with a travel mug filled with our Del Sol blend!

Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you bright and early on Tuesday morning. Happy Memorial Day!

Congratulations to the most recent graduates of the FareStart barista program! The students have been honing their barista skills for nine weeks and it shows.

FareStart’s Youth Barista Training & Education Program has been going strong since 2003. The program provides at-risk youth with the opportunity to build a better future for themselves through job training and placement, life skills, employment counseling, classroom, and on-the-job training for the espresso industry.

Our head trainer, Ross, reports that he had an excellent espresso made with love by Nichole at FareStart’s downtown cafe. Congratulations, all!

What are you doing tomorrow? If your plans don’t include Public Brewing School, you may need to adjust your priorities. There are just a few spots left for tomorrow’s session with Ross and a very special guest. Sample our latest Columbian coffee and learn how to brew your own perfectly at home.

10am-12pm at our Capitol Hill cafe. Always free. RSVP at trainingdept@caffevita.com.

Ask.com wants to fix what irks Seattle’s residents the most and is asking you to raise your voice. By voting on SeattleAsks.com, you have the power to help Seattle in a big way.

Do long rides in the spring rain and wind have you down? A vote for Vita will help ease your morning commute. Ask.com can’t eliminate 520 bridge tolls or widen I-5, but they can brighten up your first morning back to work after Memorial Day. If we win, Vita will team up with Ask.com to bring you fresh brewed coffee at various park-and-rides throughout the Seattle area along plenty of other welcome surprises.

The inspiration behind Bonnie’s Survival Cookies came from long hours and a passion to seek out the best ingredients possible. From homebaker to cookie guru, Washington-born Bonnie Hoffman returned to her roots when fine tuning her recipe for Survival Cookies.

We’re excited to be included in the latest incarnation of the cookies, which feature Vita’s 12,000 Rain Gardens Blend, Theo chocolate, and Chukar cherries. It’s difficult to get any more Northwest than that.

For those of you playing along at home, our 12,000 Rain Gardens blend is the result of a partnership with Stewardship Partners and Washington State University’s program of the same name. It makes sense, then, that Bonnie’s first venture into the cookie business evolved as part of another WSU program, Students In Free Enterprise.

Regardless of collaboration, everything depends on taste. Combining the fruits of two local roasters with cherries that are uniquely Northwest yields delicious results.

Get your Survival Cookies here.