HEY GUESS WHAT! A little birdie told me that Lotus Bakeries is having a sweet giveaway. I apologize for being late on the boat on this one — it ends on Nov 21! You still have some time but hurry up! It’s one entry per person per day!

Beginning Nov. 1 through Nov. 21, the “Take a Biscoff Break” Holiday Giveaway will give you the chance to win these delicious prizes:

• Grand Prize: A year’s worth of Biscoff cookies starting with a beautiful glass jar filled with tasty Biscoff cookies and replacement shipments throughout the year (OOOOOOMMMGGGG)
• First Prizes: 10 decorative glass jars filled with Biscoff cookies (I LOVE decorative glass jars!)
• Second Prizes: 50 festive Biscoff ‘Joy Hope Wish’ holiday cookie tubes (6-pack): The perfect hostess gift and stocking stuffer (Well, I am a perfect hostess.)

“Take a Biscoff Break” Holiday Giveaway –http://www.biscoff.com/holidaygiveaway will officially launch on November 1, 2010 and end on November 21, 2010. Winners announced in early December.  Official rules found here.

Biscoff “Joy Hope Wish” holiday tubes are the perfect stocking stuffer and make a great hostess and teacher gifts.  Until December 31, 2010, for every six or 12-pack sold of the holiday tubes, Lotus Bakeries will donate 10% of the purchase to Teach For America, (www.teachforamerica.org).  Teach for America is a national corps of well-trained teachers and leaders who are helping break the cycle of educational inequity across our country. Since inception, the organization has positively impacted the lives of 3 million children in the US.

WEEEEE! I hope everyone had a great Fourth! Happy 224th, America

Man, I’m so angry I’m missing this — I was JUST in San Francisco at Pier 39 (and 43 for Boudin’s with a cookie review to come!)!! Do you remember the Biscoff Sugar Ginger cookies I had? I told you they were European? Well looks like they’re opening their first Biscoff Coffee Corner in SF and are having a huge party!! Apparently it’s the first Biscoff retailer of its kind and ALL of the grand opening profits will be donated to a great cause: the preservation of the world-famous sea lion population at PIER 39, through an organization called The Marine Mammal Center. Dude I just saw some sea lions today in Newport, and they are some funny-ass lookin blubbery animals. We should preserve their existence.

So the deal is that I let you guys know of this partay and I get cookies. So.. onward with the deets.. !

Juggling Cookies and Coffee:

Grand Opening of Lotus Bakeries’ Biscoff Coffee Corner at PIER 39

Thursday, July 8 at 11 a.m.

Free event offers cookie samples, cookie-and-coffee-cup juggling performances and a “Cookie Breaking” ceremony

Proceeds from grand opening to benefit Marine Mammal Center

WHAT: Lotus Bakeries North America announces the grand opening of the Biscoff Coffee Corner at PIER 39 – the first company-branded retail location in the world to sell Biscoff, Europe’s favorite cookie with coffee made by Lotus Bakeries.  The free event will feature entertainment by cookie-and-coffee-cup-juggling street performers, Biscoff cookie samples and coupons handed out by Salty the Sea Lion, plus an official “cookie breaking” ceremony.  The 850 square-foot Biscoff Coffee Corner offers coffee “the European way” – every coffee purchase includes a Biscoff cookie, so that the two can be enjoyed together – and will sell a wide range of Biscoff products.

CHARITY

PARTNER: On Grand Opening Day, 100 percent of Biscoff cookie sale proceeds will be donated to the Marine Mammal Center (MMC).  The MMC helps to maintain the world-famous sea lion community at PIER 39 and educates the public about marine mammals and the oceans.

WHEN: Thursday, July 8^th (Grand Opening Day)

• 11:00 AM – “Cookie breaking” ceremony with Lotus Bakeries executives and a short presentation by the Marine Mammal Center(Biscoff Coffee Corner at the entrance of PIER 39)
• 10:00 AM-2:00 PM – Cookie jugglers and cookie samplings (various locations along PIER 39)

WHERE: PIER 39 (the Biscoff Coffee Corner is located near the Embarcadero entrance)

WHO: Matthieu Boone, CEO Lotus Bakeries (worldwide)

Jan Boone, Managing Director, Lotus Bakeries (worldwide)

Marco De Leeuw, Executive President, Lotus Bakeries North America

Scooter Simmons, Founder of Simmons Family Restaurants

Jeff Boehm, President of Marine Mammal Center

PUBLIC INFO: For more information about the Biscoff Coffee Corner and grand opening events, please visit www.biscoff.com.

MEDIA INFO: Media interested in attending/covering the Biscoff Coffee Corner grand opening event should contact Jessica Lee at 415-359-2312 or jessica@landispr.com. High-resolution images and interviews are available.
If anyone goes, please take pix and let me know how it goes!!!

On the way back from PA, I heard the flight attendant tell everyone that we had snacks on board, and all I heard was “cookie.” Sorry for the bad picture, it was really dark inside the airplane!

Apparently a company named Biscoff makes this cookie and you can earn sky miles with them. I had to get over the whole.. “taking pictures of a cookie inside a dark airplane with obnoxiously bright flash” thing. The dude next to me was definitely wondering what I was doing but I did it in the name of cookies! So, I ate half of one of the cookies until I realized that there was something raised on the cookie…

I didn’t expect the cookie to be good, since I don’t really like ginger, but surprisingly, it was yummy! Sweet and filling. Thankfully the ginger wasn’t too strong which would have ruined the cookie for me. It had a nice, uniform crunch to it and tasted good too.

I went to the Biscoff website, and they’re a European Gourmet Cookie and Gift company. It looks like they sell in bulk (like.. at least 40 cookies but most are 70+ packs), and you CAN earn Delta Sky Miles by entering in your Delta Sky number and purchasing on their website. They are CHEAP though when you buy cookies in bulk; I did a quick scan and they’re no more than $0.50 each and that’s high for this company. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the exact one I ate on their website, but they say they searched Europe for the best cookies and they tried to deliver!

• Taste: 8
• Crust and center moistness: crunchy
• Value: Free with a $400 plane ticket!
• Overall: Was YUM! Would totally eat again, and you should too, for a gift or a party! 8