I found the perfect gift – handmade reusable glass straws from Strawesome.

There are many reasons to use a glass straw, including that they’re free of nasty chemicals (BPA, for one) that many plastic straws have, they’re fun to use and may encourage your kiddos to drink healthy drinks, and you’re saving more waste from going into landfills, just to name a few.

Reusable glass straws make an awesome gift for anyone – your sweetheart, Mom, Dad, babysitter, teacher, kids and anyone you may need an economical, fun to use gift for.

Strawesome has short straws, long straws, skinny straws (these fit well into the Starbucks cup and other similar reusable cups), smoothie straws, straws specifically for kids, and more. Strawesome features colorful, fun decorative straws as well as economical plain straws.

My favorite straws are the extra long, skinny straws because they fit perfectly into the reusable cup filled with water that I take everywhere with me. I also love the decorative straws for gifts and to make enjoying any drink (even plain old water with lemon) more festive and fun.

You can also have straws custom made to the length, width, style or any other customization you would like, including engraving.

One of the incredible things I love about this small, family-run business based in Michigan is their replacement policy. If your straw is accidentally broken, Strawesome replaces it for free (you pay shipping). Strawesome has replaced two of my straws – one broke in the dishwasher and one fell off the kitchen counter. I can’t think of too many companies that will replace a product that is accidentally broken.

Strawesome is featuring a special Valentine’s Day set for $34.99 through February 14 that includes (all 8” long) a pink sapphire regular straw, an amethyst smoothie straw, a decorative regular straw and a decorative smoothie straw, as well as a free cleaning brush.

You can purchase Strawesome’s products online at www.strawesome.com and at select retailers.

After a 13+ years PR/communications career, Jamie K. recently took on her most challenging job yet – as a fulltime CFO (chief family officer). Currently, she lives in Alabama with her husband, an officer in the Air Force, and her toddler son and infant daughter. She’s a big fan of deal sites, attempts to be eco-friendly, and struggles daily with the great balancing act of being a super mom.

Coincidentally, there is a Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home from Miss A’s school, and even though she doesn’t go to school far from home it’s a quick pick me up, and they have drive-thru. What more could I ask for {other than a Tim Horton’s in the South, but that’s another post.}

I have however, been trying to be more frugal with my spending and don’t brew my own coffee, {wishing for a Keurig}, so I found Starbucks VIA on the shelves at my local Super Target. They have iced coffee packets, hooray!! I found the slightly sweetened version which worked, added a little bit of natural creamer and again it was decent, and gave me the little pep that I needed for my day. And then, I found Torani Syrups…{cue heavenly music}…

I got to try out Torani in Hazelnut flavor and Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pie, and also got some coupons that I gave to my church’s coffee outreach program, which they were very thankful for.

As you can see here, I made my concoctions of deliciousness with my Starbucks VIA, a splash of Torani Hazelnut flavored syrup, and Coffee Mate Natural Bliss {and a yummy blueberry muffin.}

I loved my Torani Hazelnut flavor. The first time I used it though I had no clue how much to add and definitely went a little overboard and my coffee ended up pretty sweet, and I like sweet coffee to begin with. But once I got my “recipe” down by eyeballing it I loved the taste and what Torani added to my regular cup of coffee. I would recommend using less to start off and adding more to taste.

I also got to try out Torani’s Sugar-Free Pumpkin Spice syrup, but I am not a huge fan of Sugar-Free products in general and this remained true in my taste-test of this sugar-free flavoring. If you don’t mind splenda or need sugar-free products for health reasons I think it’s great that Torani has so many Sugar-Free flavor options for you to choose from, just not my cup of tea coffee.

Torani Flavored Syrups are available at:

• Cost Plus World Market
• BevMo
• Walmart
• Smart and Final
• Most major grocery stores
• Amazon.com (wide assortment of flavors)
• Torani.com and Shop.Torani.com (widest assortment of flavors)

And guess what??!?! You can get 10% off right now when you enter the code “shespeaks” at torani.com at checkout.

This is a sponsored post by SheSpeaks.com and Torani. I received products and coupons in order to offer my honest opinions. The above words are my own true thoughts about the products I reviewed, however your experiences may vary.

Somehow Kid Basix has designed my miracle sippy cup. Let me introduce you to; the Safe Sippy 2. I did everything I could to try to make this sippy leak, I shook it, held it upside down, rolled it around, and it still maintained it’s no-spill feature. Unbelievable!

This sippy cup holds 11 ounces, which is the perfect amount of liquid, in my opinion. The Safe Sippy 2 features 3 different adaptors, which allows the sippy to almost grow with your child.

Adaptor #1- The Sippy Plug allows your little one to tip and sip their drink like any other sippy.

Adaptor #2-The Straw and Straw Adaptor transforms The Safe Sippy 2 into a “big kid” cup so when your child’s ready for the next step it’s super easy to convert to the straw option.

Adaptor #3- The Travel Plug. If you’re going far or travelling a long distance this is an accessory you MUST have to keep the liquid right where it’s supposed to be, inside the cup and not all over everything else.

Another great bonus to The Safe Sippy 2 is that the plastic handles are removable so your child can have the option to keep them on or take them off, plus it’s great for minimizing dishwasher space.

Not only are the Kid Basix products made to stand out with their sporty, colorful designs, but they are also BPA-Free and made from stainless steel. They produce baby bottles, sippy cups, and sports bottles so when you fall in love, {and you will} every member of every age in your family can sport Kid Basix.

To purchase your Kid Basix drink holders and find out more information on their complete line visit their website: http://www.kid-basix.com and check out their Facebook page too: http://www.facebook.com/kidbasix

Have you ever used Kid Basix? What sippy cups have you found that surprise you {in a good or bad way} and how did they surprise you?

I received products from Kid Basix in order to complete this review. This in no way impacts my opinion of their products and the opinions expressed above. The review is based on my opinion and experiences with Kid Basix products, yours may vary.

Calling themselves the “Healthy Buzz,” I had to try it out, plus I’m insane for iced coffee although I try not to drink too much caffeine with nursing Baby C. Their marketing is also a bunch of hilarious sheeps that say, “For maximum Wakey-wakedness,” and, “It doesn’t taste like pomegranate.” The funny thing is that I actually thought it may taste like pomegranate and prepared myself. Even though I love POM Wonderful juice I just don’t know how it’d go over in an iced coffee.

Instead of actual pomegranate juice POMx Iced Coffee gives you POMx, which is a “super-pure, super-concentrated, 100% natural blend of polyphenol antioxidants loaded with all the [same] health benefits of POM Wonderful pomegranates. So no pomegranate juice, to make me rethink my love for iced coffee, hooray!

Deliciousness

Speaking of taste here’s my “buzz,” (since I am MommyB(ee) it’s only fitting), in a very particular order here are my favorites staring with least favorite to all-time favorite although seriously they were all pretty decent.

Drum roll please…… coming in as the second runner up is:

Cafe Au Lait (coffee and milk in lay-terms), you could taste that it was healthy, if that makes any sense, but it was also very creamy, and had a nice coffee taste, it failed for me only because it wasn’t sweet enough for me and my mammoth sweet tooth.

First runner up: Vanilla! It was sweeter than the Cafe Au Lait, and pretty delicious, but once I tasted my favorite, Vanilla just had to take second place.

And of course, no surprise to anyone from this chocoholic….my favorite POMx Iced Coffee Drink Flavor starts with a C and ends with an hocolate, it’s Chocolate!! I gave it three “yums” up. Seriously though, if you have a sweet tooth this drink should be in your flavor profile. Plus if you drink it out of a cool Cowboys mug (even though they’re record, is well, a little less than desirable,) it tastes even better.

Responsible

Not only is the taste of POMx amazing, but POMx Iced Coffees are going above and beyond and focusing on social responsibilities too.  The coffee beans used in POMx Iced Coffee are a part of the Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. The cool thing about Rainforest Alliance Certified farms is that it protects workers, natural resources, wildlife, and the environment. They also use pesticide-free, organic sugar cane and hormone free milk. I think that makes POMx Iced Coffee a million times cooler.

Buzzed

Now you may be questioning the “buzz” part of POMx Iced Coffee’s Healthy Buzz, and well here’s a run down of some popular caffeinated drinks, so you can compare their caffeine content:

• POMx Iced Coffee has about 18 mg of caffeine per ounce
• Red Bull Original has 9.5 mg of caffeine per ounce
• Espresso Coffee has around 53 mg of caffeine per ounce
• Monster Original has 10 mg of caffeine per ounce
• Starbucks Short Coffee has a surprising 22.5 mg of caffeine per ounce
• Coca-Cola Classic has 2.9 mg of caffeine per ounce

So you get an idea of where POMx Iced Coffee is in the rankings, here’s a great website I found for more caffeine content in a long list of drinks: http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database

Craft Time

I heart doing fun fall crafts with Little Miss A and you may be wondering where this fits in with POMx Iced Coffee, but actually if you take the fun packaging off the mini-tumblers that the POMx Iced Coffees come in you can make lots of fun things with it since it has a great rounded shape. I plan on using two of ours to make turkey crafts for Thanksgiving. Check back in November for my pictures and possible instructions

POM Wonderful has a ton of other products, check them out here: http://www.pomwonderful.com/products/

The great people at POMx Iced Coffee are giving FOUR lucky MommyB Knows Best readers a chance to win their very own POMx Iced Coffee goodie baskets including all three flavors of POMx Iced Coffee.

Here’s how to win: Using the ENTRY FORM directly below this post (NOT the comment form), submit your name, an email address that you check regularly, and the entry/entries you are submitting all at the same time. There is no need to fill out separate entry forms for each item you complete. *Please note the Mandatory Entry MUST be typed into the form before you can qualify for additional entries.

Giveaway ends November 3rd @12:00 am. The winners will be chosen at random, verified, emailed, and announced in a Winner’s post. The winners will have 48 hours to respond to the email from MommyB to claim the prize, if the prize is not claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen at random. You must be a US resident and 18 years or older to enter.

Regarding value, Be Nice is a great alternative to purchasing other vitamin-filled waters. Instead of buying the in-store products you can fill your water bottle at home and pour in your favorite flavor drink packet and get great benefits for a portion of the cost of commercial products.

Upon trying the Berrylicious alone I would recommend this product as a great source of vitamins, but only if you could stand the taste. However, after drinking the Lemonade and loving it, I would say Be Nice is definitely worth the purchase and really did help me get my daily allotment of water in.

The great thing about Be Nice is that you can try a free sample for yourself and see if you like it before you buy more packets. Go to their site: http://www.beniceinc.com/ and click the link to Request Free Samples. What’s your favorite flavor?