Enter Seattle’s Best Coffee Red Cup Showdown! #RedCupShowdown

July 16, 2012

I love coffee drinks. Especially anything with peppermint. Or salted caramel. Or … well I love trying out new combinations. That’s why I’m thrilled to hear about Seattle’s Best Coffee‘s new contest!

Because nothing says red, white and delicious like the State Fair, they’ve teamed with celebrity chef Jeff Mauro to launch the Red Cup Showdown – a coast-to-coast search at state fairs and on Facebook to find the most imaginative new coffee drink! The grand prize winner will be awarded with $10,000 and the chance to have their coffee drink featured at Seattle’s Best Coffee locations nationwide.

“From chicken fried bacon to red velvet funnel cake, State Fairs are a hotbed of cooking creativity,” said Jeff Mauro, celebrity chef. “There’s no better place to go to see how Seattle’s Best Coffee can be shaken up, turned upside down and transformed into something we’ve never tasted before. I can’t wait to meet some great people and see what they bring to the table for the Red Cup Showdown.”

Seattle’s Best Coffee and Jeff Mauro have embarked on a 3,000-mile journey to host Red Cup Showdown live competitions alongside custard pie contests, brownie bake-offs and strawberry jam competitions at state fairs across the nation, including:

Ohio State Fair, Columbus
Wisconsin State Fair, Milwaukee
Illinois State Fair, Springfield
Iowa State Fair, Des Moines

But if you don’t live in one of those cities, or can’t make it to the fair, you can enter your drink online to compete! The Facebook competition call for entries will run through July 27, with the winner receiving a year’s supply of Seattle’s Best Coffee and a trip to NYC to compete in the final Red Cup Showdown for a chance to win the $10,000 grand prize. Entering is super easy – just head over to the App, click on “submit your recipe” and follow the prompts to provide the following information:

Your drink name
A photo
Your inspiration for the drink
The recipe and instructions
And your personal details

Here are some important guidelines, from the official contest rules, to help you create a drool-worthy entry:

If possible, take a picture of your creation to showcase your creativity
Do not include any alcohol-related ingredients
Stay away from using other’s images, recipe ideas (anything that might be copyrighted)
Your story is worth 25% of the judges score, so don’t breeze past that section
Most importantly – HAVE FUN!

Do you need some inspiration? Here are some amazing recipes that will get the creative juices flowing:

A Little Nosh shares a Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Iced Coffee
A Pumpkin and a Princess whips up a Frozen Caramel Drink
The Clever Pink blends a yummy Peppermint, Vanilla Mocha Blended Iced Coffee
Comiendo en LA froths a Banana Coffee Frappe
The Silly Pearl gets creative with a Coffee Jelly Drink

Now it’s your turn. Submit your most imaginative coffee drink to Seattle’s Best Coffee and also share your favorite coffee drink below. When you log in and leave a comment, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $100 Target gift card! (See official rules)