Upper Midwest Gourmet

Please enjoy Flamenco Organic Coffee‘s newest origin and offerings sheet:

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

UP Cafe Grand Opening Party and Flamenco Organic Coffee Release

Presented by Upper Midwest Gourmet

We will have live music (Zorongo Flamenco Music & Dance and our very own Eric and Pat’s band, Woodshop), free food, drinks, and gelato (café drinks from UP Café and hopefully, HammerHeart beer, if they have it brewed in time), and a bunch of our vendors (Crazy Boy Farm, Autumnwood Farm, Fabbri, Cherrico Pottery, Extraction Coffee Co., Umpqua Oats, and more) with booths selling and giving stuff away to celebrate the Grand Opening of UP Café. The event will also be a release party for one of Flamenco Organic Coffee Company’s newest offerings.

When – Friday, May 3rd, 2013

Time – 10am-4pm

Where – UP Cafe – 1901 Traffic St. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413

Open to the public, we hope you can make it!

Please RSVP on our Facebook Event Page or by emailing Party@UPcafe.us.

Welcome to Coffee Fest Chicago 2013, where passionate coffee and tea professionals will learn skills, receive education and experience new products, alongside great networking.

Our ticket discount code this year is 68555

Click here to register: http://www.coffeefest.com/Event/Attendee/Default.aspx

This will allow you to register for $10 a person! Regular ticket price is $30.

We are in booths 100 & 102 at Chicago Coffee Fest this year. We will be serving our award-winning Flamenco Organic Coffee along with a ton of other great products for you to check out and sample. Also, be sure to stop by and check out our Synesso espresso machine pulling our very own Matador espresso shots!

Here are the basics:

When – June 7th-9th 2013

Where – Navy Pier, 600 East Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611

Onsite Registration Hours:
Friday & Saturday: 7:00am to 4:30pm
Sunday: 7:30am to 3:30pm

Exhibition Hours:
Friday & Saturday: 12:00pm to 5:00pm
Sunday: 12:00pm to 4:00pm

Educational Training
Friday & Saturday: 8:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday: 8:00am to 4:00pm

*** MUST REGISTER by May 19th to get this discount ***

If you have any questions about the trade show, please Contact Us.

Here comes warmer temperatures and hopefully a lot of snow melting!

We are really proud of our new training cafe, UP, along with many other improvements we have made to Upper Midwest Gourmet and Flamenco Organic Coffee Company in the past few months!

Please check out our newest Brewsletter – Volume 49 – Spring 2013

Also, please go to the Brewsletters Page on our website to download and read previous Brewsletters. They contain lots of useful information!

Enjoy and thanks again from all of us at UMG!

We will be highlighting a bunch of great products at the WI Restaurant Expo next week.

Please make sure to come visit us in booth 748 to check out:

Our Hario and Chemex brewing systems with our own Flamenco Organic Coffee.

*Note we stock the brand new Hario Electric Buono Kettles and can ship immediately!

We will also be sampling Fabbri Cremagelato out of the Elmeco Quickreams, Cappuccine blended mixes, and David Rio Chai!

Please Contact Us for more information.

We hope to see you there!

Ciao Ciao everyone!  2013 is off to a great start at Upper Midwest Gourmet.  Bethany and I traveled to Italy last month.  Our first stop was Riccione where we met up with everyone from Fabbri in order to attend the SIGEP show.  SIGEP is the largest gelato and pastry show in the world!  While it’s a bit chilly in this NE coastal region in the winter, it was really warm compared to what was going on in Minneapolis, so the timing couldn’t have been better.  We spent three days touring the show and eating (and drinking) our way around the town.  SIGEP is always a great time and we were impressed with all the presentations put on by some of the best pastry chefs in Italy.  Fabbri presented a number of new items that we’ll be able to start importing sometime this Spring that we’re really excited to show everyone.  The pistachio and amarena cherry gelato pops in particular are going to be a great addition to many cafes in the USA.  Fabbri hosted a large banquet with top notch entertainment and the Italians really know how to put on a party!  Fabbri took that opportunity to present awards to some of their staff and distributors from around the world.  To my surprise, Upper Midwest Gourmet was presented with the award for Best Distributor in North America in 2012!  It was a complete shock, but we were honored to receive the award.  No distributor has ever won the award more than once so now I have a new mission for the future.

There are a bunch more pictures from the show at the end of the blog post.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is very, very, very important to have a well-trained staff running your cafe. The staff of your cafe are the people that your customers interact with most and are also responsible for the production of everything you offer. The quality and consistency of your drinks and food rely on having a group of individuals that know exactly what they are doing and more importantly why and how they are doing it. Another huge factor is that they are all making your products the same way to ensure that every customer has the same great experience every time they come back.

We feel that employee training is a necessary for any cafe or business for that matter. For example, we take part in the Specialty Coffee Association America classes all the time to learn about new industry standards in the area’s of Barista education, coffee brewing, coffee roasting, and a whole lot more.

There is always something that can be learned and implemented to improve your business and we want to help you gain that knowledge!

Our training cafe, UP Cafe, is now open and ready to schedule training sessions with your staff. If you use our Flamenco Organic Coffee we are more than happy to offer free training and recipe support. We can train in areas of espresso extracting, milk frothing, pour-over coffee brewing, Gold Cup drip coffee brewing, blender drink creation, gelato and sorbetto production, baking and pastry, and a whole lot more. The goal is to improve your business and have you producing the best available drinks in your area. We want to help you reach that goal!

Please Contact Us about setting up a time for training and would love to have you visit!

Happy New Year!

Here is our newest offerings sheet from Flamenco Organic Coffee Company

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

We are getting totally pumped for our new onsite training cafe that will be open to the public soon!

It will hopefully be finished after the new year and will be named “UP Cafe.”

We will only serve Flamenco Organic Coffee and Espresso, along with homemade sandwiches, gelato, baked goods, soups and more!

Please come visit us at UP Cafe in Minneapolis, Minnesota to enjoy something special!

Here is our newest offerings sheet from Flamenco Organic Coffee Company

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

Here comes cooler temperatures and increased hot drink sales!

We have been really busy making some serious improvements around here with a focus to better serve you, and want to let you all know again how much we appreciate your business!

Please check out our newest Brewsletter – Volume 48 – Fall/Winter 2012

Also, please go to the Brewsletters Page on our website to download and read previous Brewsletters. They contain lots of useful information!

Enjoy and thanks again from all of us at UMG!

Right now until November 16th, 2012 we are running an awesome promotion on Big Train “Specialty” Chai flavors like:

Caramel Chai, Raspberry Chai, Chocolate Chai, No-Sugar-Added Vanilla Chai, Pumpkin Pie Chai, and Gingerbread Chai.

Buy 3 bags, get 1 FREE! Must mix flavors!

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

We now stock the most popular new flavor around, Salted Caramel from Monin!

Monin Salted Caramel Syrup combines the indulgence of caramel with a light, smooth salt accent in a flavor that is versatile in countless applications from specialty coffee beverages, to cocoas, shakes, cocktails and much more.

Made with select ingredients and pure cane sugar, Monin Salted Caramel Syrup is a highly concentrated, authentic flavoring offering exceptional versatility for creating specialty beverages.

Order yours today!

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

As we all know too well, the cooler temperatures will be here soon and it is a great idea to start stocking some new seasonal products.

Remember that chai teas, hot cocoa, oatmeal, apple cider, and steamers (many blended powders can be used to make steamers) are all going to start picking up in sales soon, as well as, all coffee and espresso drinks!

Here are some of the other great flavor options we have currently available:

From Artista Gourmet:

Gingerbread Syrup – 750 ml bottle

Peppermint Syrup – 750 ml bottle

Pumpkin Pie Syrup – 750 ml bottle

Toasted Marshmallow Syrup – 750 ml bottle

From Amoretti:

Peppermint Syrup – 25.5 oz bottle

Pumpkin Spice Syrup – 25.5 oz bottle

From Monin:

Peppermint Syrup – 1L bottle

Pumpkin Pie Syrup – 750 ml “glass” bottle

Toasted Marshmallow Syrup – 1L bottle

From Torani:

Pumpkin Pie Sauce – 6/64oz jugs per case

From Big Train:

If you are looking for something new that is sure to impress your customers, look no further than Big Train’s impressive seasonal options:

Pumpkin Spice Ice Rage, Chocolate Mint Ice Rage, Gingerbread Chai, and Pumpkin Pie Chai are great made hot or cold!

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

Here is our newest offerings sheet from Flamenco Organic Coffee Company

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)