Where: Frontier Airlines Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Booth 748)

When: March 12th-14th (11am-5pm Monday, 10am-5pm Tuesday, 10am-3pm Wednesday)

Here is a link to the show for more information: WI RESTAURANT EXPO

If you would like more information or possibly a FREE pass to the show please Contact Us.

See you there!

This, again, was a success and we owe it all to our customers, new and old. Here are some of the products we showcased and received most feedback on:

• Flamenco Organic Coffees and Espresso- per usual our wide array of micro-roasted Organic, Fair Trade, and Direct Trade coffees were very popular. The Nicaraguan Rio Coco and the Minnesota Mudd Blend were both talked about a bunch, but the Papua New Guinea, the Ethiopian Dara, and the Kona coffee (especially out of the Bunn Trifecta) were holding their own as well. The Matador Espresso Blend was also being pulled from the Casadio 2-group Espresso Machine and tasting just as sweet and smooth as ever!

• Amoretti Martini Mixes- yes, we are now carrying a martini mix line, and yes, it is awesome! David was making martini’s all show and everyone loved them. We will be bringing in the Apple, Blueberry, Cosmopolitan, Lemon Drop, Mango, Mojito, Passion Fruit, Pomegranate, and Raspberry flavors, with more coming soon. They are super easy to make, made with the finest ingredients, and very reasonably priced.

• Umpqua Oats Oatmeal- this product never ceases to amaze us! We knew we liked this oatmeal when we first tried it, but never imagined how fast our customers would agree. It is one of the quickest products to take off for us and works perfectly for cafes to get that extra sale with your morning rush customer. These oatmeals are nutritious, delicious, and fast to make and with eight flavors including the “Not Guilty” which is salt and sugar free, who can go wrong?

• Cappuccine Red Velvet Frappe Mix- not only did this product win 2010 “best new beverage” at Seattle Coffee Fest, it continues to emerge as the next “must have” flavor at every cafe. We see a lot of new flavor ideas for blended beverages in our industry, but none have had the steam that the Red Velvet Cupcake frappe is making. It only helps the cause that Cappuccine has their own EXCLUSIVE Whipped Cream Cheese topping recipe on their website that completes this delightfully different cupcake in a cup.

• Fabbri 1905 Pastry Ingredients from Italy- delipastes aren’t just for gelato anymore. Tom Trieschmann from Fabbri has been helping us learn about all the amazing pastry applications for many of the products we carry and have only used for ice cream and gelato in the past. Tom personally sampled out the famous “Amarena” cherry of Italy that Fabbri is known for and started the company over 100 years ago. These Fabbri Amarena cherries are sour and intense and are like nothing you have ever tried before!

• David Rio Chai- this is a brand new product for us that we just had to bring in after sampling. We have known for years that David Rio Chai’s had a great reputation, but it wasn’t until we made some ourselves that we really understood just how good it really is. There are eight amazing flavors including Tiger Spice Chai, Elephant Vanilla, and Tortoise Green Tea. This chai is easy to prepare hot, iced, or blended, it is Kosher Certified, Gluten Free, and has No Hydrogenated Oils or Trans Fats.

• International Paper Hold & Go “Flamenco” Design, Insulated Hot Cups- these cups are the ultimate hot cup in the industry. It was hard not to spot a Flamenco hot cup in someone’s hand when walking the show. With so many people trying our coffees and espressos you wouldn’t have to look far to see the beautiful dancer silhouette. Even many of the presenters and speakers at the show could be seen sipping from our snazzy cups during their presentations! These cups are part of the “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” which promotes sustainable forest management and is something we feel is very important. Not only are they double-walled which means no sleeve is needed, but the lids are universal meaning the same lid fits the 12oz, 16oz, and 20oz cups!

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

Where: Frontier Airlines Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Booth 748)

When: March 21st-23rd (11am-5pm Monday, 10am-5pm Tuesday, 10am-3pm Wednesday)

Here is a link to the show for more information: WI RESTAURANT EXPO

See you there!

This year’s event is being held the weekend of February 18th-20th, 2011. The show hours are Friday and Saturday 12:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. and Sunday from 12:00 P.M. to 4:00 P. M. Upper Midwest Gourmet and our Flamenco Organic Coffee Company will be showing off our goods in booths 101 & 102. You may also find one of us assisting one of the many vendors and/or manufacturers in their various booths throughout the show floor on any one of the open days.

We would love to have you stop by and visit with us, take a look at some new and exciting products and sample some goodies. If you would like to attend this show, please contact us as we have a limited number of FREE PASSES for up to four persons per business. You will need to obtain a pass code from Upper Midwest Gourmet in order to receive this free admission. You only have until January 30th to take advantage of this offer so act soon if you are planning on attending. Please Contact Us for more details.

You can go to www.coffeefest.com for more info on this show and to see who will be exhibiting this year.

As always, we greatly appreciate our customers continued patronage and support and always look forward to a face-to-face opportunity to visit with you.

Hope to see you at the show!

UMG Staff

Please check out our newest Brewsletter – Volume 40 – Spring 2010

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!

UMG/Flamenco was able to go to Dominican Republic last month for a coffee origin trip. It was a blast overall! We all learned a ton about coffee and a whole lot more about the island and its history.

Please check out our Flamenco Origin Trips Page to view pictures and videos. We will have some stories and more information soon. Enjoy!

Ah yes, the show season is soon to be upon us. For starters, Upper Midwest Gourmet will be showing off our duds again this year in Milwaukee Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Restaurant Associations annual Expo to be held at the Airline Center in downtown Milwaukee on March 8th trough the 10th (Mon-Wed). Go to www.wirestaurant.org/expo/ for more details on this show and to register. As in the past years, UMG has a boat load of FREE PASSES for Wednesday the 10th, the last day of the show. Please contact us direct at 612-728-7208 or contact Kevin direct at 612-250-8277 or Kevin@umgcoffee.com and we will mail you the tickets. You will need to register them once you have the ticket code. This can be done the day of the show at the door. This year we will be highlighting our new line of Ce Organic and Fair Trade, all natural flavoring syrups, our new International Paper Insulated Hold & Go Hot cups, Angela Marie’s Mega Marshmallow Munchies crisp rice bars, Pacific Foods Organic Simply coffee & tea ready to drink products, Deep River all natural chips and snacks, and our new Flamenco Organic Coffee Direct coffees. We will also have a new espresso machine on hand for your review, use and sampling of our espressos.

This is one of those shows that our staff ALWAYS looks forward to because of the amount of you that take the time to visit with us there and the many new customers we are lucky enough to meet each year. Of the many food & coffee shows that we show at, this has always been the best run and most fun to attend so I encourage you to try to make it if you can, you will not be disappointed!

Coffee Fest Minneapolis, MN, June 04 – 06, 2010

We are very excited to announce that the folks at Coffee Fest have scheduled one of their 2010 show right here in Minneapolis this year in June. Coffee Fest is still one of the better coffee focused shows in the industry so we expect nothing less at this show. We among many other local, regional and international companies will be showing. This Upper Midwest region of the country is finally getting the recognition we have so rightfully earned in the coffee world so this show should be full of useful information for any café owner in this market. As more details come in, we will continue to pass them on to you so please stay tuned or go directly to www.coffeefest.com for more details and to register for this show.

We always love to see our customers at every show we attend so please do come and say hello at one or both of these shows. Upper Midwest Gourmet will also be announcing our annual picnic/open house very soon so please stay tuned for that date to be made.

We thank you all for your continued support and patronage. We are nothing without our great customers and we are driven by your support to continue to improve our services and offerings to you!

See you at the shows!

All of us at Upper Midwest Gourmet would like to wish you, your family, your friends, and your staff a very Happy and Healthy New Year in 2010! We truly believe that your success creates our success and we promise to continue to support and serve you as much as possible!

Please always know that we are just a phone call or email away. UMG has been on the cutting edge of the coffee shop and cafe industry for almost 20 years! We have seen the latest and greatest fads come and go, but there are a few constants that will always remain the same. Coffee drinks and blended beverages are your bread and butter because  of their great profit margins. I agree with my previous statement, but I’ve learned that to be truly successful offering retail sales and food is a must.

One constant that makes any businesss successful is a self-motivated staff with ambitious goals along with a desire to always work hard no matter if it is within their job description or not. This is something amazing that I witness everyday working at UMG, but also something that is very obvious in many of the most succesful cafes that we work with. Striving to always be better is something that rarely breeds anything, but success.

Our guarantee to you, our customers, in this new year and decade is that we will continue to strive to always be better. In fact, we will be taking a coffee origin trip to Dominican Republic to meet our Flamenco Direct Relationship coffee friends and their families in February. This will give us a better understanding of all aspects of coffee production, but will more importantly build a stronger relationship with people we care about, just like our customers. We want you to know that there may be other companies that sell similar type products, but you will never find a company with more personal dedication to their customers than us.

We aren’t just a Midwest distributor of coffee shop products or just a Fair Trade Organic coffee roastery in Minnesota or just a gelato equipment and ingredient company. We are so much more than all of those titles and all we want is a chance to prove that to you this year!

Please Contact Us if you have any questions about what we can do for you.

Thanks for your support!

Who else thinks Charles should be trying out for the Vikes next year?