Upper Midwest Gourmet

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!

Please check out our newest Brewsletter – Volume  37 – Spring 2009

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

Enjoy the new format and thanks from all of us!

As UMG finished our last show of the season in Milwaukee, it was in no means the end of the work to be done. There are many months of follow up to be completed. We look forward to contacting those of you who requested us to do so.

We wish to take a moment to offer our thanks and appreciation to those of you who took the time to stop by and say hello at the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo a couple of weeks ago in the lovely city of Milwaukee. As usual, this show was a great success for UMG. We especially appreciate the opportunity to meet with many of you face to face each year, and to meet some of you for the first time. It’s funny though how our mind can create an image of what you think someone is supposed to look like prior to ever meeting them face to face. Sometimes you are right on, and some times you are way off course! (I am usually the off guy). Either way, it makes a relationship that much more rewarding once you can actually place a face with a voice.

If you missed the show this year, here are some of the highlighted products that we were offering samples of; Zola Acai in Ready-to-drink, blender and concentrate formulas, Pro Bar meal supplement bars, Wally Biscotti (Mr. Wally himself graced us with his presence at the show this year), Dirty all-natural potato chips, Boosta shot pure all-natural energy, Cappuccine blender/frappe mixes, Rancilio Leve manual Lever espresso machines (this truly was the hit as we sold 2 of them off the show floor) and of course, our very own Flamenco Organic coffees. Jesse our Roast Master has been busy since last year and was offering some of our award winning coffees for sampling.

Without gloating, I believe that we were the hit of the show this year with our product offerings. We were just informed that we are to be on the front cover of next years Expo Info packet handout.

Take a look at this cover by clicking the following link;

http://www.wirestaurant.org/expo/exhibit/index.htm

You can also take a look at some of the photos we took ourselves at the show.

Again if you took the time to stop by, we say thank you a thousand times over. If you missed us this year, we say shame on you (OK, that might be a little harsh!), no, we do encourage you to try to make next years show if you are within 4-6 hours of Milwaukee. This show is definitely worth your time.

For all of our customers, we say thank you very much for your continued patronage and support. We would be nothing with out all of you! We strive to ensure the success of every customer that we have a relationship with. It is our goal to be able to always offer you the products and tools needed to meet that success. Please feel free to contact any one at UMG with any comments or concerns, we are ready to listen.

Your Bean Head staff thanks you

Upper Midwest Gourmet/Flamenco Organic Coffee Company was honored to be a part of this year’s NACUFS Conference!

Roastmaster, Jesse Grote, and Sales Manager, Michael Applen, took part in the conference.

We had a blast presenting an interest seminar on Monday themed “Why Choose Fair Trade, Organic Specialty Coffee?” and also took part in the vendor showcase on the following Tuesday. Thanks to everyone that came to the seminar and visited our booth at the showcase.

Here are some pictures of the showcase. Please click to enlarge.

Special thanks to host of the conference, Concordia College of Moorhead, for their hospitality and especially for their gift to us of the “FARGO” DVD!

Feel free to Contact Us if you have any questions about us or the show or if you were at the show and loved the coffee and would like to order for your school!

It’s show season again!  Look for Upper Midwest Gourmet at the shows this weekend, next month and all year:

Chicago, IL - Coffeefest 2009: Friday, Sat, Sun: Feb. 20th – 22nd:Look for Kevin and David, we’ll be mixing up all those yummy Frappes in Cappuccine’s booth

Minneapolis, MN - UP Show 2009: Monday, Tuesday: Feb. 23rd & 24th: Look for Kevin in the Vita Mix booth for some delicious smoothies.

Moorhead, MN (Concordia College) NACUFS Conference: Monday,Tuesday: Feb. 23rd & 24th: Michael and Jesse will be giving a presentation on the benefits of using Fair Trade, Organic Specialty Coffee. They will also be focusing on ’Going Green’ and how it can improve your profits and strengthen sales, all while leaving a better mark on the world.

Milwaukee, WI Restaurant Show & Expo 2009: Mon, Tue, Wed: March 9th-11th:  Jesse, Kevin and David will be demonstrating all the new products for 2009.

Minneapolis, MN - UMGWHQ 2009 (Upper Midwest Gourmet World Headquarters): February – December 2009: The show that never ends!  Come to our showroom and try out any product anytime. Our showroom is fully functional so you can brew coffee, extract espresso and froth milk, make gelato and sorbetto, prepare pastry or even bake bread! You can also see the latest equipment in action, watch training videos, see what’s new and exciting before anyone else or just come to play some foosball (beware, Michael can really run a table).  We’d love to have you here.  If your going to the UP show, stop by before or after the show?  David,  Sarah, Eric, Alan, Brandon and Charles will all be around to help you.

We hope to see you all soon!

Cheers,

David – Chief Beanhead

Ahhhhhh…

A great weekend of roasting and hanging out with other roasters. Most of us are pretty starved for contact with other people who care about maximizing acidic snap by quickening first crack ramp-up.

Well, my friends, it is time for me to say good-bye. Some of you know this already but for those of you that don’t, I am moving to Urbana, Illinois on Saturday, August 30. That means that my last day hear at Upper Midwest Gourmet is this Friday, August 29. I am moving to Urbana to attend the School for Designing a Society. SDaS was started by a group of people, including Patch Adams (remember that movie about the crazy doctor played by Robin Williams? well it’s based on a true story), that believe that we really can change the world. So this fall I will be with between 15-20 other people discussing where society is at, where we see it going, where we want it to go, and how we are going to get it there. We will all be working on projects (individual and/or group) that actually implement the things that we will be discussing. I am extremely excited to be involved in SDaS. I think it is going to be a fantastic experience. It does, however, make working in Minnesota a bit difficult. It would be a rather nasty commute, don’t you think?

 I want to tell you all that you have been absolutely lovely. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all of you. You have made me laugh and made me cry (well, almost). It has been my pleasure to have had the priveledge of working with all of you. You guys rock! Thank you for all the memories; shows, barista jams, gelato, coffee (which, much to the dismay of the guys at UMG, I still do not drink), mispronouncing words, silly sayings, and just laughing in general. I’ve really loved it here. Thank you so much for everything.

Every time I hear a phone ring I will look around like a crazy person needing to answer it. And then I’ll remember that it is no longer for me and I’ll laugh at my silliness. Thank you again for everything. Don’t forget to work hard AND play hard! You are all wonderful.

“It’s a beautiful day at Upper Midwest Gourmet. This is Kelsey.” I’m going to miss helping you.

Upper Midwest Gourmet was proud to be in the booth with the Technogel Equipment and the Fabbri 1905 ingredient companies at the National Restuarant Association trade show in Chicago May 17th-20th.

It was our pleasure to meet everyone that stopped by the booth to learn how to make gelato using the Technogel batch freezer, blast chiller, heater/mixer, and whipped cream machine and also to enjoy the awesome gelato samples made with all-natural Fabbri ingredients imported in from Italy. We apologize, but we were too busy to take any pictures for you to enjoy.

Please Contact Us if you were at the show and wanted more information about anything you saw and enjoyed.

Comments are OPEN if you would like to ask questions or make show and/or product reviews.

Thanks again to all that attended.

We had a great time at the Lake Geneva NATO trade show on May 14th & 15th!

Thanks to all that visited our booth and sampled our Flamenco & Quarry coffees, espresso, and gelato.

Please enjoy some pictures from the show.

Please Contact Us if you would like any more information or

would like to set up an account with us so you can serve our amazing coffees, espresso, and gelato.

Comments are OPEN if you would like to ask questions or give show and product reviews.

Thanks again!

All of us at UMG would like to thank everyone that vistited us at our booth this year at SCAA!

Please enjoy some pictures of our booth.

Feel free to Contact Us if you would like any information about any of the products we carry.

Upper Midwest Gourmet would like to thank all those that visited us at the 2008 WI Restaurant Show. It was our pleasure to introduce some of our new products to you like the “green” Cappuccine Frappes, Artista Energy Syrups, Quarry Microroasters Coffee, Boosta Shot, Hempmilk, Enlightened Chai, Pacific Natural Foods Soups and Soy, Ghirardelli Sunrise Unsweetened Cocoa, and, of course, Gelato!

Please enjoy some pictures that were taken at the show!

If you were at the show and wanted more information or wanted to order from us, please Contact Us.

Thanks again to all that visited us at the show and thanks especially for your interest in our new products. If you have a moment to spare, we would really appreciate any feedback you may have. Comments are open.

Here are some pictures from the 2008 UP Show. Enjoy!

Please click on the links below to open pictures.

Gelato Display

 UMG Booth

Eric Serving Gelato

Jesse in His Coffee Area

Michael Serving Gelato

Kevin & Jesse Talking to Attendees

We had a blast talking with and seeing everyone at the show.

We hope you enjoyed our new products!

Please Contact Us for any future inquiries or orders.

Thanks again to all the attended.

Thanks to all that visited our booth in Chicago, from all of us at Upper Midwest Gourmet.

We had an awesome time meeting so many great people from all over the U.S., not to mention the World. The show was a definite success for us and we look forward to making the Gelato business a reality for many of you. Please Contact Us if you have further questions or would like to get your new Gelato business going so that you can start making some incredible profits soon!

Comments are open on this blog post, so if you were at the Chicago Coffeefest please leave any comments, questions, or advice you may have for us to better assist you in the future. Thanks again.

We had a great time at the UP Show in Minneapolis last week. We want to thank all the folks who stopped by our booth and tried all our new products. We had 3 gelato demonstrations on the show stage and made all the gelato for our booth as well as TSBL’s booth and the feedback was fantastic. Our newest products from Sambazon Acai, Xpress Nap and Castellino we’re huge hits too and people were ordering them right out of our booth. We have 1 Vita Mix Bar Boss Advance that we displayed in the Vita Mix booth that is an open box unit that we’re selling at a discount and 2 Gelato Batch freezers from the demo stage as well that we’ll offer great deals on. All the other show equipment has been picked up and is happily making product in there new homes.

We didn’t get long to rest. One day back in the shop then Michael and Kevin loaded up the Van and headed off to setup Coffeefest Chicago. Day 1 of the show has completed and the phone calls we’ve received so far say our booth was the biggest hit at the show. If you’re going to Coffeefest today or tomorrow stop by and say hi to them and don’t miss out on the Acai gelato.

Bethany and I are hoping a flight to Columbus Ohio in about 45 minutes to set up another booth at the NAPIC show. We’ll be dishing out over 20 different gelato flavors and some fun alternative gelato treats so come on by and see us also.

If you come to the shows or order any gelato equipment by the end of the month and mention this blog post I’ll take another $500 off your gelato package. Deposits must be received by the end of February.

Don’t forget, if you can’t make one of these shows, we’ve got another coming up in 2 weeks in Milwaukee.

Look for some cool pictures of the show here soon. Hoping to see and hear from you all soon.

Cheers, David….Token Beanhead

Who wants to try some gelato? See our newest Organic Super Product? Meet all the friendly Upper Midwest Gourmet Staff? Me you say? Well, ok, I got a free pass for ya. Go to www.upshowonline.com and use this free VIP code ( UPVIP07 ) and you’ll get a free entry to the largest show in the 5 state area. Besides all the great stuff I already mentioned you can come see our Gelato Demo at Noon on Sunday and our Gelato / Semifreddo demos at Noon on Monday and Tuesday. We hope to see you at the show!

The Organic Fair Trade Beanheads

I just flew back from Italy and boy are my arms tired. Hahaha, sorry I couldn’t help myself. Once again I had a great trip, saw beautiful sites and met some fabulous people from Italy, Israel, Turkey, Great Britain, Argentina, Chili, Greece, Spain, Austria, Portugal, France and Germany.

European shows really are fabulous for getting the masses together from all over the world. Most importantly, I ate some really good gelato and saw some really nice alternative gelato / semifreddo ideas for us to incorporate year round and during the slower winter months.

Some of these pictures (click to enlarge) aren’t the greatest since I was taking pictures through display cases but they give you an idea of some of the easy ways to use up extra gelato and make fun cakes. Also notice the fun and pride the staff of these gelaterias have. They all smile and look great in their uniforms. Enjoy the pics and feel free to call me if you want help with anything you see. I’ll be working on some other recipes too that aren’t yet pictured so stay tuned.