We are very pleased to announce that we now offer the awesome Synesso Espresso Machines! That’s right, the The Cyncra™, The Hydra™ and The Hybrid™ are all available from Upper Midwest Gourmet.

We met a bunch of the great people from the Synesso company at SCAA, Portland and are really excited to be working with them. This opportunity to have what we consider to be the “best of the best” available to us is very cool and we even plan on showcasing one of these sweet machines in the new cafe, UP.

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

As many of you know, things always seem to take a little longer than expected to get up and running when opening a cafe.

UP will be an open to the public cafe serving Flamenco Organic coffee and espresso roasted on site, Italian gelato made fresh on site, and tasty baked goods and panini’s all made from local ingredients.

The best part for all of you is that this cafe will be our brand new fully operational training cafe and state-of-the-art showroom. We will be able to have you come in with your staff to get full company trainings. In areas like espresso, coffee, and gelato preparation, this can be very beneficial to everyone!

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

It’s never too early to start thinking about the next trade show.

That is why we are already telling everyone now that we are in booths 100/102/104 at Chicago Coffee Fest in June 2012.  We will be making gelato on a Carpigiani Coldelite batch freezer and displaying in one of the new Ciam Pozzetti display cases.  We will definitely be serving our award-winning Flamenco Organic Coffee along with a ton of other great products for you to check out and sample.

Here are the basics:

When – June 8th-10th 2012

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

Registration Information

Early Bird is $20 per person if registered by Sunday, 5/20/2012. $30 per person after that.

Onsite Registration Hours: Trade Show and educational Classes
Friday & Saturday: 7:00am to 4:30pm
Sunday: 7:30am to 3:30pm

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

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

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

Our newest additions include new full length windows (will add a ton more natural light into the cafe), leveled floors, finished floors in the new kitchen, new electrical, and we are almost ready to start on the ceilings and finish the floors.

Here are some pictures to help you the idea:

New kitchen floor:

We hope you enjoy our updates and can’t wait for you to visit once we are “Up!” and running!

Just wanted to say “Thank You” to everyone that came out and chatted with us at the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo last week.

It was a pleasure sampling our great products to all of you and we really appreciate your business!

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

Please enjoy this article about composting from Heather at Badger Brew Express in Rice Lake, Wisconsin that she wrote for the Twin Cities Coffee Guild.

ARTICLE – “Where Do Your Grounds Go? by Heather H. Haller”

Remember that UMG carries a bunch of compostable disposables like the Eco Products Green Stripe cold cups that Heather uses.

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

Our first show of the year is the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo being held in downtown Milwaukee on March 12-14th. That’s a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday show. We have been exhibiting at this show for over 10 years now and will have our usual spot on the floor with a 20 foot end booth. This year we will be highlighting our Flamenco Organic Coffees, Dr Smoothie 100% crushed fruit smoothie mixes, Mozo Chef shoes, Cappuccine, Big Train and a host of fine products from Amoretti including flavoring syrups, 100% fruit smoothie mixes, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar and Martin mixes. We will have many other items on display as well including a 2 group espresso machine. We would love to see you there this year so stop by for an espresso, smoothie or martini (maybe all 3 mixed together!). We have a limited amount of FREE passes for Wednesday the 14th. Please contact us if that is a day you can make it.

Go to http://www.everythingfoodservice.org for more info on this fantastic show.

The second show of the year for us is Coffee Fest Chicago being held at the Navy Pier Convention Hall. This show is on June 8-10th (Friday-Sunday). We will have another 20 foot booth there highlighting many of our products including Flamenco Organic Coffee and are hoping to have a full display of Gelato on hand. For more info on this show and to register to attend, please visit http://www.coffeefest.com for more details.

Please stay tuned for more details on this show as we comprise them.

Hope to see you at one or both of these shows. We love to meet with our customers rather it may be the first time, or an annual routine. We truly appreciate your continued business and support and feel these show are a way for us to convey that to you.

Feel free to contact us for any further information on either of these shows.

Upper Midwest Gourmet is pleased to offer a new service from Intuit, the makers of our accounting software: Intuit Payment Network or IPN.

IPN works similar to services like PayPal. First you set up an IPN account with your own passwords.  Next, when you place an order with us, we’ll email a copy of your invoice to you with a link to IPN to pay your invoice. Click the link and sign in with your password and confirm the amount and click pay. That’s it you’re done.

Once you’ve paid we’ll instantly get a notice from IPN that you’ve made a payment.  Our accounting system will automatically sync with IPN daily and record your transaction. This automation insures your invoices gets recorded as paid and eliminates any human error.

-No more having to leave the counter and write a check when the delivery man shows up

-No more $8.50 COD fees

-No more credit card fees

-No more lost or stolen checks in the mail

-It’s completely free

-Your checking account is safe! Account information is all securely stored with IPN, even we’ll never see it

If you’d like to give IPN a try please let us know when you place your order. It’s simple and we’re sure you’ll love it.

(For additional information or to sign up for this, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

This cafe will be open to the public and will hopefully be completed in the next few months. These should help you get the picture:

BEFORE

DURING

MORE DURING

AFTER – Coming Soon…

From this months issue of Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine:

“Without food, most coffeehouses will starve.”

Do you serve food at your cafe?