Blog

Cafe Imports is packing up the tour bus and heading out to 10 cities across the U.S.A., bringing along a little bit of something for everyone out there. We’ll be tasting and talking about the history and significance of varieties in coffee—and finally putting an end to that “variety” vs. “varietal” debate—as well as discussing some of the current research, new hybrid development, and other interesting news going on right now in the field.

There will be plenty of non-coffee stuff to taste as well, as we explore varieties in other things we like to consume, and we’ll have the chance to celebrate the diversity of flavor and genetics that having more than one type of anything allows.

When we think about Development here at Cafe Imports, we mean more than simply better coffee, but also better systems—that includes the contributions we make on the ground and in the field, the collaborations we undertake at the farm and mill level, and the work we do to improve our daily lives and operations in our offices and warehouses.

With the end of the year right around the corner, we are proud to share our annual progress report on Café Imports commitment to Development, which not only offers some insight into what we have been working on over the last 12 months, but also what we look forward to in 2018.

Cafe Imports spent a week bringing coffee education, cupping, and community to the Gulf Cooperation Council, visiting Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to celebrate our new partnership with Kafa Coffee, based out of Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

You’re invited to the grand opening of the Mill City Roasters Campus for the First Annual “Minneroasta!”
Minneroasta is a two-day event taking place Oct 20–21, immediately following the first two-day Introduction to Commercial Roasting Class (Oct 18–19), presented by Mill City Roasters and Cafe Imports.

Cafe Imports is headed to the Gulf Cooperative Council! We will be teaming up with our partners at Nukhbat Al Marabih and Kafa Coffee to present educational coffee events and cuppings in three cities across the GCC.

It is inspiring to serve the global coffee community while also surrounded by such thriving local coffee scenes at each of our offices. For example, just one Paul Bunyan–size hop-skip-and-jump down the road from our North American headquarters in Minneapolis, you will find an oasis of roasting experts at Mill City Roasters.

Buying the best coffees means buying coffees better: At Cafe Imports, we believe in offering both our roaster customers and our producing partners the squarest deal for every quality of coffee, from the workhorse 80–83 point lots all the way up to the 90+ microlots. Our sourcing philosophy is designed to be a holistic way to meet all of these needs, and we have found an approach that helps us develop stronger relationships at origin, discover better coffees all the time, and offer the right prices to our partners all along the supply chain. Read more about what we call our “stratified” approach to sourcing coffees, and learn how you can fit these offerings and this principle into your green-coffee buying with us, too.

Stump the Roaster comes back to beautiful Stumptown for another enlightening evening of shop talk, caffeinated confessions, and candid Q&A. Join us at Buckman Coffee Factory for the fine food, drinks from Rogue Ales, and community.

After several years of development, we are pleased to release the first edition of our World Specialty-Coffee Maps. The individual country maps reflect Cafe Imports’ buying history and sourcing efforts, along with the insight of our partners in specialty-coffee-producing regions worldwide.

Sugarcane Ethyl Acetate (E.A.) Decaffeination is a natural process that not only maintains astonishing integrity of green-coffee flavor, but also allows us to offer decaffeinated coffee that follows an integrated vertical supply chain, as the growing, processing, and even the full decaffeination process all happens at the source in Colombia.

On the heels of our first ever Legendary Coffee Tour in the U.S., our traveling Cupping event/coffee festivity is jumping across the pond!

Café Imports Europe is packing up their traveling cupping kit and headed to the United Kingdom at the end of this month! And if that’s not exciting enough, we are hitting the Alps (Munich, Zurich, and Vienna) on 31 July–3 August.