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Cafe Imports
About us
Our Origins:
It was 1993 and I had a new wife, a job waiting tables in Minneapolis, and a bunch of rejections from graduate school. I also had Vido, a friend from Brazil, who was trying to bring in coffee from his Dad's farm in Mogiana. I was helping him with letters of introduction and trying to craft a business plan when the stick turned blue and my wife suggested I get a "real job".
I borrowed seventy thousand dollars from my mother-in-law and Vido and I bought a container of coffee from Brazil. Then we got a business license, a phone line, a warehouse and a white cargo van. What else could you possibly need? As the coffee was afloat, there was a frost in Brazil and the market went from 68 cents to $2.70. It was great luck for us even though our first customer saw us coming and offered us 20 cents over the purchase price as opposed to the real value of the coffee.
Business was so good that we took our proceeds and bought two more containers as the near market high of $2.50. Buy high, sell low, or is it the other way around? I recognized the trouble we were in when, at about the same time, my mother in law was diagnosed as being bi-polar and wanted her money back. Two years later, I paid her back and was finally able to attend family functions. By then we had begun to buy and sell other qualities, found other sources of financing, and were still unloading the trucks and delivering coffee by hand from here to Chicago. I carried coffee on my back for the first five years and my back still aches when I think of sleeping in the back of that van on a bed of green coffee.
Twenty plus years later things have really grown up. We are importing coffee from all over the world. We have a state-of-the-art cupping lab, offices on three continents, a line of credit from a real bank, a hedging operation and most importantly a terrific group of intelligent people who enjoy the work they do. We have great plans to do good things with our business and will continue to bring in the most... show more remarkable coffees we can find. I still love coffee and hope to be working with it for the rest of my life. My idea of retirement is a small shop on the beach with a small roaster and jazz records and local art on the walls and me, roasting coffee.
Cheers! - Andrew Miller, President
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It was 1993 and I had a new wife, a job waiting tables in Minneapolis, and a bunch of rejections from graduate school. I also had Vido, a friend from Brazil, who was trying to bring in coffee from his Dad's farm in Mogiana. I was helping him with letters of introduction and trying to craft a business plan when the stick turned blue and my wife suggested I get a "real job".
I borrowed seventy thousand dollars from my mother-in-law and Vido and I bought a container of coffee from Brazil. Then we got a business license, a phone line, a warehouse and a white cargo van. What else could you possibly need? As the coffee was afloat, there was a frost in Brazil and the market went from 68 cents to $2.70. It was great luck for us even though our first customer saw us coming and offered us 20 cents over the purchase price as opposed to the real value of the coffee.
Business was so good that we took our proceeds and bought two more containers as the near market high of $2.50. Buy high, sell low, or is it the other way around? I recognized the trouble we were in when, at about the same time, my mother in law was diagnosed as being bi-polar and wanted her money back. Two years later, I paid her back and was finally able to attend family functions. By then we had begun to buy and sell other qualities, found other sources of financing, and were still unloading the trucks and delivering coffee by hand from here to Chicago. I carried coffee on my back for the first five years and my back still aches when I think of sleeping in the back of that van on a bed of green coffee.
Twenty plus years later things have really grown up. We are importing coffee from all over the world. We have a state-of-the-art cupping lab, offices on three continents, a line of credit from a real bank, a hedging operation and most importantly a terrific group of intelligent people who enjoy the work they do. We have great plans to do good things with our business and will continue to bring in the most... show more remarkable coffees we can find. I still love coffee and hope to be working with it for the rest of my life. My idea of retirement is a small shop on the beach with a small roaster and jazz records and local art on the walls and me, roasting coffee.
Cheers! - Andrew Miller, President
show more
Hours of operation
Monday8:30AM - 5:00PMTuesday8:30AM - 5:00PMWednesday8:30AM - 5:00PMThursday8:30AM - 5:00PMFriday8:30AM - 5:00PM
CLOSED NOW
2 recommendations and reviews from 2 people
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Referral from
June 24, 2017
Kenneth F. asked:Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on places to order green beans from. Google is normally my friend, but it seems there are so many retail options, but im not finding wholesale options.Kristopher T. replied:Cafeimports.com or midwestcoffeetraders.comHuey J. replied:Hi Kenneth Fancher, I thought I saw a post where you only wanted 100lbs of several varieties? If this is the case you only have a few option. All the other suggestion are for most likely 132-154lb full bags. There are a few awesome distributors that offer 50-100 boxes/bags. Sweet Marias - 1-20lb bags Coffee Shrub - 50-100lb bags Royal Coffee(Crown Jewel) - 22lb boxes La Bodega(Cafe Imports) - 50lb bags Genuine Origin - 65lb boxes Other than La Bodega these are all companies that I have sources bean from at one time or another and stand behind the quality. Trust that the La Bodega offering are really good, since Cafe Import has brought in some of the best coffees I have tasted the last 2 years. Sweet Marias/Coffee Shrub are sister companies and sometimes have the same offerings which are also spot on and better than Fair Trade(Farm Gate) for most. I source a good amount of my coffee from Royal and they offer some of the higher scoring lots in 22lb boxes which I have bought full bags of. I have bought a few 65lb boxes of Genuine Origin, their Sumatra Blue Batak is one of my all time favorites, and the Keyans/Hondurans from last year were really good. Here's the thing though, the prices for smaller quantities will never be as low as full bags. Most of the above are going to run you over $4lb except Genuine Origin. but then you have to buy 65lbs. Happy hunting and I hope this helps.
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