Madison Café Barista Jamie Oliver visits Perugia. By Jamie Oliver - I took a week off of work in August for a road-trip around Iceland with a friend. Once I started looking into flights from Iceland to Italy, I decided to extend my stay to pursue my love of Naples and the one-of-a-kind pizza they make. I have visited Italy before, so I knew that I needed that pizza! After some research and talking with my co-workers at Caffè Umbria, I was convinced to check out the roots of our company in Perugia. I took the bus from Rome to...

Nestled in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range, smallholder farmers near the town of Pluma Hidalgo cultivate this coffee in a very rustic and artisan way, honoring the love of coffee and the land passed down from generation to generation for almost 200 years. Pluma Hidalgo is a very small village surrounded by coffee farms and is the capital of coffee country in southern Mexico. This coffee gets its name both from the town, and the featherlike clouds that float amidst the mountains. Most of the farms are small, between one and nine Hectares (one Hectare is approximately 2.5...

Our cafés are now serving Rishi Tea Matcha Lattes. This green, powdered tea, dating back to the 10th century, has been taking the world by storm just in the last few years. Matcha was first introduced as a medical aide, but shortly after was consumed for enjoyment. Unlike brewed tea, you are actually consuming the tea leaves when drinking Matcha. Made from stone ground green tea leaves, matcha is a mood-enhancing drink that is full of antioxidants and, of course, caffeine. Traditionally, Matcha is scooped into a bowl and whisked with hot water to create a foamy texture. Using the...

Negroni Week 2018 is June 4 - June 10, 2018. Given our Italian roots, we love Campari at Caffè Umbria in all its beautiful, tasty iterations, so we were very excited when given the opportunity to create a coffee blend for Negroni Week! It was a bit of a challenge to create a coffee that captures the essence and taste of this iconic and familiar cocktail – bitter, sweet, herbaceous and citrusy. We chose the Mexico for the bitter-sweet taste and the Kenya for its citrusy aroma. We roasted the coffee medium-light to bring out the full potential of those flavors, resulting in...

The Cupping Room Collection are unique limited production coffees personally selected by our roasting team. The Kenya Windrush is shade grown under Eucalyptus and Gravellier trees in rich red volcanic soil between Mt. Kenya and the Aberdare Range. Once picked, the coffee is processed on site using the traditional washed method, which produces a higher acidy, clarity and consistency in the cup. Windrush Estate cultivates only SL28 and SL34 varietals, which are highly prized due to intense flavor. These varietals were carefully selected by a research organization in the 1930’s because of their ability to flourish in the harsh climate...