After lots of hard work getting our second Portland café open in the Sovereign Building, it was fun to kick back and celebrate at our Grand Opening party last month. With live music from Mbrascatu, amazing food and cocktails, and a packed house we certainly celebrated in style! A big thanks to the Oregon Historical Society, our neighbors in the Sovereign Hotel, for maintaining the beautiful history and architectural details of the building; we were thrilled to donate $500 back to them for future preservation projects. If you missed the party here are a few photos of the new café...

Residents and visitors of the Lake Union area have a new Caffè Umbria café in their neighborhood.  Caffè Umbria Westlake is now open in the new Westlake Steps Building, which connects Dexter Avenue and Westlake Avenue N. Located on the SW corner of Lake Union, the  boutique café serves traditional Italian espresso and coffee drinks along with some innovative offerings like Nitro Cold Brew, plus light breakfast and lunch fare with several popular selections from local Italian restaurant La Spiga. Easy lakefront access makes this café a great place to enjoy a coffee. The Westlake café is the company’s third Seattle...

In honor of Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day (March 8) we’re featuring the producers of our soon-to-be-released Single Origin coffee. Grown in the northern province of Gekenke, the Rwanda Hingawkawa is a premium lot grown by a group of women who have organized themselves as the Hingawkawa Women’s Association. In Kinyarwanda, Hingakawa means “let’s grow coffee”.   The Hingakawa Women's Association is part of the Abakundakawa Cooperative, a fair-trade farmers group whose name translates to “those who love coffee”, and produces some of the finest coffees in Rwanda. Established by 180 members in 2004, it has grown to almost...

As we begin our fifteenth year in business, we would like to extend a sincere grazie mille to our Caffè Umbria family - colleagues and customers. Without you, we wouldn't be here.

At the mill in Chiclayo, Peru, these black bags contain parchment coffee (coffee beans that have been processed and dried, but are still encased inside the parchment envelope, the endocarp). Warehousing coffee this way keeps it fresher until it is ready for export. Once sold, these beans will be sent to the mill to be hulled, polished, graded and sorted. Once milled, coffee beans are referred to as ‘green coffee’ and are ready to be shipped to the importing country’s roaster.