Definition: 88nine Summer Blend DJ Series- The best place to be in Milwaukee on a Friday after work.

         
                                DJ Madhatter

This was a great start to a fantastic summer weekend in Milwaukee. I relaxed with an iced coffee while listening to some great music. Local DJs Madhatter & Rock Dee spun a fun, eclectic set. This Friday we will be there again to hear DJs Why-B & Rock Dee. Come on down to Bay View and join us from 5-7pm, Summer Blend drip coffee is on the house! Bring your dog, your friends, or whoever, it will be a great evening to say the least.

           

          

We will be holding a JOB FAIR on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 from 12PM-4PM at our Delafield location (Located at Highway 83 and I-94 in Hillside Terrace Mall).

We are hiring for Baristi, Lead Staff Members and Management positions at our Delafield and Oconomowoc locations. Please come prepared with a completed application available at any one of our eight retail stores as well as on-line at our website We will be conducting 10-15 minute on-site interviews as well. We look forward to seeing you on July 23rd!

         

Just a reminder that this Friday, July 18th is the first night of our Summer DJ Series in collaboration with 88nine Radio Milwaukee! It is from 5-7 pm at Stone Creek Bay View. This event will be every Friday from 5-7 until August 29th. Tell your friends and family to come! (tell them that there will be Coffee as well) Tune into 88.9 Radio Milwaukee, they are announcing advertisements about the event! Here is the lineup of performing DJs:

JULY 18-2008 & DJ MADHATTER & DJ ROCK DEE
JULY 25-2008 & DJ WHY-B & DJ ROCK DEE
AUGUST 1-2008 & ERIKA JEAN & DJ ROCK DEE
AUGUST 8-2008 & STEVE MARXX & MARCUS DOUCETTE
AUGUST 15-2008 & DJ AVETS & MARCUS DOUCETTE
AUGUST 22-2008 & DJ E-RICH & TARIK MOODY
AUGUST 29-2008 & PAUL CEBAR & SCOTT MULLINS

See ya there!

A few weeks ago we launched our Stone Creek Anniversary Road Trip in which you can visit our stores in the metro Milwaukee area to get free coffee. We were delighted to hear that one of our amazing customers, Tim Cigelske went the environmentally friendly route and took the entire Stone Creek Road trip by BIKE! Which is about 100 miles! Tim also documented his journey, Tour de Stone Creek on his website TeeCycle.org . For every Stone Creek location on his trip he has a photo of himself in a cool vintage t-shirt that is available for sale on TeeCycle.org .  Like Tim, we encourage you to share your amazing Road Trip story with us. Send your story or photos to cboivin@stonecreekcoffee.com. You still have a lot of time! (until August 31) So get out there and take the trip no matter what kind of transportation you have! Sip slowly and be safe! Thanks again Tim!

           

Tim at the finish in Oconomowoc with his free pound of coffee!

Tomorrow, your baristas will leave their stores a bit early to celebrate Independence Day! Presumably they will nab the perfect spot to watch fireworks and grill up some grub.

So you don't miss out on your caffeine fix, here are each store's holiday hours:

Whitefish Bay, Glendale, Bayview, Wauwatosa, Delafield, and Oconomowoc will be slinging 'spro 6:30AM-3PM.

Shorewood 6:30AM-4:30PM and Grand Ave 11AM-5PM. Sorry, but the Stone Creek Coffee Factory will be closed all day.

Happy Fourth of July!

         

This summer we will be blending coffee and music with our 1st annual Summer Blend DJ series with 88nine Radio Milwaukee . This event will take place at our Stone Creek Bay View Store (at Kinnickinnic & Lincoln). Local Milwaukee DJs will be spinning records on Fridays from 5-7 pm from July 18-August 29 . Come down and check it out! We will be giving away free cups of our Summer Blend ! Tune into 88nine Radio Milwaukee for more details. See ya there!

Stone Creek Coffee in Whitefish Bay is busy preparing for the parade that happens annually on July 4th directly outside of the store. We are working hard brewing iced tea, iced coffee and stocking our espresso to keep all the parade viewers satisfied. Not only will our indoor cafe be swinging out the lattes and mochas, but we will also have a tent situated outside the store to quench your coffee and cold beverage thirst. Feel free to stop in while you wait for the color guard to walk through around 11:30 officially kicking off the parade. We wish you a safe and relaxing July 4th!

All Stone Creek Coffee stores will be open from 6:30AM-3PM with the exceptions of the Grand Ave Kiosk (11AM-5PM) and Shorewood (6:30AM-4:30PM).

 

This week here at Stone Creek, we had to say, "good bye" to one of our friends, and barista, Jon Seefeldt.  After eight great years as a barista at our Shorewood store, Jon is moving on.  Aside from being an incredibly hard worker, and all around good guy, Jon was always willing to pick up shifts, come in to work at the last minute, and travel to numerous stores in times of need.  Jon's calm demeanor was a pleasure to be around in busy times and his cafe for the store was obvious. 

In our company newsletter this week, some of our staff shared some memories of working with Jon that I felt only appropriate to share with many of the customers that Jon served:

"When I worked back in Shorewood, Jon would always help out in a bind.  I remember he really, really hated to get up early but did it anyway to help a sister out.  He always was willing to switch things around and be super flexible.  He also is realy suave with teh ladies!" ~Laurie, Factory

"Jon has not only been the best coworker, but he has also been an amazing friend.  He is always willing to help out whenever he can.  I am definitely going to miss him being around the store.  And I am sure he will miss me telling him all of my crazy life stories  Thanks Jon for always being there for me!  Don't forget the phone calls!" ~Michelle, Shorewood

"Jon, you're like the nicest person ever!!!  This is a sad, sad day.  No more prank calls from Shorewood to Glendale!  HaHa!  Good luck, dude!" ~Natalie, Glendale

"I remember knowing that my Saturday morning shift was coming to an end when I saw Jon's big bomber station wagon pulling into the parking lot...usually with a new piece of plexi glass covering up yet another broken window.  Jon would come in...we would exchange insults with each other...and then he'd make himself a froofy, caramel mocha...which I would promptly make fun of him for.  I'm going to miss Jon..." ~Steve, Factory

Jon, thanks for eight incredible years here at Stone Creek.  Best of luck to you...we'll miss you, buddy. 

From a city that has always known how to work hard comes a coffee that works as hard as you do. Milwaukee Blend is a well-crafted combination of strength, balance, and dark-roasted flavor that yields a great tasting, rock solid cup of coffee, time after time. As strong as the bricks that built our city, Milwaukee Blend will give you the fuel to start your day and the muscle to finish your work.

Milwaukee Blend is a new product that hit our stores on Wednesday. This blend pays tribute to the great city that we have called home for the last 15 years. We hope to rotate the labels that represent this blend to highlight different aspects of our city that make Milwaukee a unique and great place to live.

Label No. One- Corner Bars & Taverns
Corner bars and taverns have formed the backbone of Milwaukee s social life since the mid-1800 s. Home town breweries such as Pabst, Miller, Schlitz and Blatz have been brewing beer for over 150 years. With all of this beer brewing there must be places for the local folks to enjoy it. Thus why our local neighborhood taverns had been established. Some date all the way back to 1850 and its doors still remain open to Milwaukee s people. As diverse as our city is, you will always stumble upon a corner bar or tavern no matter what neighborhood you are in.

Your City.  Your Coffee.  Milwaukee Blend.

We here at Stone Creek Coffee are well aware of the power of the review, whether it be from a retail customer, a wholesale customer or an industry expert. A bad review is extremely disheartening for us all, but it also bolsters our resolve to improve upon our coffees if we feel the criticism is fair and warranted. On the other hand, a good review can only bring good results by encouraging us to continue in our commitment to roast the very best coffees we can.

Today we are pleased and proud to report on some fabulous reviews that Stone Creek Coffee has received from Groovy Brew, Jerry Davis' blog of coffee reviews, coffee gadgets and coffee related news. Jerry sampled four Stone Creek coffees--French Roast,Fair Trade Blend,Cream City Blend, andNaturally Spiced Cinnamon--giving them all stellar marks!

You can read Jerry's positive, upbeat reviews by clicking on the coffee names above. For our part, we'll carry on in our quest to bring you the most amazing coffee known to taste buds anywhere!

Everyone has their own indulgence, don't they? That extra special thing that makes life a little more joyous, days a little more blissful, Stone Creek coffee a little more amazing. For some it's a chocolate chip cookie, while others prefer a raspberry scone, but for us the hands-down favorite is shortbread--sweet, buttery shortbread. And not just any shortbread either, it's got to be the most fantastic shortbread around, which means it can only be from The Most Fantastic Foods Inc.

 

For years Stone Creek has sold Most Fantastic's shortbread in our retail stores, offering our customers the very best in shortbread goodness. Now the small, family run company with the modest name has moved from Hartland to 5901-5903 W. Vliet Street on Milwaukee's west side, and the relocation has put them in the news.

 

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Daykin penned the item about Most Fantastic's jump to the Big City , revealing the company's history and announcing that their new coffee shop, Fair Grounds, is open for business. A rumor has been spreading around town that Fair Grounds is serving Stone Creek coffee and we'd like to take this moment to set the record straight: It's the truth! Believe every word of it!

 

To Most Fantastic's owners and operators Joe and Bev Braun, and their son Steve, we'd like to say, 'Congratulations and Welcome!'

 

Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article--in which a certain amazing coffee roaster, retailer and wholesaler is mentioned-- here.

So normally we hand out stickers to the loveable little ones you bring to the market with you.

This Saturday, July 28th, the FARMER'S MARKET is taking it to the next level.

Any lovely children you bring to our tent will get his or her own treat bag from Stone Creek Coffee. No worries, we won't be handing out anything with caffeine. The kid's bags will have plain shortbread cookies, a toy and maybe an extra surprise above that.

Meet us at the South Shore Farmer's Market from 8am to 12 noon and at the East Town Farmer's Market from 8am to 12:30pm.

We can't wait to see y'all there!

During last week's factory cupping we focused in on two different coffee-growing countries: Brazil and El Salvador. The first two samples on the table were from our friends at the Conquista farm in Brazil. They were essentially the same bean from the same harvest, but had been processed and washed in different ways to give each coffee a distinct flavor and acidity profile.

We tried a semi-washed Brazilian first, a fresh crop sample of the bean that goes into our Espresso. Most of our cuppers thought it possessed a pleasant flavor with a very mild acidity, although a couple of us noticed a slightly smoky undertone which left an unclean aftertaste. The second coffee that we tried was a fully washed version of our Brazilian, which we are considering as a potential single origin coffee, or possibly as an espresso component. The acidity of this sample was sharp and pronounced, while the flavor was clean and refined--much like a Kenya without the complexity.

The next two samples both came from family-owned farms in El Salvador. Unlike Brazil, where most coffee is grown in vast fields on very large farms, El Salvadoran coffees are primarily grown on small plots in the midst of shade trees and other crops. The two shade-grown El Salvadoran coffees that we had the fortune to sample last week are grown alongside lime trees, bananas, avocados and rows of lettuce. The two farms in question are called Santa Leticia and El Amel, and the unanimous favorite was the sample from the El Amel farm.

Out of six cuppers, the El Amel farm coffee scored eight out of ten for three of us, and nine out of ten for the other three. Most descriptions included the adjectives rich , flavorful, creamy, and chocolaty. Because of the surprisingly positive reception to this coffee during the cupping, I am going to seriously consider it as a candidate for our next Factory Reserve. It will be something to look for this fall.

Our next cupping will take place Friday, July 27th at 9:00AM at the Stone Creek Factory and, as usual, everyone is invited to attend.

Last Saturday night Stone Creek Coffee and 91.7 FM WMSE jointly hosted our first ever Community + Music Party at the Bay View retail store, and man did we have an awesome time! Click here to see photographic documentation of the festivities.

 

Heidi Spencer, along with drummer Bill Curtis, provided us with some amazing live music with which to enjoy the lovely summer night in the outdoor garden. We also got the chance to hear the Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Compilation CD. Chock full of songs by local artists and brilliantly produced by WMSE, the CD is currently in regular play rotation at all eight Stone Creek Coffee retail stores now through September 30.

 

To those of you who ventured over to the soirée, we heartily thank you for supporting Stone Creek Coffee, WMSE and Milwaukee' s local music scene. We'd also like to extend an enthusiastic 'Way to Go!' to the Stone Creek Coffee Bay View staff who worked that night, and particularly to Athena Agoudemos, our fearless and tireless executive retail manager, who planned not only the party but coordinated the entire Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Project.

 

You can bet there'll be more amazing events from Stone Creek Coffee, so stayed tuned!

 

Just a quick aide-mémoire for y'all that the Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Party is tomorrow, July 21, starting at 7:30PM. Local artist Heidi Spencer will be playing her unique brand of American folk music live in the outdoor garden.

 

Join us for amazing coffee and amazing music 'til 10:00PM at Stone Creek Coffee in Bay View at 2266 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue. Come one, come all!

 

(Also, the Rummage Sale is from 7:00AM-12:00PM--same day, same place. Everything must go!!)

 

Have you ever played with those refrigerator word magnets? Ya know, where the magnets have individual words printed on them and you can make really funny/weird sentences by moving them around? Well, the above is the best--albeit nonsensical--headline we could come up with to describe the mind-boggling amount of stuff going on at various Stone Creek Coffee locations this weekend. Seeing as you may have trouble deciphering what it is we're saying--and who could blame ya--let's just lay it all out, shall we?

 

For starters, three of our retail stores are staying open late this Friday and into the early morning hours of Saturday for the midnight release of the boy wizard's final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The super friendly staff at Stone Creek's Oconomowoc, Shorewood and Bay View locations will be there to serve up all the Butterbeer you and your little wizard(s) can handle, not to mention other treats that are always available. This year's Butterbeer is a hazelnut steamer with green caramel whipped cream--should be just enough to keep y'all awake until the clock strikes twelve or so.

 

Also starting in the wee hours of Saturday morning is the Stone Creek Coffee Reunion Bash at the Bay View retail store at 2266 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue . (Not directly after the Harry Potter thing; this ain't no pajama party. Though that is an idea...) Don't let the name throw ya because the Reunion Bash is for everyone: Stone Creek's current and former staff, friends, family, and you!

 

The first part of the Reunion Bash is the Rummage Sale from 7:00AM-12:00PM. We're selling Stone Creek Coffee artifacts, t-shirts, hardware, old lawn furniture, etc. Everything must go!! Whatever is not sold will be donated to charity, so come on down and get a great deal!

 

The second part of the Reunion Bash is the Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Party. We've been telling you a lot about this for a while now, and we really hope that many of you can come down to enjoy this first ever event sponsored by Stone Creek and 91.7 FM WMSE. The party starts at 7:30PM and runs 'til 10:00PM, with LIVE music provided by local artist Heidi Spencer. It's all about amazing coffee and amazing music!

 

Whew, okay, that's a lot of stuff, right? Did we cover everything? Think so. Then all that's left to say is we'll see ya there!

 

Do you hear that? That sweet and beguiling sound as it carries on the Lake Michigan breeze? It is a sound so enticing that it can only be the melodic song of Stone Creek Coffee beckoning you to come to the South Shore Park Farmer's Market.

 

We sing this song every summer and without fail, inviting one and all to the shade of our tent to partake in the very best that Stone Creek has to offer. We implore thee to come and make your presence known to us as we serve our amazing coffee to the masses. We promise that our song will not lead to your destruction against the jagged rocks, but will only yield friendly hellos and prompt refreshment upon your order.

 

If our song has done its job then, all we need do now is tell you where and when:

South Shore Park

Every Saturday through October 20

8:00AM-12:00PM

 

Spend your Saturday morning with us and ye shall not regret it.

 

Dateline: July 17, 2007. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hot off the wire is the breaking news that Heidi Spencer, folk songstress extraordinaire, is scheduled to play the Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Party this Saturday, July 21!

Possessing a lilting yet powerful voice that brilliantly compliments her songwriting and guitar playing style, Heidi brings a fresh sound to the traditional acoustic American folk genre that's sure to knock your socks--or sandals--right off!

As one of the thirteen artists participating in the Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Project, Heidi contributed her distinctive tune I Slept in Cars to the Compilation CD produced by 91.7 FM WMSE, now in regular play rotation at your nearest Stone Creek Coffee retail store. Check out I Slept in Cars as well as some of Heidi's other songs on her MySpace Music page.

So, remember, the Stone Creek Coffee Community + Music Party is this Saturday, July 21, 7:30PM-10:00PM at Stone Creek Coffee in Bay View, 2266 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue. Now that you know Heidi Spencer's playing live, how could you possibly stay away? It's Folktastic!

Those among you familiar with even a smidgen of French are no doubt shaking your heads in pity right now, saying, 'Boocoo? Are they serious? How could Stone Creek Coffee display such ignorance? Know they not that the word is spelled beaucoup?' That we know indeed. However, our linguistically gifted friends, we also know that boocoo is a variant, Creole spelling of that self-same word. Très intéressant, oui?

 

What is even more fascinating is that Stone Creek Coffee has acquired a new partner in combining amazing coffee with amazing community commitment: Boocoo Cultural Center and Café. (All that talk about language makes sense now, doesn't it?) Based in Evanston, IL , Boocoo offers diverse, multicultural and affordable programming to the residents of the 5th Ward, including a music school, a recording studio, a movement school, literacy and nutrition efforts as well as a healthy café, where Stone Creek Coffee is served.

 

On top of all that, Boocoo's facility is one of the first public buildings in the Chicago area to be run by a geothermal heating and cooling system--a system that requires no use of fossil fuels and produces no greenhouse gas emissions. This renewable energy system not only saves the organization between 50 and 70% on annual operating energy costs but also helps to save the planet.

 

To check out Stone Creek's newest amazing partner, Boocoo Cultural Center and Café, and to learn about the special Brazilian blend coffee we created just for them, click here.

 

 

Back in the day, as the young kids are wont to say, there was a band called The Go-Go's and this all female group released a song that stirred the nation in, ahem, 1982. (Yes, yes, not only we were alive at that time but fully conscious as well. Leg warmers, anyone?) The ditty was called Vacation and its powerful lyrics spoke to the very heart of human desire as it expressed a deep longing to get away from it all. It didn't hurt that it was also astonishingly danceable.

 

We bring up this tidbit of pop music history because we have a sneaking suspicion that many of you may be experiencing this need-a-vacation sensation, scientifically known as Leisure Yearning Syndrome (LYS). Well, friends, the sun is just about to shine a little brighter, for Stone Creek Coffee Roasters is now offering Summer Vacation Coffee!

 

Summer Vacation Coffee is the perfect blend of our highest quality Guatemalan, an exceptionally smooth Ethiopian Harrar and our French Roast. One look at its distinctive label will inspire you to achieve new heights--or depths, depending on your personality--of rest and relaxation, whether you're in the midst of your holiday or still waiting for your sweet respite.

 

Pick up your Summer Vacation Coffee at any one of Stone Creek's eight retail stores, or buy wholesale online, now through August. Viva La Summer!