Morningstar Coffee didn’t begin as a trend or a marketing idea — it started at the source.

Our founder was born and raised on a coffee farm in Brazil, surrounded by the realities of cultivation, harvest, and the families whose livelihoods depend on the land. When he came to the Midwest, he brought that knowledge with him, eventually helping build what became one of the largest specialty coffee importers in the region.

Before most people in the Twin Cities even knew what “specialty coffee” meant, he was already sourcing exceptional coffees, developing farm-level relationships, and shaping the pipeline that countless roasters now rely on.

But importing wasn’t enough.

He wanted people here — cafés, restaurants, bakeries, everyday drinkers — to experience the level of quality he grew up with.

So he founded Morningstar Coffee — a roastery built to deliver better coffee to the Twin Cities long before the wave of “craft” and “third-wave” became part of the vocabulary.

While others were just discovering what specialty could be, Morningstar was already roasting it, refining it, and delivering it to the people who make this community move. The chefs opening their first restaurants. The bakeries firing their ovens at 3 a.m. The cafés serving regulars before sunrise. The suburbs. Both cities. Everywhere in between.

We’ve never needed the spotlight.

We’ve never needed the hype.

Because our history is the credibility everyone else is trying to manufacture.

Today, every bean that enters our Twin Cities facility is still sourced with intention — a direct line back to those early days of Brazilian coffee fields and Midwest importing warehouses. We roast in small batches, cup relentlessly, and package by hand because that’s not a trend for us — it’s our DNA.

We’re not here to be the newest or the flashiest.

We’re here to be the most real.

The brand that built the bedrock others now stand on.

Morningstar serves independent cafés, restaurants, bakeries, and grocery partners across the Midwest — not with gimmicks, but with decades of expertise and the kind of consistency you only get from people who have been doing this longer than almost anyone else.

This is the truth:

We didn’t follow the specialty coffee movement. We helped create it.

And we’ve been delivering the goods ever since.