In two weeks’ time (Saturday/Sunday, 5^th/6^th November), Cup North will return, although this year it’s re-branded itself the Manchester Coffee Festival. Once again gracing the halls of the Victoria Warehouse in Stretford, where last year it spread itself out over a rabbit warren of interconnected spaces, you’re in for a real treat.

I’ve watched the Festival evolve over the last three years. Starting out as Cup North in 2014, it was a modest, relaxed affair in a pair of adjoining rooms in Manchester’s Artwork. Last year it expanded to Victoria Warehouse, occupying a number of rooms on the first floor, feeling more like a mini London Coffee Festival, although on a much more manageable scale. Even so, I still didn’t have time to get around all the stands I wanted to!

Whether it’s your first time or you’re wondering what this year’s festival will hold, this preview is for you. There’ll be plenty of speciality coffee and related kit, with numerous cafes, roasters and equipment suppliers amongst the exhibitors. Food, as always, will play a big role, with a range of local street food traders on hand. Finally, the Festival will once again host a series of Tamper Tantrum talks.

With weekend tickets for just £18, or £10 if you only want to do a single day, it really is a bargain. Get your tickets now!

You can find out more about the Manchester Coffee Festival after the gallery, a round-up of last year’s event.

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Although rebranded as the Manchester Coffee Festival, I’ve been assured by organisers Hannah and Ricardo that this is the same Cup North that we’ve all come to know and love. For the second year running, the Festival will be in the Victoria Warehouse in Stretford, an easy tram-ride from the city centre. You can expect the usual coffee festival fare, including stalls from roasters, local cafés, green bean importers and coffee equipment suppliers, spread out over a series of interconnected rooms, each small enough to retain the festival’s intimate feel. These are centred on the large canteen area where last year the popular Tamper Tantrum talks were held. Meanwhile if you head outside, dodging the inevitable Manchester rain, you’ll find the street food market, a real highlight of last year’s festival.

This year, the usual favourites will be back, while we’ve been promised some additional exhibitors, including several tea companies, a chocolatier and a room full of smaller companies which will include Jody Leach, maker of the excellent Therma Cup, one of several reusable cups which grace my twitter and Instagram feeds on a regular basis. In a not unrelated move, there will be a series of workshops around the topics of waste and recycling, subjects very close to my heart!

Cup North has an excellent, well-designed website, which I urge you to check out, particularly if you want to know who’s exhibiting and what’s going to be on. For me, the particular highlights are as follows.

Roasters have always been extremely well-represented at Cup North, providing a chance to catch up old friends such as local roasters Heart & Graft and Ancoats and the likes of Yorkshire’s Grumpy Mule (Holmfirth), North Star (Leeds) and Casa Espresso (Bradford). Coming from the other direction, there’s Liverpool’s Neighbourhood Coffee, Lancaster’s J Atkinson & Co. and from even further afield, Cumbria’s Carvetii and Edinburgh’s Artisan Roast. Talking of other directions, heading up the M5 will be Clifton Coffee Roasters (Bristol) and from even further afield, Origin (Cornwall). London, meanwhile, is also represented with more old friends in the shape of Allpress, Climpson & Sons and Union Hand-roasted, while I’m looking forward saying hello again to Sussex’s Cast Iron Roasters.All these roasters will be joined by green-bean importers, Falcon, DR Wakefield, Mercanta and Nordic Approach.

My favourite coffee competition, the Tasters Cup, will be back again for a second year. Coffee professionals race each other against the clock to spot the odd one out from three very similar coffees. If you fancy turning your hand at this sort of thing, then  DR Wakefield will be running a cupping lab featuring various green bean importers where you’ll be able to try different beans from all over the world.

Coffee equipment will be represented with the likes of sponsors La Cimbali, Conti and La Marzocco, who will be bring the Linea Mini Kitchen Experience to Cup North. Want to know what it would be like to have a top-of-the-range espresso machine in your kitchen? Then this is the place to come! Talking of equipment, Coopers will be back for another year, with the Black Eagle espresso machine and Mythos grinders, while I, for one, am keen to know what Edinburgh’s Machina Espresso has been up to.

Finally, two coffee festival stalwarts who have nothing (sort of) to do with coffee will be returning. There’s hot chocolate (and left-luggage) specialists, Kokoa Collection and Coffee-Spot-feeders extraordinaire, Cakesmiths. If you are looking for me at the Festival, I suggest you go to the Cakesmiths stand and steal all the banana bread. I can guarantee that I’ll have tracked you down within 10 minutes!

With all this (and more) on offer, you’d be mad to miss it. So, what are you waiting for? Head over to the Cup North website and get your tickets now!

See you all there.

You can now see how I got on at the Manchester Coffee Festival in the first part of my write up.

If you’re heading up to Manchester for the Festival, then check out the city’s speciality coffee scene with the Coffee Spot Guide to Manchester.

For more on Cup North/Manchester Coffee Festival over the years, check out my round-ups for:

• Cup North (2014)
• Cup North (2015)

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