Category Archives: Festivals/Awards

Previews and reviews of Coffee Festivals and/or Awards

London Coffee Festival 2016: Preview

Posted on by
4

The London Coffee Festival LogoIt’s that time of year again! Comes around quickly, doesn’t it? Yes, I’m talking about the London Coffee Festival, and, if it seems like it can’t be a year since the last one, then that’s probably because it isn’t. In fact, it’s been just over 11 months. Like Easter (actually, probably because of Easter), the London Coffee Festival is a moveable feast, this year taking place from Thursday, 7th April to Sunday, 10th April. Once again gracing the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, this will be my fourth consecutive festival.

The London Coffee Festival is the launch event of UK Coffee Week and is the UK’s leading coffee festival. If you’ve been before, it should all be very familiar, with industry days on Thursday and Friday and three-hour consumer sessions on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. If you haven’t been, take a look at my round up of last year’s festival.

My first piece of advice is to get your ticket now. For starters, you get a significant discount on the on-the-door price. Plus, if previous years are anything to go by, there won’t be many/any tickets on the door since the festival has a tendency to sell out.

April 8th: Having spent the last two days at the industry days of the Coffee Festival, I can confirm that this year’s event is even bigger and better than last year’s. I’ve updated my preview with what I’ve learnt!

Continue reading →

Cup North 2015 Part III

Posted on by
12

A lovely flat white in one of Carvetii's cups, showcasing Carvetii's latest seasonal espresso blend at Cup North.Welcome to Part III of what’s become my annual visit to Manchester for self-styled two-day Northern Coffee Party, Cup North which took place at the start of November. In Part I, I looked at Cup North’s new venue, the Victoria Warehouse, as well as running my eye over some of the exciting kit on display and watching some of the competitions: the Tasters Cup, my favourite barista competition, and the (in)famous coffee-throwing championships!

Last week, in Part II, I focused exclusively on the coffee. I started with a demo of The Dragon, a manual syphon method, then I got to play on a pair of espresso machines, a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle and a La Marzocco Strada. Finally, I set myself a challenge to convert some friends to the wonders of not putting milk or sugar in their coffee with some help from Grumpy Mule.

This week, in Part III, I’ll have a look at all the wonderful food on offer, whiz round the rest of the roasters (there were an awful lot of roasters at Cup North this year), including an important but often overlooked aspect of the coffee industry: milk. Finally, there’s brief mention of everyone I missed.

Continue reading →

Cup North 2015 Part II

Posted on by
3

The label on Grumpy Mule's Costa Rica Las Lajas Semi Washed: Epic. Seasonal. Crafted.Welcome to Part II of what’s become my annual visit to Manchester for self-styled two-day Northern Coffee Party, Cup North. Last year, the inaugural Cup North was my favourite coffee festival: small, friendly and intimate. This year, having moved to a new venue, it felt more like a mini-London Coffee Festival, with multiple spaces and more buzz.

In Part I, I looked at the new venue, some of the exciting kit on display (including new manual coffee maker, Oomph, which launched its Kickstarter yesterday) and the competitions: the Tasters Cup, my favourite barista competition, and the (in)famous coffee-throwing championships! This week, in Part II, I’ll be focusing exclusively on coffee, while Part III will look at the rest of the coffee & food.

We start with a long-overdue catch up with Coopers Coffee, when I got a demo of The Dragon, a manual syphon method. I also got to play on a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle, while the wonderful folks at Origin let me have a go on a La Marzocco Strada. Finally, I set myself a challenge to convert some friends to the wonders of not putting milk or sugar in their coffee with some help from Grumpy Mule.

Continue reading →

Cup North 2015 Part I

Posted on by
23

Sonali Tailor, who finished third in this year's Tasters Cup, in action at the final in Cup North.Last weekend saw my annual visit to Manchester for self-styled two-day Northern Coffee Party, Cup North. Regular readers will be pleased to learn that, true to form, it rained almost constantly, stopping for brief intervals so that I could pop outside to visit the excellent food stalls. The rain also obligingly held off for the first-ever UK Coffee Throwing Championships (more of which later).

Last year, Cup North was my favourite coffee festival, small, friendly and intimate. This year, it’s taken things up a notch, with a new venue and a significant increase in size. While retaining its friendly nature, it felt, with its multiple spaces, more like a mini-London Coffee Festival. Having come from the smaller, more intimate Glasgow Coffee Festival just a few weeks earlier, it took a while to get my head around the change of scale.

There was, of course, that much more to see and, sadly, I didn’t make it to everyone, so please accept my apologies if I didn’t catch up with you. For now, let’s kick-off with this, Part I of my round-up, with a look at the venue, kit and competitions. Parts II and III will focus on the coffee & food.

Continue reading →

Glasgow Coffee Festival 2015 Part II

Posted on by
9

The poster for the 2015 Glasgow Coffee FestivalLast week, I brought you Part I of my round-up of this year’s Glasgow Coffee Festival. Although the Glasgow Coffee Festival by name (it’s held in Glasgow, after all), it’s more a celebration of Scotland’s growing specialty coffee scene, with plenty of contributions from further afield. It’s a lovely, one-day festival, held this year on 17th October. Small, laidback and friendly, there was plenty of time to talk and socialise, an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

In the imaginatively entitled Part I, I talked about the venue itself, the magnificent Briggait, looked at the vintage espresso machines and up-to-date hand-grinders that were on display, ran through all the coffee that I drank and reported back on my attempts to pull a shot on a Slayer.

In the even more imaginatively entitled Part II, I’ll run through all the Scottish roasters that I met, round up all the other roasters that I chatted to, and round-up everything else I found at the festival. However, before that, let me introduce you to Wil Freeborn…

Continue reading →

Glasgow Coffee Festival 2015 Part I

Posted on by
21

The poster for the 2015 Glasgow Coffee FestivalTwo weeks ago I was in Glasgow for the second Glasgow Coffee Festival. Although called the Glasgow Coffee Festival (it’s held in Glasgow, after all), it’s more a celebration of Scotland’s growing specialty coffee scene, with lots of contributors from further afield as well.

Both in scale and atmosphere, it felt more like Cup North than the London Coffee Festival, laidback and friendly. There was plenty of time to talk and socialise, an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. I was there for eight hours and still didn’t manage to get around all the stalls (as well as missing all bar one of the talks/workshops/masterclasses/ cuppings).

Some of that was deliberate, because I knew that I would be catching up with people either later that week (I’d set aside a day each to visit new coffee shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh) or a few weeks later at Cup North. Some however, I missed simply because I ran out of time… Despite this, I had a wonderful Glasgow Coffee Festival and will be back next year!

There was enough going on that I’m splitting my report into multiple parts, starting with this, imaginatively entitled Part I (and continuing with the equally imaginative Part II next week)…

Continue reading →

Cup North 2015 Preview

Posted on by
4

An espresso being pulled on Foundry's Londinium lever espresso machine at Cup North 2014.Two weeks from now (Saturday/Sunday, 7th/8th November), Cup North, the self-styled two-day Northern Coffee Party, will be back. Once again gracing the fair city of Manchester, Cup North’s moved slightly west to the Victoria Warehouse in Stretford. Cup North was one of last year’s highlights. I had an amazing time and am delighted that Cup North is returning for a second year. If you missed last year’s event and are wondering what it’s like, then this preview is for you.

As a veteran of the London Coffee Festival, I find that Cup North, while having a similar focus on speciality coffee, is on a very different, much more manageable and, dare I say it, friendly, scale. Not that the London Coffee Festival’s unfriendly, but its sheer size and the number of visitors crammed in, make it a very hectic affair.

In contrast, much like the Glasgow Coffee Festival, Cup North is more laidback, with time to talk and socialise, an opportunity to really get to know the various exhibitors. With weekend tickets for under £20 (including booking fee), or just over £10 if you only want to do a single day, it really is a bargain. Get your tickets now!

Continue reading →

Glasgow Coffee Festival 2015 Preview

Posted on by
3

The poster for the 2015 Glasgow Coffee FestivalCoffee Festivals come thick and fast this time of the year. The end of September saw not one, but two inaugural festivals, the New York Coffee Festival, and, slightly closer to home, the Northern Ireland Coffee Festival. Then, last Saturday, along came the first Edinburgh Coffee Festival, while this weekend, it’s the turn of Prague’s Coffee Festival.

The coming weekends see two of last year’s favourites making their second appearances. At the start of November (7th/8th), Cup North returns to Manchester, while next Saturday (October 17th) we have the return of the Glasgow Coffee Festival. Sadly I wasn’t able to make it last year due to various diary commitments, plus Glasgow annoyingly being at the other end of the country from where I live (how dare it!). This year, however, it’s been circled on my calendar for a long, long time.

Held in the Briggait, a soaring hall that was built as Glasgow’s fish market over 100 years ago, it’s just around the corner from festival organisers, Glasgow’s very own Dear Green Coffee roasters. Tickets are just £11.25 (including booking fee), which gives you access to nine hours (10:00 – 19:00) of coffee-based events, including the UK’s first-ever roasting championships.

PS If you’re heading up to Glasgow for the Festival, don’t forget to check out my Coffee Spot Guide to Glasgow for some of my favourite places to go.

Continue reading →

Lunch Business Awards 2015

Posted on by
7

The Lunch Business Grab & Go Awards logo for 2015My involvement with the Lunch Business Awards goes back three years, to a chance encounter with Maria Bracken, the Awards organiser, in Attendant, the Fitzrovia coffee shop in a disused gents toilet. Since then I’ve worked with Maria every year, nominating Coffee Spots for the Awards, principally in the Best Coffee and Best Tea Experience categories. In particular, I’ve tried to nominate places outside of London.

I was delighted when, two years ago, Boscombe’s Café Boscanova won the Best Coffee Experience Award. I wasn’t so successful with my nominations the following year, but I was even more excited this year when the shortlists came out. Three of the five coffee shops on the Best Coffee Experience shortlist are places I’ve nominated and I nominated the entire shortlist for Best Tea Experience. Tea? I know? The irony of this is not lost on me. Joining them is the wonderful Daisy Green, which is on the shortlist for Group Operator of the Year.

The Awards Ceremony took place on Monday evening (14th September) and I was there, loyalties torn, since I really wanted everybody that I nominated to win. However, you can’t have everything. After a quick rundown of the shortlists you can find out who won each of the Awards I’d nominated people for.

Continue reading →

London Coffee Festival 2015: The Coffee

Posted on by
10

The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the fifth and final of my detailed London Coffee Festival Saturday Supplements to go with my round-up of the festival as a whole. In this series, I’ve covered the interesting coffee kit that I came across, followed with my coffee experiences, my time at the La Cimbali Sensory Sessions and the various reusable cups that I picked up at the festival. For this, the final instalment, it’s the turn of the coffee, arguably what the Coffee Festival is all about!

As was the case in previous years, I could have spent all three days I was at the Festival visiting roasters old and new and I still wouldn’t have got around them all. So, with apologies to all the wonderful roasters I failed to visit, here’s a round-up of all the wonderful roasters I did manage to catch up with. As I did at Cup North, I’ve split them into two categories: Old Friends and New, representing roasters that I’ve met before and those who I ran into for the first time. I’ve also taken a look at the True Artisan Café, the innovative Dear Origin & Sons, and a general round-up of everything else I saw!

Continue reading →