Welcome to the second of my detailed write-ups of the London Coffee Festival. If you want to know what I made of the festival as a whole, take a look at my round-up. Here I’ll be covering individual aspects of the festival. I started with all the interesting coffee kit that I came across at the festival, while today I’ll be looking my coffee experiences, with another Saturday Supplement dedicated to the La Cimbali sensory sessions. The remaining Saturday Supplements explore themes such as cups and the coffee itself.

So, what do I mean by coffee experiences? This is a new category for this year and so deserves a little bit of explanation. By coffee experiences, I mean the things that go around the coffee itself, in this case, coffee cupping (and variations thereon from Assembly and Union Hand-roasted), a coffee roasting demonstration (Union again) and some latte art lessons, courtesy of The Roasting Party).

We’ll round things off with an interesting feature: man vs machine, where the Steampunk, from Alpha Dominche, went head-to-head with a human to see who could make the best coffee (and, in one case, tea!).

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A week last Wednesday (13^th May) I was at London’s Olympia, attending the Caffè Culture show and, in the evening, the Coffee Stops Awards, where I was in the running for the Best Media for Coffee Award. If you’re interested, you can find out how I did and who won the other nine Awards.

However, back to Caffè Culture. This is the third year running that I’ve been to Caffè Culture, but this time was a bit different since I’d been asked to judge the Caffè Culture Exhibitor Best Drink Award.  Prior to the show, this involved me whittling a list of 25 entries down to a shortlist of five. Then, on the Wednesday of Show I was to visit the stands of all five shortlisted exhibitors to try each of the drinks before selecting the winner.

I had a fantastic time at Caffè Culture and you’ll be able to find out what I made of it in a future Saturday Supplement. However, for now, let’s concentrate on the Best Drink Award. I really enjoyed meeting all the exhibitors, discovering the stories behind their products, trying the drinks themselves and then deciding on the eventual winner.

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So, it’s that time of year again. Last year, I was fortunate enough to be involved Coffee Stops Awards, set up by Chris Ward to promote all that’s good about the independent coffee sector in London. This year, the Awards are back, bigger and better than before and now covering the entire UK.

Last year I was in the running the Best London Coffee Blog Award, where I eventually finished second behind the winner, Daniel of Cups of London Coffee. This year Daniel and I were back, this time in the expanded category of Best Media for Coffee, where we were up against some seriously stiff competition, including professional publications such as Caffeine Magazine and on-line powerhouses like the Coffee Forums UK.

As with last year, there were 10 categories in the awards, each one chosen by popular vote. Voting closed on Wednesday at four o’clock, just hours before the Awards were presented at the Caffè Culture Show. In all, over 60,000 people voted this year, an impressive turn out. Thank you to everyone who voted, especially those who voted for me!

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It’s been a busy few weeks for the Coffee Spot, with lots of travel and extra-curricular activities, culminating in the three days I spent at this year’s London Coffee Festival. However, it doesn’t end there, since this week will see the Caffè Culture Show, where I’m judging one set of Awards, while simultaneously being in the running for an award of my own in the annual Coffee Stops Awards (this year extended from London to the whole of the UK).

However, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s get back to the London Coffee Festival, which, I’ll venture to say, was bigger and significantly better than last year’s event. Just like last year, I’ll be writing a series of themed Saturday Supplements, each covering a different area, combining my experiences across the three days that I attended (Friday, an industry day, and the two consumer days, Saturday and Sunday).

Today’s Saturday Supplement features a general round-up of the festival, what I made of it, the highs and lows, and what was different from last year. The remainder will cover kit, cups (yes, once again, cups played a large part in my Coffee Festival), my coffee experiences, the La Cimbali sensory sessions and the coffee itself.

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If you cast your mind back to this time last year, you will remember the inaugural Coffee Stops Awards, set up by Chris Ward to promote all that’s good about the independent coffee sector. Back then, the Awards just covered London, but fast-forward to this year, and Chris has rolled them out to cover the entire UK, more than enough reason to get behind the Awards and give them some support!

However, those with good memories will also realise that I have a vested interest, since in 2014, I was in the running for the Best London Coffee Blog Award, eventually finishing second behind the winner, Daniel of Cups of London Coffee. This year Daniel and I are back, this time in the expanded category of Best Media for Coffee, where we’re up against some seriously stiff competition, including professional publications such as Caffeine Magazine and Time Out, plus apps such as London’s Best Coffee.

There are 10 categories in this year’s awards and you can vote once per day in each category.  Voting closes at 4pm on Wednesday, May 13th, so if you want to have your say, you’ve got a whole week to get your voting done.

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