Category Archives: Festivals/Awards

Previews and reviews of Coffee Festivals and/or Awards

Cup North 2014 Part II

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An espresso being pulled on Foundry's Londinium lever espresso machine at Cup North.Today’s Saturday Supplement is the second half of my detailed report on the wonderful Cup North, Manchester’s two-day coffee festival. I’ve split my reporting into five main themes: Old Friends and New Roasters, which I covered last week, and Coffee Cuppings, Miscellaneous and Street Food, which I’m covering this week.

Coffee Cuppings, as the name suggests, is all about the two coffee cuppings I attended, while Miscellaneous covers an interesting mix, including a latte-art thrown down, tea (yes, I know…) and books. Finally, Street Food is a round-up of all the delicious food that was on offer at Cup North, organised by the wonderful Grub.

Each section has its own gallery and a short write-up which I present below, starting with Coffee Cuppings. Continue reading →

Cup North 2014 Part I

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An espresso being pulled on Foundry's Londinium lever espresso machine at Cup North.In the previous Saturday Supplement, I presented a round-up of Cup North, Manchester’s two-day coffee festival. This week I dive into the weekend in more detail. I could easily publish my adventures over five different Saturday Supplements, but at that rate, we’d soon be at Christmas, so I’ve decided to split it into two posts, with five main themes: Old Friends, New Roasters, Coffee Cuppings, Miscellaneous & Street Food. Part I, this post, includes Old Friends & New Roasters, while Part II, out next weekend, will have Coffee Cuppings, Miscellaneous & Street Food.

Old Friends covers a pair of roasters I’ve previously visited and one roasters I’ve never met, but whose coffee I’ve been drinking for a while now. This particular roaster also roasts some of my all-time favourite espresso blends. In contrast, New Roasters covers (some) of the roasters that I ran into the first time at Cup North. Completely by accident, they were all from either Yorkshire (three) or Lancashire (two).

The two sections have their own galleries and each has a short write-up as well.

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Cup North 2014 Round Up

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An espresso being pulled on Foundry's Londinium lever espresso machine at Cup North.Last weekend, I made a brief return up north to Cup North, Manchester’s two-day coffee festival. It was lovely, not just because of Cup North, but also because I could catch up with old friends such as Caffeine & Co and North Tea Power, discover new ones, such as the amazing Pot Kettle Black, and hop over the Pennines to Huddersfield and the delightful Coffee Kabin.

But what of Cup North itself? Well, if you’ve been to the London Coffee Festival, it was a bit like that. Then again, it wasn’t. Cup North was on a very different, much more manageable and, dare I say it, friendly, scale. Not that anyone at the London Coffee Festival has ever been unfriendly, far from it, but the sheer size of London and the number of visitors crammed in, make it a very hectic affair, even if, like me, you’re there for three days!

In contrast, Cup North was much more laidback, with more time to talk and socialise, and a chance to really get to know the various exhibitors. In all there were about 30 of them and you’d think, in two whole days, I’d have managed to visit them all…

August 2015: Breaking news! Tickets are now on sale for this year’s Cup North, taking place on 7th/8th November in Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse.

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Cup North 2014 Preview

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A stylised outline of a white cup on a black background with letters cupnorth written above it (also in white).It’s been a bumper year for Coffee Festivals and it keeps on getting better. As well as the annual fixture that is the London Coffee Festival, there was the first ever Amsterdam Coffee Festival (which I would have gone to, had it not been so soon after the London Coffee Festival!), both of which graced us with their presence back in April. Not to be outdone, 2014 also saw the first Dublin Coffee and Tea Festival (which was September and which, alas, I also couldn’t attend), while end of November and start of December will see the inaugural Scottish Coffee Festival followed by the inaugural Glasgow Coffee Festival, both to be held in Glasgow.

Then, of course, there’s Cup North, which comes to Manchester on the first weekend in November. It’s a self-described two-day northern coffee party which promises to be, well, a two-day coffee party. In the north. Straight-talking folk, these northerners. With a guest/sponsor/exhibitor list to make even the hardiest coffee fan’s eyes water, it really is a must-attend event. I’ll be there for both the Saturday and Sunday, so there’s no chance of avoiding me!

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Caffé Culture Show 2014

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Doctor Espresso's fully restored and working Gaggia lever espresso machine at Caffe Culture 2014.What with all the fuss about the London Coffee Festival, it’s all too easy to forget about the Caffé Culture Show, a trade-only show all about cafés. It’s held in May every year in the soaring halls of the Kensington Olympia Exhibition Centre. It features suppliers to the café trade, from coffee machine manufacturers and roasters through bakers all the way to furniture suppliers.

I attended for the first time last year and liked it sufficiently to go back this year. It has a much more relaxed pace and feel than the London Coffee Festival, although for various reasons, I didn’t have very long at Caffé Culture this year, so ended up doing a lot of rushing around. The biggest difference I noticed this year is that there seemed to be more a lot more coffee roasters than I remember from my previous visit.

Due to my lack of time I was quite focused in my approach this year, catching up with some old friends (Doctor Espresso, Aeropress, Matthew Algie, Terrone) and making some new ones (Sanremo, Black Sheep). I also took KeepCup #1 along to make some new friends.

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London Coffee Festival 2014: The Coffee

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The London Coffee Festival LogoOkay, here it is, the one you’ve been waiting for: the sixth and final instalment in my Saturday Supplement series from the 2014 London Coffee Festival, which took place last month at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. If you’ve been with me since the start, you’ll know that I’ve already written a general round-up, and reports on Cups, Kit, Food and Competitions. I have, of course, saved the best until last, so today, I present the coffee itself!

There are two parts to this Saturday Supplement. The first covers the coffee I enjoyed at the Festival, while the second part is all about the coffee I took home with me.

Of the coffee I had at the Festival, most of it was (by my choice) new to me, with the Australia’s St Ali, Winchester’s Aussie transplant, The Roasting Party, Bath’s Round Hill Roastery and the Colour Coffee Company, the roasting off-shoot of Newcastle’s Pink Lane Coffee, plus old favourites, Terrone. The coffee I took home was also mostly new to me, with the Wales/Cumbria collaboration that is Carvetii, Glasgow’s Dear Green Coffee, fellow Glaswegians Matthew Algie’s hand-roasted single-origins and new kids (lambs?) on the block, Black Sheep Coffee.

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London Coffee Festival 2014: The Competitions

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The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the fifth instalment (of six) in my Saturday Supplement series covering the 2014 London Coffee Festival, which took place last month at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. If you’ve stumbled upon this for the first time and want to know what you’ve missed, instalments one to four have been a general round-up, and reports on Cups, Kit and Food. Today it’s the turn of the various competitions.

In my head, I collectively refer to these as the UKBCs, or, to use the full title, the United Kingdom Barista Championships. However, that’s fairly sloppy shorthand on my behalf, since there are a number of competitions, the UKBCs being just one. The others include Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits, the Brewers Cup and the Ibrik Competition. I caught a number of these over the course of the weekend, culminating in the finals of the UKBCs on Sunday.

My advice, if you want to watch any of the competitions, is the same as last year: get there early and a bag a seat at the front. It’s either that or watch the action on the overhead monitors since the actual competitor is usually surrounded by a media scrum!

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London Coffee Festival 2014: The Food

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The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the fourth instalment of my Saturday Supplements covering the 2014 London Coffee Festival, which took place last month at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. So far there’s been a general round-up, and reports on Cups and Kit. Today it’s the turn of the food.

You’re actually well catered for in terms of food at the London Coffee Festival, with the Street Food Market. This year things got even better with the addition of the St Ali pop-up café in the Milk and Sugar zone downstairs. Since I was there for three of the four days, I spent a lot of time in the Street Food Market and, judging by how busy it was, I get the feeling lots of other people did too.

However, if you were there for just one session, you might not have wanted to spend too much of your precious time eating, which is where the St Ali pop-up came into its own. Milk and Sugar was open to all attendees once each session had closed, allowing you to pop down for something to eat, as well as another coffee (as if you needed one) before you hit the road.

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London Coffee Festival 2014: The Kit

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The London Coffee Festival LogoAfter taking last weekend off to catch up with the inaugural Coffee Stops Awards 2014, we’re back at the London Coffee Festival, which took place last month at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.

This year I attended three of the four days; Friday (the industry day) and Saturday and Sunday (public days) and rather than writing about each day, I’m doing a series of themed posts. This is the third in the series and focuses on what I’ve called “the kit”. This probably needs a few words of explanation: by kit, I mean the shiny espresso machines, fancy grinders and cups. This Saturday Supplement is actually Part II, with Part I two weeks ago featuring the cups.

Last year, I spent quite a lot of time looking at shiny espresso machines. However, this year I was rather more circumspect with my drooling and this is post is focused on three specific items, each leaders in their own classes. They are an espresso machine, a fancy filter machine and a hand-grinder.

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Coffee Stops Awards 2014 – The Winners

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Daniel, winner of the Coffee Stops Awards "Best London Coffee Blogger", flanked by the two bloggers he pipped for the award, yours truly, and Jonny of London Cafe Review. A couple of months ago, pretty much out of blue, I became aware of the Coffee Stops Awards. Set up by Chris Ward to promote all that’s good about London Coffee, they’ve been a phenomenal success. Everyone’s been talking about the awards, social media was buzzing and even I may have mentioned them once or twice… That I was up for the Best London Coffee Blog Award was neither here nor there…  Well, maybe it had a little something to do with it.

There were 10 awards, each decided by popular vote. In the end, more than 18,000 people voted over a two week period, which is pretty spectacular. Voting closed on April 2nd. There was a lull for the London Coffee Festival 2014, then the counting started, culminating in the Awards ceremony which was held last Wednesday (23rd April) at the Ozone roastery in Shoreditch.

Chris was joined by a host of luminaries, including ITN newsreader, Alistair Stewart. The various winners were announced, culminating in the final award of London’s Best Coffee Shop. The winners were presented with tickets for two direct flights to the “home of coffee” provided by sponsor, Ethiopian Airlines.

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