London Coffee Festival 2019: Mindful and Tasty Event for Coffee Lovers

Seminars @London coffee festival

I participated in few seminars during my festival day. The first one was about sustainability in packaging and cups, the panel discussion was interesting because people from different countries seemed to have the common goal of reducing garbage but the ways varied a lot. Some felt that it’s better to recycle and reuse and some just plainly felt that it’s better to pull back from the convenience culture all together. As a conclusion the whole panel felt that the green washing must stop, as an example they said that using refillable cups won’t work because people just don’t want to carry dirty dishes with them. They suggested changing the anti-plastic way of thinking into helping people to change the way they consume. if you're interested in the topic, read my blog about how to be sustainable as a barista! 

Latte art @london coffee festival

At the Latte Art Stage it was wonderful to see how crazy talented people do what they do best, but also to learn new techniques for your own skill set. If you're interested in developing your latte art skills, read Jori's blogs about the topic: 5 Easy Tips That Will Make Your Latte Art Flourish & Latte Art Advanced.

Well-being @london coffee festival

Caravan Coffee Rosters and Just Breathe organized a mindful coffee tasting with elements from mediation combined with cupping. The setting was superb but unfortunately hustle and noise from the fair setting wafted in during the workshop and bothered the concentration a little. First we listened the brewing, then looked into our cups, then felt the beans and in the end finally tasted and savoured the notes and flavours of Yellow Bourbon from Hacienda Mallorca, Colombia.

Drinks and cocktails @london coffee festival

Tia Maria Coffee Project has renewed their coffee liquor during past year and they had superb workshop about brewing and mixology. The idea was to create coffee to support your cocktail, not to build the cocktail around coffee as you might expect at a coffee festival. How does 1/10 ratio for v60 or making an 18 hours cold brew sound like? Pretty horrible on its own, but why not if it brings the extra acidity or bitterness needed to your cocktail. The v60 was used for an Old Fashioned and it really worked well and the cold brew was used in a Negroni with soda and Aperol. 

Ready to drink products @london coffee festival

In the festival there was one full section of ready to drink concepts such as cold brew coffee and tea, kombucha and kefir drinks. I think one big trend in the RTD section is single origin, all natural and fresh options - and of course visuality such as splashy labels and stands. Bottled coffee drinks were a hit also in last year's festival, read Emmi's report! All in all visuality of the products has become growing part of the festival experience.

Functional products @london coffee festival

The health trend is still super strong and one could find a LOT of products with some functionality aspect in them. The teas, roots and green coffee drinks were quite well displayed in the festival. They are still quite marginal when thinking about the big volumes but I feel they can complement selection of cafes quite well and bring some wow effect because of the novelty factor. 

One brand new product for me at least, was the Minor Figures CBD oil that should help cool down from the caffeine fizz, the product is made out of cannabis but all the THC is removed. After testing it just ones, I can't say did it help but for more sensible people it might work really nicely.

Origins and super easy to use products @london coffee festival

We have talked about the origins already for a while but it seems like it’s still growing to be even bigger sales argument. I think you couldn’t find any stall at the whole festival that wouldn’t talk about the origin and what aromas, flavours and notes there are in the coffee. I just love this direction and I feel it’s just superb that also the bigger roasteries are bringing the flavour communication into their repertoire. Other thing that seemed to be everywhere were products that enabled user to make high quality coffee at home, in very easy and convenient way. I am still pretty skeptical over these innovations but interesting to see if this trend kick off in the future.

ROBUSTA @LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL

How does single origin robusta sound like? We are so used to the idea of having robusta only in our coffee blends for extra kick and thick crema. I was happily surprised about the robustas on the display in London. I'm sure to keep a close look at this trend. I feel there are lots of people who might find quality rosbustas very pleasant if they would give it a try.

Sustainability @london coffee festival

Most of the exhibitors had sustainability displayed somehow in their products whether it was some co-op with farmer communities, sustainable sourcing or a reusable mug. All in all the keep cups and other brands were well displayed at the festival. They even had little stands around the festival where you could wash your personal cup and then go on tasting new coffees. Love the idea of making the use of re-usable cup easy and fast for consumer.

Gadgets @london coffee festival

I feel that this years festival didn’t show so much of new inventions but there was many products to support the movable convenience lifestyle. Such as a grinder attached to an Aeropress or possibility to make nitro cold brew on the siphon. Sounds great for a smaller café or individual consumer.

Cascara @london coffee festival

Cascara has been bubbling under the surface already for a quite a long time but due to the EU legislation it still hasn’t break trough in Europe. Again we saw really interesting and tasty products made out of Cascara for example sweet cascara vermouth from Discarded or Carasso’s cascara infusion. Both of the companies bringing up the idea of not wasting the precious coffee cherry but to use it for a delish products.