Caffe Culture 2008 – The UK’s premier Coffee Industry event
At 0930 the doors were flung open and hundreds of buyers filed into Kensington Olympia for the start of 2 days of networking, tasting, buying, viewing, smelling, touching and feeling.
By 1030 when we arrived the event was in full swing with most companies already onto their 5th or 6th (or more!) sales pitch of the day.
At 1200 we made our way to the mezzanine level to hear Steve Leighton of Hasbean speak about Cup of Excellence, introduced by Colin Smith, of Smith’s Coffee, who gave a rousing speech about the SCAE and Barista Competitions in the UK and abroad. Lurking nearby was a stellar lineup of Baristas and Coffee Professionals, including the current World Barista Champion, the Danish Latte Art Champion, the current UK No1 Barista and various members of the SCAE. So many networking opportunities and so little time!
The 2008 show had a ‘what to sell in association with coffee and how to present it’ feel to it, with a high volume of packaging suppliers who were keen to thrust a cup, sleeve, noodle box or eco-friendly serving utensil into your hands for evaluation. The standards were amazingly high and I personally saw so many designs that surpass all previous ‘best in class’ products and has forced me to rethink delivery strategies for clients.
Bakers, smoothie suppliers, cookie, syrup and even gelato vendors were all lining up to take cafe and restaurant owners’ money off them at every opportunity. Again the quality of products and the presentation was better than I have seen and is on-par with Australasian suppliers.
There was a surprising number of Antipodean accents at the show and this influence (in my opinion) is helping to transform the UK coffee industry. Introducing fresh ideas from around the world serves to strengthen the skill base and create well rounded baristas and cafe owners.
Our bags were full of brochures on new machines, and products and our palates teased with new flavours and textures. My head is awash with ideas that I need to get down on paper to provide cafe owners with solid advice and ideas in the months and years to come.
Thanks to all of the industry professionals who gave their time freely to speak to me today.
Please Note: As an impartial company we will not name all of the suppliers whom we met with and no named individuals or companies mentioned above have any preferential arrangements with 5M Coffee Company.
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