The first ever Bath Coffee Festival started yesterday at the Recreation Ground in Bath.

This two day event is the first of its kind  in the UK. The advance publicity had been taken care of by festival organisers Geometry PR, a Bristol based PR Consultancy, ably assisted by the exhibitors, local businesses displaying blackboards referring people to the event and with the support of interested parties such as the SCAE and Coffee Forums UK

Greeted with a goodie bag (containing samples from a number of exhibitors) I made my way into the cavernous marquee. Arriving shortly after the 1000 opening time there were already a good number of visitors inside, enjoying a variety of coffee based beverages and food, with the first demonstrations in the demonstration marquee already underway.

My first stop was the Roy Ireland Espresso Services stand, where Rory and his brother were pulling shots and creating macchiatos and piccolos using the Drury roasted Caffe Cuidado Rainforest Alliance Certified™ espresso blend, a nutty spicy blend which worked well as a macchiato.

The next stand I visited was the Beach House Bakery stand to admire their cupcakes. It was hard to resist the free samples but somehow I managed. Filled cupcakes get my vote and there was an extensive menu (and therefore possibly too much choice)  with descriptives to make the mouth water…

Moving on to the Lahloo Teas stand I was treated to a Matcha, prepared in accordance to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The bright green liquid smelled and tasted a little like seaweed and was a great palate cleanser. Hard to resist having more. I admired the packaging and enjoyed speaking to the knowledgeable sales team.

The Gillards of Bath coffee stand caught my eye and I made my way over to it. A fragrant aroma was filling the air as a filter of Kenya Peaberry was being prepared. I chatted with the owner and found out about their shop which has been in Bath for over 100 years. The Peaberry was not like other Kenya Peaberry’s I had tasted. I loved the intense aroma and savoured the nutty, slightly acidic brew.

Coffee Kids – a charity helping coffee-farming families to improve their quality of life – had a stand, introducing the public to their charity and the work they do. Elisa, the face of Coffee Kids in the UK was a pleasure to talk to and her enthusiasm for the cause was infectious with knowledge being shared freely and a range of pamplets available to take away and digest. Perhaps missing a trick, I didn’t see a donation box… If like me, you missed it, then you can donate here.

Time for another coffee, so I joined the queue for the Origin Coffee stand, where Ed and Phil were making espresso based drinks as well as offering filter coffee via their brew-bar. I enjoyed their Bolivia Familia Montano so much as a pourover that I just had to buy a bag. This is what I will be enjoying this week in my Chemex. Some great questions were being asked by the public and Ed and Phil were on fine form, adding a buzz to their coffee and making everyone feel loved.

Just a few steps away, past an organic ice-cream stand was Jose Melim, a semi-finalist for the UKBC 2010, who was launching his new business, Lazy Jose Coffee, to an appreciative public. Jose and Zoe had a large crowd around their stand, with samples available to purchase (wholebean or ground) of their attractively packaged coffees.  Jose was giving a masterclass on Aeropress extraction which perfectly highlighted the Sweet Siesta blends’ lime flavours, giving a citrus zing and resulting in a stunning clarity in the cup. This morning I have enjoyed an espresso of the ‘We are 3′ espresso blend, and purchased the sample packs of his current crops to enjoy over the next couple of weeks. I wish Jose well for his new venture, he can make a dazzlingly good cup of coffee.

Reluctantly leaving Jose’s stand I ventured over to the One Hundred Days project, where a colouring in contest was taking place. There were some inspiring images created by tots as young as 3. The One Hundred Days project can be viewed online and is the brainchild of artist Angela Fernihough.

I managed to sneak in a quick conversation with Daisy Rollo from Coffea Arabica shortly after she came off stage. I had been hoping to meet Daisy for sometime and her stand was attractive. with a place to site and relax for a few minutes, to enjoy a macchiato, before navigating the last third of the show.

Eager to tick off the last item on my list I sought out John from Taylerson’s Malmesbury Syrups, who produces syrups for use in coffee and milk based drinks in both bottles and also single-serve sachets.

Last visit of the day was to the San Remo stand, where there were a number of SCAE representatives in attendance, familiar faces and judges from the UKBC. I didn’t realise that the Cezve Ibrik UK Champs were being held in London next week, to decide who will represent the UK in the World Cezve Ibrik Champs at the WBC in June.

So in summary, as you can see from the above I greatly enjoyed myself, meeting a number of interesting people, new suppliers, and soaking up the atmosphere inside the marquee. But thats not the end of the story, there was a whole other world outside the marquee too, with jazz, samba classes, ice-creams, plenty of sunshine, loads of smiling happy faces, and there there was Bath to explore as well.

I really hope that this event is repeated either in Bath or elsewhere in the country and that the momentum continues to build. Lets get behind the exhibitors and organisers, support them in any way that you can and encourage the event to be brought to a town near you.

When the doors opened at 0930 there was a surge towards the badge printing machines and Olympia sprang to life. Caffe Culture 2009 was underway.

Burying my nose in the show guide for 5 minutes set me up for the day, planning my visits and allowing me to plan which seminars to sit in on.

Making full use of the quiet time (until about 1030) I visited the stands that I knew would be a few people deep later in the day, networking and meeting people whom I had arranged to see.

I was fortunate to stumble upon a few stands and people that I had not expected to see at the show, but had been in touch with over the past few months, both on Twitter and Coffee Forums.

There was a notable absence of bakers and cookie suppliers this year, perhaps they got the message last year (when the show should have been called “”Everything but coffee’ culture”), but this year these were replaced with bean-to-cup machine suppliers.

A late addition to the show was the Uber Boiler stand (http://marco.ie/uberproject), manned by Marco staff as well as James and Anette from SquareMileCoffee and the team at TeaSmith. The Uber Bar was demonstrating alternative brewing methods and was a welcome relief from the espresso offerings. I particularly enjoyed the Lishan Oolong Tea (at least I think that was the one I had) , on it’s second steep, after the dozen or so espresso’s I had consumed in the previous 6 hours.

The free seminars were well attended, particularly those covering trading in a downward market and recession-proofing your business. I would liked to have attended the SCAE workshops but could not justify the registration fees this time around but will be increasing our budget for more targeted training later this year.

Some stands looked completely out of place and were pitching for an entirely different market to the average show-goer.  On the other hand, most stands let you get hands-on with the machines and try out the equipment on offer. The short play on the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia WBC Competition Machine was fun.

The most notable absence was the extra-curricular activities, such as Latte Art and Coffee in Good Spirits competitions that have been postponed, resulting in fewer industry members attending. Judging by the feedback on Twitter these events would have been the highlights of some peoples visits and may have helped raise or maintain awareness of the show for the general public.

Caffe Culture 2010 is shaping up to be a bumper show, combining the World Barista Championships, and will be held in the Grand Hall at Olympia (dates to be announced)

Thankyou to everyone who was friendly and welcoming and made my visit enjoyable. The next few months are shaping up to be busy, following up on contacts and business leads.

Today I received an order from my current roaster and just had to try some of a new batch of a Honduran COE coffee.

The flavours were almost as described but should become more prominent after another day of rest.

The beans were only roasted yesterday so they have not yet settled, resulting in an interesting extraction.I’ll need to dial in the grind again tomorrow for a better tasting coffee as it was hard to get a consistent shot today.

However, the resulting espresso wasn’t disappointing, and still better than a large number of chain coffee stores produce.