The London Coffee Festival

I've really, really come to love coffee while in London, the tea capitol of the world. I think as tea is such the social convention in England, that the coffee drinkers have been forced to bond more strongly and thus create events to seek out other coffee lovers.



Just recently, I went to the first annual London Coffee Festival. It was held in a slightly dodgy, yet undergoing urban renewal area of London called Brick Lane. It is also called "Little Bangladesh".

A lot of artists and adventurous companies are moving into the area, and a lot of new housing is going up around it as well. My bet is that in 5 years, this will be a very trendy area, and the edgy artistic quality that makes it so appealing to people now will be replaced by the status quo. That's not so bad in my opinion as it could get a little

The festival was held on the second floor of an old warehouse in the now defunct Truman Brewing Company (a beer maker that went out of business in the 60's).

There were machines of all shapes and sizes available for both the professional and consumer sides of the market.

I entered to win an Ascaso Espresso machine. I don't know where we'd put it in our tiny apartment, but we'd find somewhere no doubt. It looks like a good machine, and even has the pressure gauge on the front, which I was told to never buy a machine without one.




A lot of the major coffee vendors in London were in attendance. Starbucks had two booths: one for their standard coffee shops, and one for their new highend exotic single origin coffees.





These specialty reserve coffees are only available at a few stores. I tried one of the coffees, and I thought it was good, but wasn't my favorite at the festival.








I tried a bunch of different coffees. Most vendors were giving away samples, and I avoided any that were charging.


One vendor tricked into trying a tea. . . ick. It looked like a beautiful cup of espresso with a glorious crema, but as soon as I tasted it, it was. . . TEA!!!!




Another vendor was promoting their new highend Hot Chocolate product that they were hoping to place in coffee shops. It was delicious. All the chocolates were single origin, and listed their cocoa content. I hope it is a great success for them.



There were also samples of coffee related snacks. Probably the most unique was the gingerbread biscuit that comes from Sarah Nelson's up in the Lake District. It uses a 100 year old recipe, and was absolutely delicious. In fact, I believe they are still working out of the same 100 year old bakery. Very cool.



One coffeehouse on Brick Lane, Nude Espresso, was the luckiest coffeehouse in London that day as they were just outside the entrance to the festival. I've been there before, and they do make an awesome cup of coffee.

My favorite coffee that I tried was from a company called Percol, and their espresso roast is called Black and Beyond. I ended up buying 2 bags of it as they were having a special.

My favorite local brew coffee came from Allpress, a roaster that is right by brick lane and is an easy walk from my apartment.





In fact just recently, due to the good weather, I decided to walk over there for another fabulous latte, or what they call a "flat white". Allpress, like many repudible coffeehouses in London, is run by Aussies. As good as I would have expected.