Kent Coffee Festival 2021
After a busy week, the weekend was finally here. This was my first time attending any sort of coffee event so my friends (also fans of the bean juice) and I did a little road trip from London to the University of Kent. I was already feeling the buzz when we arrived and it wasn’t because of caffeine.
We attended the first stall lead by Josh, co-owner of Invitation Coffee and Coffee Operations, who invited us to take part in a sensory challenge. The prize was bag of fresh coffee so we gave it a shot! The challenge consisted of six cups each with different aromas and we had to write down what we thought each of them were. There was the SCA flavour wheel nearby in case you needed a helping hand. This was particularly interesting for my friends as they had never done something like this before, and often we would say to each other something like, “This smells like something I ate before but can’t quite put my finger on it”, a common thing people would say when they doing sensory tests. After we finished, we had a great chat with Josh about Invitation Coffee and the unique approach to encourage community feedback on the type of coffee and roasts they sell. Hoping to win that bag of coffee so fingers crossed! Already a great introduction to the company and the festival as a whole!
We then proceeded to the filter coffee station where we got to try Rotutu, Timor, a region I never heard of. I was surprised by the flavours as it reminded me of Brazilian with its hint of sour fruits and hint of chocolate. An interesting taste and a region I am keen to explore. Next, we moved onto Garage Coffee’s Columbian filter. Now, Columbia is one of my favourite regions as I love the blend of fruit, nutty and chocolate flavours and Garage Coffee’s was as expected. Delightful to drink, I had to have two! My friends were more accustomed to the Columbian as it was closer to the coffee flavour they are used to, however, they found it interesting that the Rotutu was fruity and sour - flavours they had never tasted in coffee before. One of my friends mentioned it was ‘tea-like’. It was quite refreshing to listen to their thoughts and opinions on specialty coffee and their perspective on the variety of coffee there was.
Moving on, we went into the court there were absolute loads of coffee brands stationed with La Marzocco espresso machines, Victoria Arduino (VA) grinders and coffee bags laid out. At the first stall was Corban Coffee, a coffee roastery based in Sevenoaks Kent, who offered a variety of coffee drinks to my friends and I. We each tried espresso, a caffe latte and long black coffee. I had the espresso which was tasty and sweet as I reach the bottom of the cup. Even got a sample of their Guatemala coffee beans which I am looking forward to brewing at home! Afterwards we head to the bake stand called Crumbly Monkey with plenty of freshly baked brownies, cupcakes, muffins and more. We were particularly fond of the blueberry slice and salted caramel, all were much needed after so much coffee consumption.
After a short break eating baked goodies and snacks we brought along, we proceeded to one of the coffee talks, one of my personal highlights of the day. The talk was called “Where to start when opening a coffee shop” hosted by Josh, whom we had met earlier at the Invitation Coffee stall. The half-hour was one of the most useful and important insights on the coffee shop business. The three Vs outlined as the key points to consider before thinking about opening a coffee shop - Vision (what you want your customers to say about you), Values (what you are offering and why) and Visibility (be a destination place). There were much more details into each of the three Vs that I might go into detail about on a separate blog. Overall, it took a completely different direction on my approach to opening a coffee shop and I certainly will be in touch with Coffee Operations at a later date to consult more.
Last but not least was the last stall - La Marzocco, one of the most used and go-to brand for high-quality, well-built espresso machines. I spent a great amount of time checking out the two models they had on display, but one that caught my eye for it’s retro design was the La Marzocco GS3. The rep gave a full rundown of the spec and features and, not only that, allowed me to brew my own coffee! Granted it had been months since I touched an espresso machine so I was rusty. From automated coffee grinding and tampering, pulling the espresso shot, frothing the milk, the whole workflow gave me #ThrowbackThursday vibes. The latte art was questionable, but no doubt the cup of coffee looked delicious. Sadly, by the end of the day I must have had over five cups of coffee and any more would’ve made me crash out haha! We had a great long chat with the rep after about how he got into coffee and La Marzocco and everything in between.
There were some more events during the day and I am sure I missed out some details, but we would be here all day if I wrote it out (I made a short video on my Instagram if you want to watch!) Overall, the Kent Coffee Festival was a memorable, fun and valuable experience. The number of fellow coffee folk I spoke to and shared experiences with was absolutely amazing and refreshing to hear more about the lesser known independent coffee businesses. Another highlight of mine was having a great day out with my best friends and hearing their thoughts and experience on specialty coffee. Certainly looking forward to more coffee festivals across UK soon!
