London Coffee Festival 2021

What. A. Weekend. To say the last two days was amazing is an understatement. LCF was massive and packed full of EVERYTHING coffee.

Industry day

I was fortunate to attend both the Industry and Public days. The industry day was a great opportunity to meet with other coffee suppliers and roasters, many who I already follow on social media but never met in person, so it was amazing to connect with the people who run the business. With many types of coffee to try, it was good timing that I build quite a high caffeine tolerance over the last few months otherwise I wouldn’t have survived the day haha! I must of had at least eleven shots of espresso and handfuls of filter and somehow wasn’t buzzing as much as I thought I would.

Move forward to the artisan stands, I ran into popular coffee enthusiasts I follow on Instagram and had lovely chats with them. It was really cool to meet these guys in person and to share experiences about coffee and how they got into the industry. How inspiring it was to see how passion-driven they are reinforces that I am on the right path. To see how far some of these guys have come is a glimpse of what my future in coffee might look like and to listen to their journey was insightful.

One particular stand that stood out for me was Rebel Kitchen and their popular ‘Mylk’, an alternative to diary milk made from a whole ingredients. I watched James Hoffmann’s video about this and how they made it, but I admit wasn’t convinced on the idea. I had a chance to not only taste the milk but froth it using the La Marzocco Linea. To my surprise, the milk frothed very well and it tasted exactly like milk! This sounds like a paid advert but trust me, it isn’t. We as consumers are spoiled for choice and to have milk that isn’t dairy, isn’t oat, coconut or soya is kind of a game changer.

Special mentions to some favourites (I’m sure I left out many!) - Union Roasted, Origin Coffee, Kiss The Hippo, Califia, Brewed By Hand, Clifton Coffee Roasters, Pact and many more I listed down somewhere. I’ll add them in later on.

Public day

Saturday afternoon was absolutely buzzing as the LFC was open to the public. Intriguing to see what some people are like during happy hour as many people came to the event to enjoy free coffee (and espresso martinis). Actually, spreading the event across two days means you can visit the stands you missed the first time and have more time to speak to people you couldn’t. I had the chance to speak to coffee roasters (companies who build coffee roasters like Giesen), small coffee roasters (shout out to Ritual for the flat white!) and, again, many more social impact companies I forgot to mention. Oh, I also had my very first experience drinking kombucha. I see it all the time, yet always assumed it was alcohol of some kind. Verdict? It was delicious, I mean REALLY tasty. A beverage I would consider switching to instead of soft drinks.

There were more coffee stands my friends and I went to, one of which was a stand promoting matcha and fruit flavour drinks. I personally am not a fan of matcha, and even more so after trying matcha and fruit. It was like tasting a bit of fruit juice and then the matcha hits. The two didn’t seem to blend very well and instead was like two separate layers of flavours. Saying that, I admire immerging companies for starting up something different.

Take away

My first LFC event was truly an eye-opening experience. I had insight into the world of coffee, a constant growing industry with new innovation and immerging businesses. I met so many passionate coffee people who want to bring positive impact to the industry and spread more awareness about specialty coffee. Even though, technically, each stand is ‘competing’ against the other, there is a mutual respect amongst coffee businesses. Ultimately, we strive for transparency between the coffee supply chain, to bring customers and fellow business good quality beans and make sure farmers are getting their fair share. Meeting coffee people, those I follow on Instagram, in person was a great experience. Really humble people who are just driven by their love for coffee and the craft.

To put the event in one sentence, I say this:

“Coffee brings people together.”