Just over a week ago we took a stand at the 2 day industry event Caffe Culture held at the Business Design Centre in Islington. It was a fun event and a great chance for Jack and I to meet up with old coffee friends and make some new ones. We were on one of the brew stands sat between the Cigs (Coffee in good spirits) and Latte Art competition stages where the new UK champions were crowned. We brewed two coffees on on the stand, the Yemen Haraaz deep fermentation peaberry and the incredible Yenni Esperanza thermal shock DECAF castillo.
It wasn't long before people seemed to be heading to our stand with a purpose .. to try the decaf. I wish we had counted the number of WOW responses. The highlight of all the responses was as we were just closing down on the 2nd day. The crowds were dispersing and everyone was packing up. An elderly lady (I imagine in her 80's) came up to me and looked closely at my name badge.. let's call her 'lol'
We had another completely unexpected feel good moment during a very casual and fun event hosted by Minor Figures at Federation Cafe on Leather Lane in Fitzrovia. The event was based around roasters pouring an espresso and their best flat whites for 3 judges, taking into account, taste, presentation style and content, wastage, latte art consistency and skills, and flair (the judges wanted to be entertained). When Bryan from Minor Figures asked us if we'd be up for getting involved in the challenge we jumped in... with our secret weapon - the Yenni Esperanza DECAF.
The crowds gathered (more for the free beer and pizza I suspect rather than the actual competition) and two people from each of the 4 roaster teams stepped up, one brewing the espresso's, the other steaming the oat milk, pouring 3 identical (as close as) patterns, and presenting the coffee.. in some entertaining style. We were called up last and Jack said he wanted to pour the espressos, which meant I had the pointy end of the deal. After shaking my way through 3 flat whites with hearts on and talking my way through the details of the coffee and why it was so special I placed the 4 cups in front of them.. and told them it was going to taste like Passionfruit and Mango smoothy.
WE WON !
A fun and entertaining event and we'll be donating the £100 prize to one of the causes we support.
We did a little swapsie (most wanted the decaf) with some of our coffee friends and amazing roasters and brought back a haul of some interesting coffees. We’ll be brewing these up on the next public cupping event which we’re planning for Saturday 17th September at 11am. If you're interested in attending please drop us an email or instagram DM to reserve a place. This is our 3rd cupping event and as mentioned in a previous newsletter we'll be charging £10 for these events going forward. This will include a little take-home sample pack of coffee.
We'll also be adding a sneak peak of our two next releases on the table.