A Coffee Lover’s view of London Coffee Festival
My first time at the London Coffee Festival because a) I love coffee and b) to support the boyfriend’s brilliant new venture Coffee Birmingham.
The coffee festival, surprisingly only in its second year and not UK wide – just the focus on London’s coffee shops, was full of gorgeous gadgets to play with, a little chocolate (Kokoa), some food (Propercorn, Popchips –both available in Waitrose) and tons and tons of coffee tastings. A coffee highlight was Glasgow’s roaster Matthew Algie and the gentlemen on the stand kindly offered us a look around their premises so I will to sure be taking them up on that next time I’m there.From an organiser point of view, I re-imagine every event I go to and in this case I
would have put water coolers on every corner. Or, because Evian are a sponsor more availability of their water as they were selling water to raise money for Waterfall on their stand. The event is (partly) for coffee tasting (especially on the traders day when we went) so one needs water to cleanse the palate as it were. In fact one needs water to balance out the caffeine.Also, there really shouldn’t be a line to get in (in the rain) 15 minutes after it opened. Surely they anticipated people who had bought a day ticket to be their most of the day and to have more staff at this crucial time?
But back to loving the coffee
It’s fitting I’m writing this in Blenz Coffee in Vancouver.Back in the day, people used to suggest I was a coffee snob because I couldn’t handle instant coffee. I come from Bedford, AKA Little Italy and I have grown up with little Italian coffee shops and also drank coffee pre-school, before I ever tried tea. (I went off tea again about a decade ago & still can’t stomach it but I do drink chai). This meant growing up with little coffees and it wasn’t until I started visiting New York in the 90s that I started loving coffee by the pint; giant take-out cups of filter.Because I feel I’ve always known what good coffee should taste like, I refuse to drink hot milky cups of froth or those disguised with syrups (or sugar – I maintain that if you need sugar it’s just to disguise the bad taste) (Except egg nog or gingerbread, I’m a sucker for those in the holiday season). I went off latte the same time as tea, I don’t’ like milk so I dislike tasting it in something that should taste of coffee.Social coffee is different but most days, I’m working from coffee shops and I want a long, hot coffee rather than filter so I can sip it (takes to long to make so it’s cold on arrival). I have Americano, in a take-out cup, with hot milk. I want my coffee to stay hot for longer than it takes to get it to my table.How I like my coffee
- Hot
- To taste of coffee not milk
- I can only drink cappuccino at breakfast, it is a morning drink as the Italian coffee gods designed it. It is most definitely not for after dinner, when you’re full. That’s what a little espresso is for. Espresso - or coffee (caffé) as they call it in Italy, of course, is perfect any time of day.
- Without the aid of loud music; I’m either working or socialising and I can’t do either with loud music
- In a mug (or take out cup) not a fiddly cup and saucer, especially the really wide ones that make the coffee cold before it’s even left the barrista’s hand. (see no 1) Unless it’s black or espresso.
So basically I want Italian coffee served in the American way, hot and plentiful.