Fresh from a fully caffeinated long weekend rubbing shoulders with the best of the UK coffee community at the London Coffee Festival, we’re here to share the low-down on what our favourite event in the coffee calendar looked like for us this year.
COFFEE MASTERS™
Once again we were back bringing the beans to the Coffee Masters™ competition, working behind the scenes to keep the 16 world-class baristas supplied with coffee across the four-day competition.
On this year’s theme of ‘New Beginnings’, contestants sipped, tamped and poured their way through our nine secret single origin offerings to create their concoctions. And, as we’ve come to expect from the competition, the results didn’t disappoint.
Our congratulations go to Ratislav Kasar @kasar_ratislav who, after taking the runner-up spot last year, beat fierce competition to be crowned Coffee Masters Champion 2022. Praised by the judges for his creativity, knowledge and slick execution, Ratislav, from Four Boroughs, chose our La Esperanza Sweet Valley (Colombia) for the brewing discipline, and the Blueberry Candy (Nicaragua) and El Meson Pink Bourbon (Colombia) for the blend round.
THE ROASTING PARTY’S CUPPING COMPETITION
This year we extended a portion of the Coffee Masters contest to festivalgoers, challenging over 150 visitors to guess the origins of our nine secret coffees over the course of the weekend, across 8 sell-out sessions. And boy, we were humbled by the determination, knowledge and competitive spirit displayed by our contenders.
It was tough competition, but eventually it was Piotr @pio_jez who claimed the top spot, walking away with a Comandante Grinder courtesy of Brewed By Hand, plus a 3 month subscription of our coffee.
We revealed the answers exclusively on our Instagram, but here’s a re-cap of the secret origins for those who missed them:
1 – Brazil (Decaf)
2 – Ethiopian
3 – Colombia
4 – Bolivia
5 – India
6 – Costa Rica
7 – Burundi
8 – Nicaragua
9 – Colombia
NEW LAUNCHES
London Coffee Festival also hailed the official debut of six new single origins from The Roasting Party. Our aim was to share something special from a variety of regions and processes, hitting as many flavour notes as possible.
Here’s the line-up:
Marsha G1 (Ethiopia)
Blueberry Candy (Nicaragua)
El Meson Pink Bourbon (Colombia)
La Esperanza Sweet Valley (Colombia)
Fincas Los Rodriguez (Bolivia)
Ratnagiri Estate (India)
All are now available to buy online for you to try at home.
TAKING OVER THE TRUE ARTISAN CAFE
Another highlight for us included visiting our friends and partners Josie’s and Beany Green, who rocked up to showcase their wares at the True Artisan Café in collaboration with La Marzocco.
A huge thanks to all those involved in Coffee Masters, everyone who took part in our Cupping Competition, and to those who popped over to simply say ‘hello’. London Coffee Festival, we’ll see you soon.
