The London Coffee Festival is one of the most exciting
events of the year for us here at Pelican Rouge. Vibrant, trendy and fun, the
event seems to be growing every year and this year’s festival was the best yet!
It’s the perfect opportunity for anyone
passionate about coffee to completely immerse themselves in the coffee world
and for those in the industry to get together and showcase the very best of
what they have to offer. Situated in the heart of London’s fashionable east end,
there really is no better place to find out about key trends and innovation
upcoming on the UK coffee scene.
All good things must come to an end and after four days of
activity, this year’s event has now sadly finished. Whilst life is returning to normal for us
here, we thought it a good time so share some of the key highlights from the
event for anyone that couldn’t make it there. We couldn’t possibly cover
everything in this post as with over 100 stands at the show, there really was
too much going on! These are just a few of the stand out themes and features we
observed at the show…
1.
Tea
Despite being the London Coffee
Festival, it was difficult not to notice all of the incredible tea being
showcased. Starbucks introduced visitors to their new Teavana range and the
London Tea Company held tasting demonstrations, teaching visitors how to view and
taste tea. There was upwards of ten tea companies exhibiting and chai tea was
prominently featured too. We are expecting to be drinking more tea than ever
before this year!
 |
| The London Tea Company Stand |
2.
Iced Drinks
We took the opportunity to preview some of our Frappe and
Iced drinks, which we will be launching officially in the coming months. And we
couldn’t help but notice that we weren’t the only ones! There was a real
abundance of iced drinks, smoothies and iced chai drinks on offer at LCF. And it’s
no surprise considering iced drink sales have been increasing at an incredible
rate in recent years and are making their way onto drinks menus everywhere. We say,
long may it continue!
 |
| Salted Caramel Frappe Samples |
3. Non Dairy Milk
We noticed a real buzz around the dairy free milk stands
this year and clearly this is a sector that has moved far beyond the soya milk
we are all familiar with. We saw almond milk, oat milk, coconut and rice milk,
all offering healthy and delicious alternatives to cow’s milk. We are very
excited to try them all and inspired by the event, will be looking to discover
which alternative milks work best with our blends very soon.
4.
Water
We saw increased emphasis on water quality this year and
considering espressos are comprised of over 98% water, this is important. Water quality has the potential to make an
enormous difference to the taste of a coffee and the power to damage equipment
if not properly treated. We have been working with Brita for many years now and
so we were glad to see water on the agenda at the event. Organisations Project
Waterfall and One Water were also in attendance, raising funds and awareness to
support projects that bring clean water to some of the world’s poorest
communities.
5.
Innovation
This is a theme that is truly at the heart of the London
Coffee Festival and really is everywhere you look when you visit. We saw some
amazing products being demonstrated, from Flora tea to cold brew coffee and lots
of state of the art equipment. There were workshops teaching visitors how to
harness the power of social media to grow their businesses and we witnessed and
sampled some truly innovative pairings of both coffee and chocolate with food.
Last but not least….
Some of our photos from the
event.
No comments:
Post a Comment