London Coffee Festival 2014 Broadens Scope to Include ‘Lifestyle Brands’

Photo Courtesy of the London Coffee Festival

For coffee professionals, next week is is a good one to be in London.

Organizers of the London Coffee Festival are predicting a record turnout of about 20,000 attendees for this year’s event, while adding several new programs that are giving the event a broader focus on coffee lifestyle brands.

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“More than an obsession, coffee is becoming a lifestyle, not just in London but across the UK,” says event organizer Ludovic Rossignol. “It is our vision to promote the diversity and excellence the UK coffee scene has to offer, and as part of that the culture it has created, spanning from food, design and art to music and fashion.”

Produced by Allegra Events and hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe and the UK Barista Championships, the culminating event of UK Coffee Week will run April 3-6 at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London.

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Of course, the Festival will include a bevy of World Coffee Events-sanctioned barista competitions hosted by the UK Chapter of SCAE. Also returning to this year’s Festival are the True Artisan Café a La Marzocco-sponsored pop-up coffee bar with rotating selections from more than 40 independent UK roasters, and The Roastery, a pop-up live demo coffee roastery run by Union Hand-Roasted.

New programs include Milk & Sugar, which Allegra is pitching as “London’s urban lifestyle brand event” featuring “inspirational brands spanning from fashion to design and food.” On the ground floor of the Old Truman, Milk & Sugar will be open to all ticketed festival-goers. Other additions in 2014 include:

• Poetry Café, sponsored by Julius Meinl 
• Kahlua Coffee House, a mixology collaboration between Kahlua, The Liquorists and Nude Espresso
• The Science of Espresso, Deconstructed, an espresso education workshop from La Cimbali
• Catalysing Coffee, a series of green coffee classes presented by DR Wakefield (DRW)
  
• M.I.L.K Battle, a latte art competition hosted by UK dairy producer Cravendale

Click here for more on the London Coffee Festival, including complete schedules and visitor info.