Our First Time At The London Coffee Festival

This past Sunday the 26th of September we took part in the London Coffee Festival. 

 

Let's start off by explaining what we did there.

 

Some of our team (Vas, Anastasia & Fabio) were at the True Artisan Café brewing up a signature drink we made especially for the festival. Meet: Frangelico Oat Flat White. A creamy texture with a shot of hazelnut liqueur for an additional kick. A smooth coffee drink for a Sunday afternoon made with our up and coming VAXX Blend, which is a mix on Colombia and Brazil beans.

We were aware that the footfall would be massive and the competition will be huge, with everyone offering coffee. We needed a drink that was easy and quick to make but which will have a special “je ne c’est quoi” to it, a nice boozy kick. 

We combined our VAXX Blend which has a particular nutty with a trace of chocolate taste and accompanied it with a liquor that will only enhance the flavours. This liquor could be made for both hot and cold drinks - such as Espresso Martini (which we love).  

Our idea was to bring a trace of autumnal spirit to the drink and turn it into a warm welcome from VAXX.

Overall we made around 300 drinks where all the proceeds went to Project Waterfall. 

We were super excited because our coffee was made on La Marzocco KB90. The machine is the newest on the market, it helped us achieve more coffee serves due to the improved technologym such as:

The portafilter has a click function which allows you to serve coffee at least 2 seconds faster for each drink, which can make a huge difference. 

The steamer has improved keeping the consistency of milk microfoam texture, which saves you another 3-4 seconds. 

When the coffee shot is made the portafilter basket is then automatically cleaned by the machine, whereas in  classic machines you need to activate it by pressing a button, which saves you another 2-3 seconds.

Overall with the new improvements it saved us at least 10 seconds per coffee making, which at the end of the day makes a tremendous difference.

 

Though we were very busy we loved the atmosphere during the day - it was very hyped up! It was great to be surrounded by like minded coffee lovers. Everywhere was packed with people, many had traveled from outside London to be at the festival, others had dedicated a full 4 days to come in and see both B2B showcasing and B2C. 

On the day we also gave out 100 sample bags of our VAXX Blend to those customers who used beans to grind at home. We were also giving our stickers and temporary tattoos because we are trendy like that.   

We had an incredibly positive review towards our VAXX Blend. Another one which was very interesting to see was the immense interest in our single origin Pa-O, Myanmar coffee that we were showcasing on the stand, as this region is not often recognised for coffee.

 

All in all it was a great day and an incredible experience for our small start up to be a part of, we will be back next year for sure - keep your eyes peeled!