Coaltown Take London: LCF 2022

From Thursday 31st March – Sunday 3rd April, Coaltown exhibited at the London Coffee Festival at a stall in the Roasters Village. Although it was our second time at the coffee festival, it was our first time in the Roasters Village and it was me and Buddug’s first time at the festival at all, so it was exciting all round!

We’d heard it was like a big party but didn’t really know what to expect going into it, so we thought it would be good to recap our time there and let you know what it was like; hopefully to prepare you to come next year!

Roasters Village

We spent most of our time at our stand in the Roasters Village, right at the top of the coffee festival. It felt like being in the heart of the action as we were next to the VIP room, the tasting kitchen and the global coffee school, as well as being surrounded by lots of other indie coffee roasters from across the UK.

When we weren’t talking to our fellow roasters (swapping tips, trying their coffees and exchanging stories about the coffee industry) we were chatting to customers; telling them our story and giving out samples of our house espresso, Anthracite, and our Chinese filter coffee, Dongka.

ModBar

Our coffee festival weekend kicked off with Scott on the ModBar, where he made coffees and not only demonstrated ModBar’s sleek and beautiful undercounter espresso makers, but also played around with the brand new Wally milk steamer. It was a really cool way to engage with customers about the industry’s newest and most innovative technology, while testing it out for our own espresso bars…

Coffee Masters

As always, it was absolutely amazing to get to see the best baristas and brewers in action; from cupping to latte art to pour-over, we found we could learn a thing or two from the professionals, and we ended up feeling really inspired and excited by the show they put on.

True Artisan Cafe

The True Artisan Cafe was running the whole weekend, but we’re sure we’re not biased in saying Two Islands debut on the stand was one of the highlights of the entire coffee festival.

Serving up innovative iced coffees based on their bestselling salted coffee ice cream and using their egg custard ice cream base, it was a real honour to have such an outstanding cafe representing us, using their very own Coaltown coffee blend.

Food and Drink

Did somebody say free samples?! We took full advantage of the floors of food, offering up some of the best coffee-based or coffee pairing foods that are out there right now. We particularly enjoyed visiting LoveRaw, The Danish Bakery and Dappa… Lucky us!

We also got to continue our alternative milk testing by sampling all of the plant milks and chatting to the brands to get some ideas about how to make the most of each one. Happy Happy Soy Boy’s extremely colourful display drew us in, and their milk didn’t disappoint.

It was great as always to see our friends at Good & Proper tea, Mörk and Prana Chai, and it was a fantastic excuse to try out more of their ranges over a chat.

La Marzocco Secret Garden

What do you get when you combine hotdogs, sun and espresso martinis?!

A couple of very happy Coaltown employees.

We particularly enjoyed the converted La Marzocco hotdog grill setup; it tasted as good as it looked!

Overall Impressions

A few key parts of the coffee festival really stuck out to us; mostly, the vibe in there was absolutely amazing and supportive. There wasn’t a sense of competition (except in the competitions themselves) and everybody seemed to be unified in their love for the industry and their passion for coffee. One of the most common things we were told was; once you’re in the coffee industry, you’re there to stay.

We also felt that bringing Dongka was a good choice as the majority of people who came to our stand had never tried a Chinese coffee and were wowed by its unique, delicate flavours.

And finally, as we learned on day one; five coffees before midday might not be the best idea.

Until next year!

Team Coaltown x