London Coffee Festival 2017 Trend Report
The roundup report for baristas
The London Coffee Festival continues to be a key point in the baristas’ event and social calendar. Here’s what baristas need to know from the 2017 show.
Cold Brew
Cold brew is set to the key summer trend — again. Both capturing consumer interest and a product to combat lower summertime coffee sales, the cold brew category is now frothing over with a selection of nitro cold brew products.
Sandows currently sell bottled cold brew, nitro on tap and have a canned product in the pipeline.
The Starbucks stand was almost exclusively dedicated to their nitro cold brew.
Minor Figures launched launched their new canned nitro cold brew.
HER offer both a concentrate and cold brew product
Frank and Earnest have both nitro cold brew on tap and canned.
There remains lots of consumer interest in cold brew with these stands being some of the busiest at the festival.
Milk & Milk Substitutes
Milk is now a core part of many coffee shops’ proposition by both offering clearer provenance and a wide variety of alternatives to milk.
The Estate Diary now offer a full cream, gold top, Guernsey milk — it tastes delicious.
Swedish brand Oatly positioned themselves front and centre to champion the barista version of their oat-based milk substitute.
Coconut water brand Vita Cocoa focused on their coconut cream based product.
Alpro and Almond Breeze offered latte art on their stands. And the original milk substitute Bonsoy also has a stand.
We think that now many of these brands promoting their diary-free and/or environmental credentials, the term ‘milk alternative’ or ‘milk substitute’ is holding them back. Surely it’s time they agreed on a term that defines the category by its positive attributes, rather than trying to define themselves by saying what they are not.
Gadgets continue to build a basis for automation
More gadgets continue to become available to make the baristas’ job easier including milk steamers and milk wand guides. Slowly the components are being assembled for future automation of espresso, this was exampled on the La Marzocco and Mahlkönig stands.
La Marzocco have introduced auto brew ratio to the Strada line, which allows the machine to weight the dose and then adjust the extraction to the specified parameters.
Mahlkönig has a demo version of their new grind-by-weight concept. The stand uses a portafilter cleaner, automatic dosing (see video), a Puq Press and preset shot duration so the barista just has to move the portafilter from device to device to make an espresso.
The future is coming, albeit slowly….
Brewers
Two brewers caught our eye this year. Marco has introduced Mix, a sleek hot water dispenser with three buttons, which can be configured for different volumes and temperatures — making it ideal for tea and manual pour over.
The Mix is currently being successfully used at the Hasbean pop-up a Uniqlo, Oxford St.
Bulk brewing has taken another step forwards with the 3temp hipster brewer.
Each variable is controlled on an app (see the tablet on the counter top) for exceptional control. We got some delicious brews out of the machine simply by scaling up our favourite pour over recipes.
Consumer engagement
With some many roasters for baristas to sample, some are fostering greater consumer engagement and memorability.
Climpson & Sons who randomly inserted golden tickets in packs of coffee consumers could purchase at the festival. If you found one of these you won a coffee subscription.
Roundhill roastery used their distinctive pink and blue colours to great affect by attaching bespoke printed and coloured, helium-filled balloons to their packs of coffee.
Video
With video becoming the social media medium of choice, Caffeine magazine shot and edited this festival review on the first day!
Your thoughts
What caught your eye this year? Let us know on the usual channels.
