On Saturday 3rd December, La Marzocco hosted Out of the Box at Hackney House, London.
The Out of the Box events allow La Marzocco to connect with the local coffee community, wherever they are held across the globe.
La Marzocco was honoured to welcome around 1000 registered guests through the doors on this one day event.
They filled the day’s schedule with lots of content focused on both the members of the speciality coffee community as well as keen coffee enthusiasts just starting to delve deeper into the speciality scene.
Split across three levels at the fantastic Hackney House, each floor offered rich and diverse experiences.
On the ground floor, La Marzocco exhibited the Strada AV and allowed guests to get hands on with the machine that has won ‘New Product of the Year’ at The Café Life Awards.
Event sponsors Northiam Dairy served espresso ice-cream made especially for the event whilst Espresso Solutions ran the popular E-Store as well as The European True Artisan Café.
Although the event took place in London, coffees from 14 different European roasters were served.
The roasters were: Coutume and Café Lomi from Paris, Badger & Dodo and Khanya Craft Coffee from Dublin, Ditta Artigianale and Caffé Mokarico from Florence, The Coffee Collective from Copenhagen, Koppi Fine Coffee Roasters from Helsinborg, Tim Wendelboe from Oslo, Nomad Coffee from Barcelona, Café Taf from Athens, Probador Colective from Istanbul and 42 Coffee from Budapest. Between all these roasters, over 35 kilos of coffee was served from 6 Linea Mini’s!
With sponsors Grey Goose Vodka, Union Hand Roasted Coffee, BWT Water, Northiam Dairy and Loveramics, Out of the Box hosted the finals of the SCAEUK Coffee in Good Spirits and Latte Art Championships.
These competitions continue to draw in big and supportive crowds and for those who couldn’t make the event, the competition was livestreamed across the globe.
On the first floor, guests were treated to five industry panels that covered topics that are integral to the coffee community; from ethical green coffee sourcing to global brand management.
In Brand & Deliver, Joey Medrington from Grey Goose, James Healey from Marco Beverage Systems, Daniel Thompson of Soho House & Co as well as La Marzocco’s Paul Kelly, sat down to discuss how to maintain the heart of an independent company as the company grows into a global brand.
Media Partner Caffeine Magazine ran the second panel entitled Maximising Modern Media.
Founder Scott Bentley invited filmmakers and coffee enthusiasts Celeste Wong, Tim Rogg and Jason Breckenridge up on stage to examine how to capture coffee experiences across print publications, social media channels, webseries and short form films.
Matt Slater, International Re:co Symposium Director, ran an exclusive panel called Re:co Under the Spotlight.
Matt was joined on stage by three Re:co ‘fellows’ as they discussed the Re:co symposium and how it brings inspiring and challenging ideas to the coffee community in order to seek real change.
Following this was Profile of a Profiler in which roasters Anne Lunell of Koppi Fine Coffee Roasters and Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood of Colonna Coffee were joined by panellists from a more tech based background; Andy Benedikter from software specialists Cropster and Bradley Nelson from event partners, IKAWA coffee.
This panel focused on the before, during and after process of coffee roasting, including sourcing green coffee and using technology to ensure that the final coffee roast is the best it can be.
Event partners Falcon Coffees, rounded off the day by asking ‘Do you really know who grows your coffee’ in The UK Modern Slavery Act panel. Falcon Coffees CEO, Konrad Brits, was joined on stage by head of Falcon Specialty, Mike Riley as well as Violeta Stevens, Director of Supply Chain at Union Hand Roasted Coffee.
This final panel rounded off the day by making the coffee community face the cold hard facts surrounding green coffee growing and sourcing.
Our industry is based on quality relationships but the distance between origin and consumer can make us naïve to growing conditions in certain regions. With cooperation and communication, we have the power to drive change.
Event partners Marco Beverage Systems brought their newest technologies to Out of the Box and served some fantastic filter coffees whilst UK roasters Clifton Coffee, Coffee by TATE and Terrone served up a storm on the Modbar.
Dressed in its Christmas finest, the first floor outside terrace offered the chance to get competitive at the La Marzocco Foosball table, enjoy a beer at the customised Linea Mini and GS3 beer machines and fill your belly with tasty treats on the Linea Classic Barbecue with the Cheeky Italian.
The second floor was focused on roasting and cupping quality coffee as event partners IKAWA Coffee ran roasting demonstrations and drop in sessions whilst Falcon Coffees ran cuppings that allowed guests to try some spectacular coffee from Africa and Central and South America.
After a day full of content, the evening saw La Marzocco throw the official Out of the Box Christmas After-Party.
This was kicked off with the announcement of the winners of the SCAE UK Coffee in Good Spirits and Latte Art Championships.
Congratulations to Origin Coffee’s Paul Ross for snatching the crown for Coffee in Good Spirits and Dhan Tamang from Coffee Lab for winning his fifth consecutive title as Latte Art Champion.
Following this, La Marzocco did the big prize giveaway that saw the crowd win t-shirts and other La Marzocco goodies with the big three prizes being an IKAWA coffee home roaster, a La Marzocco customised road bike and finally, a trip to Florence to visit the La Marzocco factory.
La Marzocco’s favourite UK band, The Super Luckies provided live music and lots of dancing on the ground floor whilst the party continued until the early hours with a Christmas disco upstairs.
