LONDON – Following the fourth edition of The London Coffee Festival, Allegra Events has announced the winners of The London Coffee Festival Visitor Awards.
UCC took home two awards for the Make Decent Coffee Lounge feature, a space where visitors were able to learn from the experts in a series of one-to-one brewing tutorials.
The feature was voted both ‘Favourite Key Feature’ (for the second year running) and the ‘Most Engaging Stand Experience’. At-home brewing equipment such as the Chemex, Aeropress, French Press and V60 were all carefully demonstrated in this interactive and fun festival experience.
The coveted ‘Ultimate Coffee Experience’ award went to Union Hand-Roasted for the third year in a row for the ‘World Coffee Tour’ – a brand new feature for 2014. The artisan roaster, who was also voted favourite in the ‘Best Stand Design’ category, brought their legendary San Francisco roaster to conduct live craft roasting onsite.
The feature also boasted an ‘Origin Espresso Bar’ showcasing a selection of supreme microlots from around the world.
Jeremy Torz, Director, Union Hand-Roasted, said:
“This year’s festival was our favourite to date, and proved that growing groundswell of passion and excitement out there for speciality coffee. The festival was full of energy, smiles and amazing people and we are thrilled to be recognised by the visitors who came, saw and enjoyed our coffee.”
Other festival winners included KeepCup, who won ‘Most Innovative Product’ for the KeepCup Brew, a barista standard glass reusable cup; while Indian street food concept Rola Wala was named the ‘Favourite Food Experience’ at the festival.
This year the festival saw an increase from 160 exhibitors in 2013 to more than 250 making the ‘Festival Newcomer’ award a highly competitive category.
The honours were awarded to Kahlua, the Mexican Coffee liquor, and the ‘Kahlua Coffee House’ concept. The collaboration, with bartending collective The Liquorists and local coffee legends Nude Espresso, saw visitors experience hand-crafted cocktails through a blind-folded sensory tasting.
The ‘Festival Newcomer – Industry’ award (voted for exclusively by members of the coffee industry) was won by Cravendale. The milk brand launched a barista latte art competition named the ‘M.I.L.K Battle’ offering the winner the chance to win a trip of a lifetime to Origin in Peru!
Full list of Awards
Favourite Key Feature The Make Decent Coffee Lounge (second year running)
Ultimate Coffee Experience Union Hand-Roasted (third year running)
Most Engaging Stand Experience The Make Decent Coffee Lounge (UCC)
Favourite Stand Design Union Hand-Roasted
Best Food Experience Rola Wala
Favourite New Exhibitor Kahlua
Favourite New Exhibitor (Industry Award) Cravendale
Most Innovative Product Keep Cup Brew
Dates for The London Coffee Festival 2015 will be 30 April – 03 May 2015
