The London Coffee Festival opens for Sensory Science in 2015!

La Cimbali perform Sensory Science at the London Coffee Festival

As The London Coffee Festival commences on 30 April, La Cimbali is proud to announce that they are one of the sponsors of the event. There will be an Espresso bar at the Hyde Park area where they will be performing the Sensory Science experience for those who want to understand flavour and taste further. Those who choose to join the experience will be shown how to make a single cup of coffee in four ways while using the M100 HD coffee machine.

Coffee lovers know that there is a science when it comes to creating the perfect espresso cup. It is an art. This is why L’Accedemia di Cimbali will take their visitors on a ride; an immersive experience in coffee making in order to explore the different tastes achieved when the same coffee is served in different ways.

Baristas at La Cimbali’s Espresso Bar (designed to emulate the iconic Mumac building) will present visitors with a Coffee Flight, running tasting sessions surrounding the manipulation of coffee flavour from one origin through four slightly different ways of brewing.

These ‘Coffee Flight’ tasting sessions show you how different brewing methods can affect the flavours in one coffee. There are a few places left, and you can book your free tickets for this, which are available through this link.

As well as our Espresso bar we will also have mobile Espresso carts in the Hyde Park Area too, also featuring the M100 HD coffee machines. During the weekend consumer days these will be operated by the independent roasters who were the lucky winners of our recent competition – please look out for them and try their espressos!”

We look forward to seeing you at the London Coffee Festival in a few days time.

La Cimbali are ready to go to this week’s London Coffee Festival!

The London Coffee Festival is finally upon us once again. This event serves as the official launch of the Coffee Week in the UK and it’s finally happening this Thursday 30 April.

La Cimbali is proud to say that we are part of this event where over 22,000 visitors are expected. Foodies, coffee lovers, coffee shop owners, professional baristas and more will gather at this event to celebrate anything and everything coffee!

La Cimbali will be running an Espresso bar in the Hyde Park area and La Cimbali’s Coffee Specialist, Rob Ward will be there. Rob says, “The year since the last London Coffee Festival has flown by. I can’t wait to be back, and this time we have designed our Espresso bar to emulate the iconic Mumac building in Milan, so it will be really special.”

Right from the Espresso bar, La Cimbali will be performing the Sensory Science. Rob will be demonstration how to make coffee in four different ways using the M100 HD coffee machine. Your ability to understand flavour and taste will be tested.

This elegant high performing coffee machine features an integral pressure profiling system that gives baristas direct control of the pressure throughout the extraction process. Using the M100, I will demonstrate to visitors the flexibility of an individual coffee and how the flavour can be manipulated using technology and techniques, so customers will have a bigger more immersive experience.

As well as our Espresso bar we will also have mobile Espresso carts in the Hyde Park Area too, also featuring the M100 HD coffee machines. During the weekend consumer days these will be operated by the independent roasters who were the lucky winners of our recent competition – please look out for them and try their espressos!”

We are excited about this event and we look forward to see you at the London Coffee Festival.

There are still a few places available for the La Cimbali Coffee Flight Sensory Experience across all four days at the event. To book a place at one of the tasting sessions, please visit: www.ticketsource.co.uk/cimbaliuk

The London Coffee Festival opens to the industry Thursday 30 April and Friday 1 May from 10am-5pm, and for the general public from Friday 1 May at 5.00pm and during Saturday and Sunday 2 and 3 May.

For more details visit: www.londoncoffeefestival.com

Cimbali - Rob is back in Seattle for 2015

It was just in the last year when Rob was on a trip to Seattle. Rob’s last visit to the place was in 2005 and he noted the changes in the coffee scene in Portland and Seattle since then. So in this year’s trip, he was looking forward to see whether the coffee industry has grown and developed even more.

Trips outside of the country opens our eyes and experiences to those that we do not normally find in our homes. There’s always bound to be something new to find around the corner and it’s not a wonder that there are also differences in the coffee scene from one country to the next.

Rob says, “It’s great being back in Seattle two years in a row, and is also a bit of a surprise, as the Speciality Coffee Association of America (SCAA) exhibition, which normally switches between the US east and west coasts, is this time in Seattle as it hosts the World Barista Championships (WBC) too!

My time during last year’s trip was filled absorbing the coffee culture scene and seeing how it had changed, but this year, immediately after landing at Tacoma International airport I headed straight into the SCAA Symposium, which precedes the SCAA Exhibition and the WBC.

The opening focus of the Symposium tackled some key industry issues head-on, such as how we can solve the ‘Wicked Problem’ by looking into ways to close the gap on extreme poverty.

In the early part of the century and more recently, the global recession has hit the world hard, but the coffee industry including roasters, coffee shops and coffee machine manufacturers have been less affected as people have still been buying coffee. Unfortunately though, farmers have still felt the pinch of this recession. This was really put into perspective when we saw the figures showing that many coffee farmers will only earn $3,200 per year, whereas in reality, the reasonable living wage is around $12,000. This poses a real danger in the sustainability of our industry.

There were other interesting topics covered in the Symposium such as Sensory Science. In the coffee industry, this can be used not only to expand what is usually being done but also to prove and quantify some of the things said about methods for brewing and specific coffes we use. We will be performing our own Sensory Science at the London Coffee Festival soon – but I will tell you more about that nearer the time.

Great news – the UK’s Barista Champion, Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood has just got through to the WBC finals. Go Maxwell!”

For more details regarding the SCAA annual exhibition in Seattle visit:

www.scaaevent.org

For more details regarding the World Barista Championships visit:

www.worldbaristachampionship.org

For more details regarding the London Coffee Festival visit:

www.londoncoffeefestival.com