Just over a week left until Cup North 2015

In just a few days, Cup North 2 will begin and it’s not too late to get the last few remaining tickets for the event. This year, the event will be at the Victoria Warehouse at Manchester on 7-8 November.

Tickets are available for one day at £10 or for both days at just £18.

They can be purchased direct from the Cup North website via this link: http://cupnorth.co.uk/tickets/

By entering the code CIMBALI15 at the check-out you will receive 20%.

Or from several Manchester coffee shops, which you can find here: http://cupnorth.co.uk/tickets-on-sale-in-manchester-coffee-shops/

This year, La Cimbali is happy to be the lead sponsor of one of the major events at Cup North, the Tamper Tantrum. This will be a forum that is dedicated to broadcasting stories, theories and opinions from the coffee industry.

The event was also a part of the Cup North 2014 where they were had great success and were extremely well received. This time they will have six coffee industry superstars who will share their stories on Sunday including; Chloe Callow the launcher of the Bespoke Water Division for Norman Pendred & Co Ltd, and Colin Harmon – co-creator and co-host of Tamper Tantrum and four-time Irish barista champion.

We will also be featuring coffees from Dark Woods Coffee Roasters from Huddersfield and along with them, the Cimbali team will be showing ways to get the best from your Espresso machines using a range of technologies.

For more information regarding Cup North please visit:

www.cupnorth.co.uk

Please join us at this fabulous coffee event, which looks to be even bigger and better than ever!

We look forward to seeing you in Manchester next weekend!

Happening Now: Few More Days Before HOST 2015

It’s just a few more days before the start of the HOST 2015. This event will take place from 23 – 27 October at Milan’s Fieramilano. This event is part of the EXPO Milano which is also ending on the same week. The EXPO has actually been running since May and this event is a great way to end the 6-month long festival.

The last time that HOST took place was in 2013. This year, there is an estimated 2,000 or more exhibitors from 47 countries; a number that was not previously predicted by the organisers. The five-day event also expects around 135,000 visitors who will be able to look at advanced technologies, innovative products and the most cutting-edge designs from all over the world spread across 14 halls.

HOST is the centre for the world of professional hospitality. The thousands of visitors will have the chance to attend more than 400 meetings, seminars and talks, including; innovative performances, workshops, cooking demonstrations by starred chefs, master ice-cream and pastry bakers and baristas from Italy and all around the world. Hundreds of journalists and international bloggers will also be onsite ensuring that every detail of activity is conveyed to those visiting and the wider hospitality audience who couldn’t make it this time.

La Cimbali’s coffee specialist Rob Ward and his team will exhibiting with Gruppo Cimbali in the Coffee & Tea area – Pavilion15, Stands L54, L62, N53 and N61. From there they will be launching and showcasing Gruppo Cimbali’s finest, including the M100 & Grinder with intergrated handle sensor technology and the S30, the latest in PGS Bean to Cup Machines.

Just a couple of weeks after returning from HOST – the La Cimbali team will be heading to the second Cup North event in Manchester during the weekend of 7 & 8 November.

Rob and his team look forward to seeing you at these two exciting events very soon.

HOST 2015 runs from Friday 23 October – Tuesday 27 October at Fieramilano fairground in Rho.

For more details regarding HOST 2015 please visit: www.host.fieramilano.it/en

Cup North takes place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November at the Victoria Warehouse Hotel, Stretford, Manchester.

For more details regarding Cup North please visit: www.cupnorth.co.uk

La Cimbali Attends the New York Coffee Festival

Just recently, Rob Ward, La Cimbali’s coffee specialist, had his first trip to New York to experience the coffee scene at the New York Coffee Festival.

Just this year, Rob went to Seattle, Portland and San Francisco to attend events there as well and he saw that there was some difference with the way that people dealt with coffee as most were rushed and wanted quick coffee as opposed to waiting for hand poured speciality beverages to be served. There’s a big difference to bulk brew coffee and those that are brewed right and stored for the correct periods of time; however, both are still equally delicious. The former just lacks the theatre and interaction that you get in the brew bar and espresso based brewing techniques that are more evident at a more craft/artisan style café.

Still, the event was a great gathering of west coast and other local craft roasters who showed the visitors how speciality coffee should be.

The New York Coffee Festival was housed in the 69^th Regiment Armoury building. This was built in the early 1900’s and is still used to house the headquarters of the New York Army National Guard’s 1^st Battalion, 69^th Infantry Regiment. This was a perfect place for the festival since it provided a great open space.

This is the first New York Coffee Festival and compared to the London Coffee Festival, this is still in its infancy. It had a great showing of New York’s artisan coffee scene including Toby’s Estate, Gregory’s Coffee and the familiar face from the UK – Workshop Coffee. Dough doughnuts were also at the festival and Rob took the opportunity to visit one of their sites in Manhattan. He was treated to a beautiful intelligentsia coffee with the more ‘bread like’ texture of dough. It is up there as one of my three favourite donut companies which includes Blue Star in Portland, and Voodoo Portland.

There was certainly a buzz around the venue at the New York Coffee Festival, with anticipation from the exhibitors about promoting this festival and engaging with trade. But also importantly, with the general public who consume and are ready for the coffee education on offer at events like the New York and London Coffee Festivals, giving all those involved a good engagement with the customer and really showing some of the best in artisan coffee.  Cimbali US were there too and it was great time to catch up with Louis and others from the team out there and drink some Ethiopian Sidamo brewed on the Faema E61, which also made a fine stance on the Espresso Martini Stand!

On the last day, Rob caught up with Vic & Rob at Katz Deli (from when Harry met Sally ‘I want what she had’ fame). They had been running the US Coffee masters at the festival along with the newly crowned champion Ben Morrows from St Ali in Australia. They were really pleased with the inaugural event and along with Ludovic and Michella from Allegra are looking forward to next years, as is Rob.

Now the focus will be all on HOST which is just a week away and then straight back to the UK and into Cup North!

HOST 2015 runs from Friday 23 October – Tuesday 27 October at Fieramilano fairground in Rho.
For more details regarding HOST 2015 please visit: www.host.fieramilano.it/en

La Cimbali UK win pick up second prestigious Café Life Award for their S39 coffee machine

The Café Life Awards 2015 not only recognise Britain’s best independent cafes and finest café chains, but also all other aspects of the industry. They aim to identify excellence and encourage innovation in the important UK café and coffee bar industry.

The awards ceremony which this year took place on Thursday 24 September at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London, was hosted by the fabulous celebrity chef and café entrepreneur, Aldo Zilli.

With the Café Life Awards celebrating all that is great in British café life, La Cimbali UK are extremely honoured to be crowned the winner of the New Café Food Award (Coffee Machine Category) for their super automatic S39 TE with PGS coffee machine.

La Cimbali UK’s Daniel Clarke and Mike Abrams were delighted to receive the award on behalf of their team. Daniel said, “We are delighted to win what is a second Café Life Award from the Café Society.

“The S39 TE is a feature rich machine that benefits from our new Milk PS management system which creates richer, textured foam that really compliments classic hot beverages and has the added advantage of delivering cold foam to enhance a chilled drink menu. The customer enjoys better textured drinks and operators can serve barista standard coffee at the push of a button.”

Photo left to right – Clare Benfield, Daniel Clarke, Aldo Zilli and Mike Abrams.

For more details about the Café Life Awards and a full list of categories and winners please visit: www.thecafelife.co.uk

Celebrate International Coffee Day with an extra espresso!

The first official International Coffee Day takes place this week – 1 October. This now to be an annual event, is observed in many countries worldwide to celebrate the enjoyment of this extremely popular drink. The day is also used to promote fair trade coffee and to raise the awareness of the plight of the people that grow it.

Coffee is now one of the most consumed drinks in the world. For those of you like us who love everything about coffee, you will already know how great it is – especially on a day when you need a pick-me-up or a comforting treat. There are plenty of reasons to love this amazing drink and some of them are even health related

Currently, approximately 1.7 billion cups of coffee are sold each year in the UK from more than 18,000 outlets. The numbers may seem large but compared to the rest of Europe, this is small beans! In the UK people consume an average of 2.8kgs of coffee each year but this is far less than the 12.2kgs per capita in Finland!

This year, with more and more coffee outlets starting up each week, the average spend in a coffee shop continues to rise and consumers are also  visiting coffee shops more frequently too. Five years ago only one in nine people visited a coffee shop daily, that has now risen to one in five.

World coffee statistics – July 2015*:

• World coffee exports totalled 9.59 million bags in July
• Arabica exports totalled 68.29 million bags in the 12 months up to the end of July
• Robusta exports totalled 43.31 million bags in the 12 months up to the end of July

Please celebrate the coffee industry’s diversity, quality and passion and enjoy an extra cup of espresso today!

*www.ico.org