La Cimbali's 2015 Events

This year, La Cimbali had a number of successful shows and events.

The year started off with La Cimbali’s participation at SIGEP in Italy in January. This event was in its 36^th year and with the 2015 Barista and Farmer Reality heats taking place at the show. There were an estimated more than 175,000 trade visitors coming from all over the world. The event confirmed how barista and farmer speciality coffee and quality coffee can boost the development of the entire chain.

The next event was ScotHot in Glasgow, where La Cimbali had the privilege of being a Sensory Judge. It was amazing to see talented individuals working in the coffee sector in the UK. The UK Barista Championships took place here in front of a live audience and the winner went on to represent the UK at the World Finals in Seattle.

Rob Ward, was then in Seattle for the SCAA exhibition where unfortunately the UK did not have a world barista champion – fingers crossed for next year.

April and May are always mega busy for the coffee industry in the UK and La Cimbali were excited to be once again be a major sponsor of the London Coffee Festival. This year, the M100 HD espresso coffee machine was showcased, which really drew people to La Cimbali’s stand. The group are already looking forward to being at this fabulous event again in 2016.

There was not much time between the end of the London Coffee Festival and the start of The Caffe Culture Show at London Olympia. The focus for this event was La Cimbali’s Perfect Grinding System (PGS) with the M100 GT and S39TE coffee machines. La Cimbali also supported the Coffee in Good Spirits competition and got to taste lots of exciting alcohol and coffee inspired cocktails.

It was then off to Milan for Expo 2015 and shared a stand with Gruppo Cimbali. This event lasted for six months, and La Cimbali were part of the TuttoFood event housed in 10 pavilions. Soon after it was off to the Nordic World of Coffee in Gothenburg, Sweden, which attracted over 5,000 visitors. La Cimbali were extremely lucky to have four of the best baristas and roasters in the business on their stand and the show was really successful.

The 2015-event programme has ended on a high with HOST and then Cup North 2 – the northern coffee party. There, La Cimbali were the official sponsor of Tamper Tantrum and also featured coffees from Dark Woods on their stand where they produced great coffees from some of the company’s best coffee machines.

What are fantastic year for the La Cimbali team – we are looking forward to an even better 2016!”

Coffee without Caffeine?

Just last week, there was news that a café in New York, the first in the city, was selling only decaffeinated coffee! Unbelievable? It’s true! While our peg for New York is that it is the city that never sleeps, we wonder how it is possible that people will keep going all day and night without the help of caffeine?

Today, regardless of whether you are from New York or not, coffee helps to keep the average person kick-start their hectic lifestyle. Caffeine has been a staple to start the days (or nights). Therefore, as New Yorkers are now putting this decaf coffee café to the test, La Cimbali would also like to investigate whether coffee can really be completely caffeine free.

Coffee is the bitter dark drink that we all love and is constantly in the news with studies affirming the positive impact it can have on our health. However, as we know, it can also be addictive and some people choose to either completely avoid it or keep their caffeine intake low. But whether you are avoiding caffeine for doctor’s orders or personal reasons, you may have sometimes wondered if decaf is really caffeine free.

Whilst there is some variance in coffee, decaffeinated coffee certainly does contain caffeine – just in lower amounts. A study carried out two years ago discovered that while a single cup of coffee contained around 85 milligrams of caffeine, decaf servings ranged from 3 to 15.8 milligrams. So although much lower, there is some caffeine present. If you have strict doctor’s orders to avoid all caffeine, then decaf is not for you. And if you are someone who drinks coffee continually throughout the day, then even on decaf, those milligrams can add up.

Therefore, if you think that you need to reduce your caffeine, then decaf coffee is a great choice for you. We also recommend that you choose water-processed decaf coffee as many decaf coffees go through a chemical process so loose lots of natural goodness.

La Cimbali Happy With This Year's Cup North

Finally, the well-anticipated Cup North event is over and Rob Ward, La Cimbali’s  coffee specialist  reflects on the highlights of the event.

This year was La Cimbali’s second time to be involved in the Cup North event. Not only that, but La Cimbali was also the lead sponsor of the Tamper Tantrum, making sure that the speaker line-up would be able to impress—and they did not fail. Colin Harmon and Steve Leighton took hold of the reigns for the Tamper Tantrum sessions and introduced speakers such as Francesco Sanapo, Gordon Howell and Mat North. There was a wide variety of subjects including; barista attitude, coffee brewing, water and looking at 3rd and 4th waves. These talks will appear online at Tampertanrum.com in due course.

Rob was also an MC for one of the events which was the UK Cup Tasters finals. The participants , Gayan from UCC, Katelyn from Avenue in Glasgow, and  Sonali from Selfridges, were challenging each other. In the end Gayan held his cool and scored an incredible 8 out of 8 cups in the final round, with Katelyn 2nd and Sonali 3^rd. David Jameson from Union Hand Roasted was also a great help to Rob as an MC for the event.

The team from Dark Woods Coffee were on hand on the La Cimbali stand showing the latest versions of their blends and roasts, with Under Milk Wood proving a strong favourite in both milk and as an espresso, and their Arboretum blend showing a more complex and dynamic tasting espresso – which Rob claimed was his favourite. Damian, Paul and Ian were on hand to talk about the current blends, origins and roast profiles that they are using and educating the public in the subtleties of flavour within the coffees, as well as providing delicious drinks from the La Cimbali M100 HD coffee machine.

Sarah Dyson from the La Cimbali Team was busy working on the M34 coffee machine with bluetooth and two linked grinders showing the PGS technology, as well as TurboSteam 4 showing how technology can help busy operations drive and improve consistency to the customer. Sarah also ran the La Cimbali Sensory Challenge where visitors were invited to assess five taste solutions (Bitter, Sweet, Malic Acid, Citric Acid, and Salt) as well as guess six Aroma compounds (Garden Pea, Blackcurrant, Butter, Caramel, Roasted Peanuts, and Roasted Coffee), with the chance to win a MUMAC Museum book plus ‘How to Make Coffee: Science behind the Bean’ by Lani Kingston.

This was not only a fun competition and challenge but also some interesting research on how people taste and perceive, taste, aroma and flavour. Rob found that only 1 in 4 people who took the challenge scored everything correct! This was quite a surprise in the environment and really shows responsibility as coffee professionals not to assume but to help educate and inform all – the What, the How and Why we do certain things to help take our customers on a sensory journey that specialty coffee is capable of taking us on.

The winner, pulled at random from the 100 percenters is Tom Finch who visited the La Cimbali Stand on Saturday, congratulations! Your prize is on it’s way.

Thanks everyone for another great Cup North show!”

Cup North 2015 this weekend!

Only a few days left until Cup North 2 begins and it’s not too late to snap up the last few remaining tickets. This year’s event is taking place at the Victoria Warehouse, Manchester this Saturday 7 & Sunday 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/

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 at the weekend!