Hotelympia and the official launch of the S30 coffee machine

With the new year comes a new machine once again from La Cimbali.

Activities this February include the start of the Hotelympia as well as the office launch the S30 - the new super-automatic coffee machine.

The Hotelympia will take place from Monday, 29 February - Thursday, 3 March. It will take place at the ExCel, London. Hotelympia is the UK’s largest food service and hospitality event and the home of hospitality innovation. If you are looking for real ideas and innovation, as well as the perfect place to launch the Cimbali S30, it is this event.

The main focus of La Cimbali's exhibition is the launch of the S30. This new machine welcomes both customers and operators to the Touch Revolution!

The new super-automatic S30 commercial coffee machine has many distinctive, unrivalled features. This coffee machine encourages innovative interaction with endless possibilities, which include the revolutionary Touch Screen with 10.4” display and the incredible variety of drinks that this super-automatic coffee machine can produce.

With the S30, baristas can produce espresso coffee-based drinks simply and intuitively every day. Baristas can optimise the beverages that they offer as the integral loT (Internet of Things) technology really puts them in full control. 

All models feature the Cimbali Smart Boiler, Perfect Grinding System (PGS), optional motorised spout and the Capacitive Touch Screen Display which has; toughened glass, a backlit RGB panel, RGB lights on the delivery area and much much more.

The S30 is available in three different versions:

1.    Turbo steam equipped with coffee delivery spout and cold touch steam wand

2.    Cappuccino equipped with Milk PS system giving the option of snow milk

3.    Cappuccino and Chocolate equipped with easy to clean mixing system

Look for us and our team will be Stand 144, officially launching and demonstrating the S30.

To register as a visitor for this great show, simply click on this link below:

https://www.livebuzzreg.co.uk/2016/hot16/visitor/

For more details regarding Hotelympia visit:

https://www.hotelympia.com We look forward to meeting you at our stand soon.

Cimbali's Rob Ward's Reflections from Vienna Trip

The resident coffee specialist at Cimbali UK, Rob Ward, has just returned from a trip to Vienna, his first trip for 2016.

He was invited by SCAE Austria to join the judging team at the Vienna Coffee Festival. This competition will be preparation for the upcoming world finals to be held in Dublin and Shanghai at a later time in the year.

The last time Rob was in Vienna was as part of the lead-up to the London Coffee Festival as well as during a documented road trip to collect vintage machines. It included the now infamous coffee machine injury moment and also the World of Coffee in Vienna that took place 2 months after the London Coffee Festival.

The judging team which included Vlad Alexandru (Romania), John Stubberud (Norway) now running a Cafe in Salzburg and who is a WCE rep, Phillip Meier (Switzerland), Lukasz Jura (Poland), Nina Rimpl (Switzerland), Christian Ullrich (Germany), and Martin Sedlacek (Austria), all took the opportunity on the morning before the festival to visit some local coffee houses to calibrate tastes and scoring for the competitions.

It was very encouraging to see an increase in 3rd wave coffee in a country that has a rich and deep coffee heritage, much older than in the UK, and with it being embraced by a wide variety of age groups and different types of people.

The competition saw a variety of competitors taking part in Brewers Cup, Latte Art, Cup Tasters and the Barista Championships. The judging team worked hard getting involved in the set-up, organisation and also brewing for Cup Tasters and the energy of the whole venue just added to the excitement of what was going on. The crowds that were eager to watch the competitions were thick from aisle to aisle, even to a point that it became difficult at times to get the competitors from the practice area to the stage, but this helped build the expectation and excitement of the competition.

Being part of a different country’s judging team was a great experience for Rob and really showed the good work that the WCE reps do in monitoring calibration and keeping the scoring consistent around the world, which help Baristas prepare to compete on the world stage.

After the competitions, Rob made some coffees on a couple of stations and talked to visitors who were fully engaged in a changing coffee world.

The festival had gone from around 1,500 to 10,000+ visitors in only its second year!

Rob's last duty saw him invited onto a round table panel debate on coffee culture in Austria and around the world, and how London has also become one of the strong players in the 3rd Wave coffee scene. He was encouraged to see a willingness to change ideas from a lot of the panel with their focus on coffee as an ingredient that can offer so much more in the terms of flavour than just an Italian style espresso.

Whilst this still has a place in our world as palates change and develop in terms of coffee flavour, we as coffee professionals also have a responsibility to continue to push and develop what we do too.

Global Coffee Shortage Feared due to Brazil Drought

Every year, there are different types of calamities that strike the world. From floods to droughts and everything else in between—these calamities affect production of some of the world’s commodities, one of them, coffee.

In 2015, there were droughts that caused the decline in production of coffee beans. This was bad news for many who rely on a strong cup of espresso to start the day.

In the recent droughts that have befallen Brazil, it is expected that the coffee harvest will decrease. It is estimated that in 2016, production of both Arabica and Robusta coffee beans drop by almost 10%. What makes this worse is that global demand for coffee beans is also expected to increase during the year.

Experts have been worried for a while now that a shortage may occur, as Brazil has repeatedly suffered less than ideal growing conditions for coffee berries. The Foreign Agricultural Service report suggests that global coffee production of beans will become increasingly precious, with Brazil’s Robusta harvest predicted to decline 3.7 million bags to 13.3 million and Arabica to fall by1.2 million bags to 36.1 million.

While some will think about stock-piling, this shortage may not be immediately imminent because luckily Honduras, Indonesia and Vietnam are producing more coffee than usual. This may stave off a shortage for now, and as the European Union, which accounts for nearly half of the world’s bean imports, is forecast to increase 400,000 bags to a record 45.5 million. The second largest importer in the world is the United States, which is predicted to increase by 500,000 bags to 24 million, due to higher consumption.

In 2015, Brazil produced the most coffee beans with 30% of the total, Colombia was second with 21% market share and Vietnam came in third with 13%.

Why You Shouldn't Give Up Coffee for New Year!

Finally, it is the New Year and once again, it is time for the yearly resolution. What are your resolutions for this year?

Regular coffee drinkers have lower risk of diabetes, sudden death and some cancers, research has shown. So think again before you try giving up coffee as your New Year’s resolution!

With the help of coffee, the brain may also be protected from Parkinson’s disease as well as speed up some processes of healing for the body. If you are on a diet, good news as it can also help you stay slim!

When people go on a health kick they often decide to give up coffee. However, there is plenty of evidence that shows the health benefits that coffee provides. For a few years now experts have said that there is no need for most people to avoid coffee.

Regular coffee drinkers can benefit from a host of health benefits such as reduced risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Type 2 diabetes develops when the body does not make enough insulin, which is a key hormone for the conversion of sugar into energy, so the insulin they do make does not work properly.

While many pregnant women avoid coffee altogether, there is no evidence that shows that taking in up to 200mg of caffeine per day poses any harm to their unborn child. 200mg is equivalent to one strong barista made coffee, an instant cup of coffee or a cup of tea.

Slimmers who have a regular daily cup or two of coffee can assist their diet plans as the caffeine content seems to help the body resist the gradual weight gain that defeats so many slimmers.

However, coffee is not recommended for people that suffer from conditions where a short-term increase in heart rate and blood pressure might stress the heart. Children are also recommended to avoid caffeine as they struggle to metabolise it and experts suggest not starting to drink it until they are in their teenage years.

However, single espressos can have as little as 50mg caffeine as the brew method is naturally lower when extracting caffeine than filter coffee.  So if you want flavour and not too much caffeine then espresso based beverages may be the answer.

All of us at La Cimbali hope you enjoy many espressos in 2015.

Happy New Year from Cimbali UK

Happy new year from all of us!

We look forward to a new year with plenty of Espresso!