London Coffee Festival

The London Coffee Festival 2017

The London Coffee Festival is the UK’s largest coffee and artisan food event, a celebration of London's vibrant coffee culture. If you ever needed proof of the UK's love affair with coffee this is it, with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors, it's a playground for the coffee curious. Here's some of our highlights from the show:

 

Coffee, coffee and more coffee

It's no surprise that the main highlight of the show is great coffee, our favourites are The Roasting Party, who treated us to some delicious flat whites

 

Spreadable coffee?

Following its recent launch in Selfridges 'Flat Brew' coffee spread (love the name) made an appearance at the show, asking visitors to click a button if they liked the spread. I tasted, and clicked, though I have to say it was a little sweeter than I had imagined, as its base is cocoa butter, but maybe that's just personal taste.

 

A mound of chocolate

Kudos to Hotel Chocolat for their ambitious stand this year, it featured a huge mound of chocolate, apparently waiting to be carved - yum

 

The 'Uber Milk'

This nifty milk boiler will foam milk for cappuccino or latte in a matter of seconds, just press the touch screen and voila!

 

New 'craft' credentials for Starbucks

Starbucks revealed three new cold coffee options as part of its ‘Cold Craft’ range.

The line-up includes Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew, which uses nitrogen to “unlock the natural sweetness of the coffee”, Cold Brew Vanilla Sweet Cream, and Cappuccino Freddo – a dark espresso that is poured over ice and slightly sweetened, then topped with a cold foam made with skimmed milk. They achieved this lightly foamed milk by using a Hamilton Beach stand mixer, the kind used for mixing cocktails.