WORLD OF COFFEE BERLIN 2019
World of Coffee is the essential event for coffee professionals – drawing a loyal audience year-on-year from the global coffee community. Organised by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), the event has more than tripled in size over the last 6 years, growing from 3,000 visitors to just under 11,000 visitors.
This year World of Coffee was held in Berlin. As part of our commitment to our customers, we actively stay on top of consumption trends and innovations so that we can then share our insights with our partners, helping them to maximise their coffee offering and hence their ROI. So we sent Java Republic Coffee Quality Consultant Luis Alvarez and Graphic Designer/Brand Ambassador Keith Moran to WOC, to bring back the latest news and insights from the top experts in the coffee world. Another of our Coffee Quality Consultants, Renata Malyszko was also at the event as a Certified World Coffee Events Judge.
Luis:
Berlin, what an eclectic city! It definitely hits you with its vibrant, diverse and a bit chaotic lifestyle. Now don’t let this scare you for a second, visiting Berlin is a must and what better opportunity to go back than attending World of Coffee 2019.
For those of you not familiar with this event, World of Coffee is the largest international coffee convention and it takes place once a year. There two other international events: Specialty Coffee Expo (in America) and Café Show (in Asia), but arguably neither are as big as World of Coffee.
At WOC you will find exhibitors from across Europe, some from America and a good bunch of people coming from origin countries, especially South America. It’s always really nice to see stands from small African countries like Uganda and Burundi exhibiting, sometimes with traditional outfits.
There are different areas, as not everything is for everyone, but to get the first glimpse of the event and to get immediately caffeinated, I suggest heading straight to the Roasters Village. Over here we met with different roasters from across Europe, and a good amount of local roasters from the hosting country Germany. Tastings were taking place everywhere and it was a great networking opportunity. This is the place to be to taste some of the most weird and trending coffees out there.
Then of course, with a little bit of coffee in your system, you can go and check out the coffee competitions. Yes, there are international coffee competitions just like there are poker and videogames competitions, and that doesn’t make us nerds. Well, maybe just a little. *laughs*
This year the World Latte Art Championship, Cup Tasters Championship, Coffee in Good Spirits Championship and Ibrik (Turkish Coffee) Championship they all took place in Berlin. Bear in mind that competitors from across the world travel to this event to compete.
We also managed the see new technologies related to coffee, attend a sustainability forum, witness some marketing and branding trends and talk to some of our suppliers as we kept drinking coffee. By the time the event finished we had a huge amount of coffee to bring back home, not only in our backpacks but in our already hyper bodies.
But no trip to Berlin is complete without exploring the coffee scene, and what an epic way of discovering new parts of the city it was! We first went to “Populus”, a roastery café that we got to know during the event. To be honest with you it was an extremely pleasant surprise. Overlooking a canal, with flowers and plants hanging from the façade and great customer service, Populus proved to be that place that not many people know about but that is definitely a must.
We also visited the very popular “Five Elephant” (don’t forget to try the legendary cheesecake), “The Barn” and its new café in Mitte with a lovely brew bar and a very nice atmosphere. We also popped by the well-known “19Grams Alexanderplatz” with their new beer garden, and finally the really cool “Röststätte”, in which we were invited to a “Coffee in Good Spirits champions takeover”. During this event champions from different countries were preparing their award winning cocktails for everyone to enjoy!
We had a great time in Berlin getting to see so many familiar faces and drinking some of the best coffees in the world. Looking forward to World of Coffee 2020 in Warsaw, Poland!
Keith:
Who was your favourite exhibitor at the festival and why?
Good Spirits Coffee Brewery for sure! It was the brand that stood out for me and had some pretty tasty Cold Brew! Coffee packaging today is becoming more vibrant and spontaneous….Good Spirits has nailed this! They also stick to their philosophy that is “The love and joy that is coffee” – the perfect message in a bottle! Berlin was roasting on the day (and not just the coffee)! The weather was absolutely amazing and hot, so a nice chilled specialty coffee brew was just what I needed. As I was examining the brown bottle, it reminded me of craft beer. I could see that Good Spirits target market was the coffee youths of today. The rebel coffee drinks that are on the go…commuting on the Berlin underground. If you look closely at the label, it’s a mix between typography and illustration. The letters are placed together to look like a face smiling and a tongue sticking out. I found this funny and it was completely unique to anything I had seen before. The handprint on the label is a high five! I think this is a great and fun way for a brand to interact with the consumer.
Let’s talk about taste…I found the Cold Brew fruity, smooth and sweet. Good Spirits also do a 3L Bag-in-Box. It’s like a wine box but for Cold Brew. The special tap can keep the Cold Brew fresh for up to three months, even after the first tap. It’s a great concept and perfect for the beach, just make sure to bring the ice!
Final thoughts…
Berlin is an amazing city with incredible architecture, culture and coffee. If you’re as passionate about photography and design as I am, I recommend you walk the streets of Berlin – you never know what you’ll capture! In terms of coffee, my advice is to talk to baristas at the event and in cafés. They will tell you where to find the hidden gem cafés – trust them, they know what they are talking about!
For me, WOC is always an amazing experience and I am already looking forward to Warsaw in 2020. “Great coffee is synonymous with great design”.
Auf Wiedersehen und danke Berlin!
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