It was an honour and a pleasure for us to participate in this year's Berlin Coffee Festival. Last week, the long-awaited Coffee Festival took place and opened its doors from the 1st to the 6th of October. Unlike the ordinary fair, everything about coffee takes place in individual coffee-shops and roasteries all around Berlin. Cuppings, public roastings, championships, machine-knowledge, blogger meetings, sustainability in coffee and other topics close to coffee. But also, fancy teas, craft-beer, unique beverages, new gear and equipment was also a topic of the Berlin Coffee Festival.
On Friday the 4th we held a talk about the astonishing country of Rwanda and its coffee trends in the Kaffeekirsche Roastery. We talked about Rwandas history and the bright future of this beautiful country, the high quality of coffee cultivation and our experience of direct sourcing. To top it off, there was an unplanned video-call with Emmanuel from Baho Coffee, a producer we work closely with.
On Saturday the 5th of October we hosted three cuppings which were all well attended. Again in the Kaffeekirsche Roastery. We presented coffees from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Burundi. All three cuppings were organised by processing methods, starting with a fully washed cupping, which was followed by a natural and a honey cupping. These three processing methods are the most common treatments that we import, simplifying the comparability of the different origins of coffees.
Sunday the 6th of October differed from the other days. On this day, the coffee community gathered in an in an old market hall in Berlin-Kreuzberg, called “Markthalle 9”. We hosted a cupping with several Honeys from Costa Rica, Rwanda and Burundi two naturals from Rwanda and Guatemala and a fully washed coffee from Ethiopia. Again, it was very crowded with many coffee lovers and it was nice to see how many new enthusiastic people are interested in the field of specialty coffee.
- Julio Sabani