New York Coffee Festival 2016

Heads up if you’re in New York, the NY Coffee Festival is in town again with public sessions open from Sep. 17-18 at the 69th Regiment Armory. A number of quality focused cafes, roasters, and related companies have booths (Toby’s Estate, Counter Culture, Devocion, Chemex, La Marzocco, Curtis, Alpha Dominche, Joe Coffee, etc.) and there are a range of interesting program features.

A $20 ticket gets you a 3-hour session to take part in free coffee tastings from all the exhibitors, competitions and presentations from coffee industry folks, and more.

If you’ve never been to a trade show/coffee festival before, see the image above – it’s typically a wide array of vendors exhibiting everything from baked goods to coffee to cups and brewing equipment, both to the public and to potential business partners. It can be a bit overwhelming, but also an interesting peek into the industry. It sounds like NY Coffee Festival has tried to make this more than just a trade show by including a variety of consumer-facing events, live music, art, and more. A few highlights below:

CoffeeMasters NYC
“Judged by a panel of industry figureheads, the fast-paced knockout battle format of Coffee Masters will see 16 baristas showcase their skills head-to-head across a broad range of disciplines: Cupping, Brewing, Latte Art, The Order and The Signature Drink, with The Espresso Blend being included for those who successfully make it to the Coffee Masters semi-finals.” Read more here – and check out the videos from each competitor!

The Lab
Demonstrations of home coffee brewing techniques, and educational presentations, a few notable speakers include Andrew Miller of Cafe Imports (a green coffee importer), and Emily Rosenberg of Stumptown. More info here.

La Marzocco’s ‘True Artisan Cafe’
Four interactive work stations let you get hands on time with La Marzocco’s home espresso machines – the Linea Mini and the GS3. Apparently they’ll also be serving signature drinks. More info here.

Food and drinks will be available for sale from a “Street food market” with vendors like Bluestone Lane serving avocado toast. And there will be an espresso martini bar serving cocktails, along with the promise of craft beer, if you need something to help level out all that caffeine. Sounds like there will be more than enough to explore for 3 hours!