Well blink and you missed it – but yet another annual World of Coffee event, with the SCAE has been and gone. Perhaps it was the domestic political chaos that surrounded the timing of this event that that made it creep up on us so fast, and vanish just as quickly.
Dublin played host this year – and the levels of high expectation for such a warm and hospitable city didn’t fail to please.
As we have for many years, DRW exhibited at the trade show hosting daily cupping sessions and providing a friendly place for the weary coffee aficionado to take the load off, sit back, relax and enjoy one of our favourite pour-overs of the year so far. We’d like to thank everyone who found the time to talk to us at the show, share their stories, ambitious plans for their own futures, and of course our mutual love of coffee.
We began to reminisce, how, it wasn’t that long ago, that DRW were the first traders to offer cupping sessions at the SCAE show – now you can’t move an inch without a cacophony of slurping accompanying you. This only goes to show how important the quality of coffee has become and how the knowledge of family run businesses such as ourselves is crucial to the development of the specialty coffee industry. We sell more than just green beans you know!
As a testament to the increasing importance that specialty coffee is playing in the market – this year hosted the World Barista Championships as well as the Brewers Cup. These events help to galvanise the industry, bringing together the new younger (fresher) generation of the industry – the face of the coffee revolution. Coupled with the young entrepreneur of the year award (special praise goes to Henry Wilson at Perfect Daily Grind for that) as well as innovations in the coffee industry – the SCAE show has morphed over the past decade from a formal and almost frumpy gentlemen’s club of coffee buyers to a multi faceted event – bringing producers, roasters, baristas and traders harmoniously together.
The event has successfully married the link between producers and their ever increasing search for direct relationships with roasters in the EU – a link that DRW are only too happy to share – our short supply chain between producer and roaster encapsulate our trading philosophy perfectly – and it is only too good to see the producers as interested in where their coffee ends up, as it is to see roasters keen to travel to origin to see where their coffee is produced. The SCAE efficiently provides this networking opportunity to flourish.
Dublin also gave team DRW the opportunity to experience a number of our roaster clients in their own environment, seeing the amazing effort that has gone in to the local coffee shop culture, that is akin to any hip London coffee shop, but with their own Irish charm in each venue.
And let’s not forget, these trade show events aren’t all about walking the floor talking shop – the after parties are equally revered for their …ahem…networking opportunities and environments where we traders can let our hair down, share a Guinness and forge our long lasting relationships sat round a table with our astonishing producers on one hand, and our careful custodians of quality roasters on the other. To us this goes a long way to demonstrate the true nature of sustainable trading relationships based on mutual respect (and admiration) for each other.
Next year sees the event move to Hungary – to exhibit in Budapest – one Europe’s fastest growing coffee cultures. And as always you’ll be able to find DRW there – offering our knowledge, perspective and help on all things coffee – there will be cupping sessions galore, plenty of chat and networking opportunities and a chance to get to know us more.
In fact, cupping is so crucial to everything we do at DRW; in anticipation of our travels to Budapest, and in conjunction with the European Coffee Trip, whom we are proud to be partnered with, Team DRW plan to do a preliminary Cupping tour in September to Budapest, as well as Krakow, Brno, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague more details to follow soon.
The coffee world is changing, the trade shows are changing and we are changing with it – follow us closely over the next 12 months to see us crop up in new places, in new guises and join us to become part of coffees success story.
