Manchester Coffee Festival is coming to town this weekend with over 46 brands taking part

Calling all caffeine addicts. If like me you can’t get out of bed in the morning without a strong cup of the good stuff, here’s some good news for you. Manchester is hosting a fully dedicated coffee festival this weekend at Victoria Warehouse with over 46 brands taking part.

The festival is aimed at educating consumers on the value of speciality coffee and brings together a huge range of coffee-based businesses to showcase the time and effort that goes into making and creating the perfect cuppa.

And many of the companies involved in the festival are coffee roasters who don’t often meet the public face to face, so it’s a great chance for guests to get a rare look behind the scenes of what goes into making great coffee.

Attendees are encouraged to rinse out their reusable cups for the occasion and head down for a weekend packed full of coffee goodness. But don’t worry if you haven’t got a reusable cup of your own as you can pay a deposit of £5 and pick up a brand new cup when you arrive. Return the cup for your money back or keep the cup and pick up a lid for no extra cost.

Wash stations provided by Espresso Solutions will be set up for guests throughout the venue to clean their cups in between stalls, because no true coffee connoisseur wants to cross contaminate blends.

New for this year’s Coffee Festival is the Sensory School where guests will be invited to put their senses to the test in this brand-new zone brought to the event by Cimbali. Coffee professionals will teach budding students the essentials of coffee tastes and smells – and Le Nez Du Café will be offering an Aroma Station at the festival, challenging guests on basic coffee aromas.

The Manchester Coffee Festival will also host the 2019 SCA UK Cup Tasters Championship. The winner of the award is the coffee conqueror who successfully demonstrates speed, skill and accuracy in distinguishing the taste differences in speciality coffees.

Competitors will drink a set of eight triangulation tests and detect the odd cup out using their finely-honed taste buds. The competition becomes increasingly difficult as the coffee used in each set become more similar. And much like beloved household brands, the results are instant! As the contestants lift their cups to discover if a red dot on the base tells them they have correctly tasted the odd one out.

And when you need a bit of a break from the guaranteed caffeine overload, there are a number of specialist tea traders and local food pop-ups dotted around the festival – so there’s plenty more to see, do and, most importantly, eat.

Get Wurst will be offering guests the finest bratwurst and currywurst sausages this side of Berlin alongside award winning pan-Asian street food provided by Dim Sum Su.

Also keeping festival goers full for a weekend of coffee tasting is Quebec style poutinerie The Blue Caribou Canteen offering cheese curds, gravy and skin on fries with Yahumama spicing things up with their traditional Latin American street food offerings.

Anyone wishing to attend the event last minute can buy tickets on the door but as they are limited, it’s advisable to purchase tickets in advance where possible. And kids go free, so you can take the young ones along at no extra cost.

And for those of us that can’t get through an event without an alcoholic beverage, Blackjack Brewery will be on hand to provide a range of beers from their speciality bottle bar.

3rd November 10-6pm and 4th November 10-5pm at Victoria Warehouse. Tickets cost £10 per day or £18 for the full weekend. Parking costs £5 per car and is cash only.

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