Liverpool Coffee Festival is happening this month and will be a coffee lover’s dream weekend

The first ever Liverpool Coffee Festival is happening on April 27 and 28, and it’s going to be a coffee lover’s dream weekend.

The event has been designed to appeal to people working in the city’s growing coffee scene and anyone who just appreciates a decent cup.

It will feature talks and tastings with coffee importers, roasters and brewers, as well as some fantastic specialities like iced coffee gelato and collaboration beers made with coffee.

There’ll also be a chance to get involved in cupping sessions, so you can learn to taste and rate different coffees like a pro, and tips on how to make the perfect barista-quality pour over at home.

Liverpool Coffee Festival has been created by Ped Hunter, from Botanical Garden and Sub Rosa bars in the Baltic, and Katy McGrath from Crosby Coffee.

They first came up with the idea after chatting about how much they’d love to have a coffee event in Liverpool.

“We were doing a trade show and both saying this was the thing we’d really like to bring to Liverpool because we’ve got overlapping skill sets to do it and a shared passion for it,” says Ped.

“It’s something a lot of people on the Liverpool coffee scene have wanted for a long time, so talking about it just kicked off that spark of let’s just make it happen,” adds Katie. 

“The London Coffee Festival is absolutely massive, thousands go every year, it’s over three or four floors of the Truman Brewery and it spills out into other venues. 

“It has an international pull, so people from all over the world go to explore trade opportunities, make connections and see what’s going on in the scene, new innovations and what’s being developed. 

“Manchester is slightly smaller but it’s still a great event. We thought just because we’re not quite such an established scene doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be open to everybody to grow that knowledge and have that experience, so it’s not just for trade but the general public who want to find out more.”

Ped and Katie are keen that the festival isn’t only a chance for people to enjoy trying different coffees, but to learn more about their backstory.

“It’s about supporting independents but also taking a global view about where our coffee comes from. If we want nice coffee in 20 or 30 years, right now we need to be supporting a green importer that’s working with a farmer who’s making enough to live on,” he explains.

“The festival is going to have lots of green importers who work directly with the farmers to bring that coffee into Liverpool and then deal directly with roasters. I think it’ll be really interesting for people to understand what’s in their cup and where it’s come from.”

 “It’s not just about how much tastier it is, it’s important to know who that coffee is affecting, the human element behind it,” adds Katie. “You buying that coffee will be directly reinvested into those farmers, and communities, and people’s lives, so it could be building a university, or providing childcare.

“That’s the element of coffee people often don’t think about.”

Liverpool Coffee Festival will be over Saturday and Sunday, April 27 & 28, from 10am to 4pm, at Mill Yard on Kings Dock Street next to Black Lodge Brewery in the Baltic. Because it’s a daytime event, it will be child and dog friendly.

Green importers and roasters will be giving some tasting and cupping demos – where you slurp each coffee off a spoon to get the full flavour! – so people can try a wide selection of coffee alongside things like coffee kombucha, iced coffee gelato, beers and fresh-baked pastries. 

Katie says they hope to make Liverpool Coffee Festival a yearly event in the city’s food & drink calendar. 

“The culture for coffee and speciality coffee in particular in Liverpool is growing and it’s been so active over the last five years so now we’re going to give it that push to catch up with Manchester because we know people want it.”

Find out more about Liverpool Coffee Festival here.