Wonderful Coffee Cologne gathers the speciality coffee sector

7th July 2009

The SCAE’s first international gathering held in Germany, Wonderful Coffee Cologne, attracted around 3,550 visitors to its World Championships, Conference, Workshops and social events, as well as to the Coffeena exhibition at the city’s Koelnmesse.

The modern Cologne trade fair venue played host in late June to three days of quality coffee-related activities, and served as the focus of attention for some of the most talented coffee people on earth.

This was truly shown by the standard seen in the World Championships, which were watched not only by an eager on-site audience, but also, via a live webcast, by over 6,000 around the world. As a result of the Cologne Championships, we now have a host of new World Champions. (See the news stories about the World Latte Art Championship, the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, the World Cezve/Ibrik Championship, the World Cup Tasters Championship and the Best Nation Prize.)

Perhaps the largest concentration of the best in the sector came during the Awards for Coffee Excellence evening, the highlight of Wonderful Coffee Cologne’s social events. The prestigious honours were handed out to individuals and organisations that had excelled while advancing the speciality coffee sector, all of them nominated and chosen by the SCAE’s worldwide membership.

More high-level expertise was on display at the Cologne Conference, which brought together from all over the world such diverse talents as Judy Ganes-Chase, Andrea Thompson, Nestor Osorio, Ric Rhinehart, Hidetaka Hayashi, Krishna Rau, Jeffrey Young, Surendra Kotecha and many others to discuss the major concerns of the speciality sector.

In the Workshop sessions, experts across all the coffee disciplines gave practical hands-on courses in everything from choosing and operating an espresso machine to marketing a successful coffee business.

In Koelnmesse’s modern Hall 8, 84 companies in the new Coffeena exhibition showed a huge range of coffee equipment and services, from green coffee through processing and brewing machines to products aimed at the coffee retailer and consumer. The SCAE’s own stand was busy throughout the event, recruiting new members and selling resource items from the Association’s shop.

The event also served as the venue for a number of SCAE meetings as well, as groups including the National Coordinators and the Authorised Trainers gathered to discuss their local issues and compare notes with their colleagues. The Association’s Annual General Meeting also welcomed the SCAE’s new President Nils Erichsen of Germany, and confirmed the new First Vice President Steve Penk of the UK.

A fully illustrated report of the Wonderful Coffee Cologne event will appear in the next issue of Café Europa. The first group of images of the event (many more will follow shortly), as well as images from the SCAE’s Coffee Photography Competition, are now available in dedicated galleries on the site.

The SCAE would like to thank its Main Competition Sponsors:

Dalla Corte srl, Official SCAE Competition Espresso Machine 2009

Technivorm bv, Official SCAE Competition Coffee Brewer 2009

FAC SpA / Porcellana ACF, Official SCAE Competition Cups 2009

Bunn Corporation, Official SCAE Competition Coffee Grinder 2009

— for their generous assistance in helping achieve the success of Wonderful Coffee Cologne.

We are also very grateful to:

Toper, Neuhaus Neotec, Probat, Diedrich, Giesen, Marco, Coffee-Tech Engineering, Inter American, Puly Caff, Motta, Orissa Chai, Has Bean, CMA Astoria, Nuova Simonelli, Jameson, Mahlkönig and Reneka, all of whose help contributed greatly to the event.