What a week! A whirlwind wonderland of coffee and creativity, coffee professionals from around South Africa and across the globe descended on Durban to soak up every bit of delicious knowledge they could at Creative Coffee Week 2024! We couldn’t be more grateful for everyone coming together as a community and forging ahead for growth in our industry which ultimately means a better cup of coffee for coffee lovers every day!
First and foremost, the hugest thank you to all of our Partners. You are supporting the continued growth of this exciting industry and we appreciate you!
Thank you to our Team of volunteers: Nolwazi Lekuba, Nicola Meyer, Hee Ye Kim, Dieter Kaiser, Lee Maps, Ignatius Mpendulo, Samkelo Nzama. Your energy and enthusiasm to get stuck in is inspiring and we are so grateful. And a special shout out to SEAM Coffee who sponsored the accommodation and lunches for our volunteers, all of whom are working baristas.
To our international Guest Speakers. Thank you for taking a chance on us and travelling to the very edge of Africa to share your insights and knowledge. I personally learnt a lot from each of you during the week and I know the community did too.
Key quotes:
Miranda Caldwell - The Coffee MBA:
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Andrew Nicholson - Windrose Coffee
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Patrik Rolf - April Coffee Roasters
Each year we try to evolve this platform in order to maximise what everyone can get out of this event. It gave us so much joy this year to see everybody gathered for the talks with their notebooks out and completely engaged in the conversations!
Thank you to all of our amazing speakers and panelists who all brought incredible insights and expert views to each conversation. We are so lucky to have so much talent in our industry!
But, at the end of the day, any event is about what you put in. So thank you to every human that came to take part and made the most of all the coffee goodness. Next year again!
You can see all of the highlights here!
South Africa’s top coffee connoisseurs congregated at FNB’s Acacia House from 24 & 25 July 2024 to discuss the latest trends and blends while competing for the best cup of coffee at Creative Coffee Week.
“Creative Coffee Week was a massive success in terms of getting the coffee community together to brainstorm the way forward and the future of the South African coffee industry,” said Iain Evans, Creative Coffee Week Event Organiser. “We’re delighted with how everything went and cannot wait for next year!”
The event kicked off with a bang at FNB’s Acacia House on Wednesday morning when previous South African Barista Champion, Winston Thomas interviewed the Danish Barista Champion and owner of April Coffee in Copenhagen, Patrik Rolf who discussed his approach to coffee competitions.
Tastings, workshops, and demos
On Thursday and Friday, there were multiple coffee cuppings (tastings) and workshops that catered to coffee business owners and coffee consumers alike. From sensory rooms to equipment demonstrations and access to international coffee professionals, Creative Coffee Week was a coffee enthusiast’s dream.
This was followed by two mornings of lectures led by South African coffee professionals sharing their insights into the industry. The line-up of talks included:
• The Challenges of Sourcing Coffee at The Southern Tip of Africa by Jorge Alberto (Origin Coffee Roasters), Dario Scilipoti (Bluebird Coffee Roastery) Adele de Villiers (Zuka Green) and Warren Fenner (RMB)
• Leveraging Big Business Strategies for Specialty Coffee Success by Miranda Caldwell (The Coffee MBA)
• What Do Cafe Customers Want: The Psychology of Choosing Your Local Caffeine Dealer by Salman Khan
• From the Ground Up: A Case Study in Yemen by Andrew Nicholson
• Building a Brand by Patrik Rolf
• Door-to-Door Delivery in Coffee by Ryan Solomon (The Barn Owl Coffee), Johann Peek (Beverage Seal) and Lizl Hinderberger (vida e caffe)
• Sustainability and How it Protects the Future of Coffee by Wilmie Cronje
• Rainforest Alliance 2023 Goals by Marla Naidoo (Rainforest Alliance)
• How to Make Sustainability in Coffee Easier by Wilmie Cronje, Marla Naidoo, Daniel Pretorius (4WKs Coffee) and Chris Hall-Jones (Lizzard)
• A workshop on exploring espresso sensorily and The Future of Training in Coffee by Stevo Kühn, André Blignaut, Samantha Naidoo. and Miranda Caldwell.
Creative Coffee Week continues to be a place for those in the coffee industry to collaborate, as well as curious coffee consumers looking to learn more about coffee from the experts - and how to grow into the future of coffee.
