World of Coffee 2022: Thoughts from Ringtons’ Green Coffee Buyer

The first World of Coffee event in three years held in Milan did not disappoint. World of Coffee, organised by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), is one of the largest European trade shows for the coffee industry and comprises exhibits from coffee machines companies, roaster manufacturers and green coffee, tea and chocolate companies. Additionally, the Roaster Village is an excellent place to try coffees from roasters located all around the world. This year also saw an increasing number of origin organisations and national coffee bodies exhibit on behalf of coffee growers in their country, making World of Coffee the ideal place for industry professionals to meet representatives from every aspect of the bush to cup supply chain.

There was also an array of lectures, workshops and SCA events such as the World Cupping Championship, World Latte Art championships and Coffee Design Awards making this a truly immersive coffee event for all the senses!

In my role representing Ringtons, one of the aims for the event was to meet some of our green coffee suppliers, particularly those who assist us in the immense challenge of moving our coffee from the producers in origin countries across the world to our factory in Newcastle. The global shipping environment has been very challenging post-Covid and those who support us in moving our containers across the world can often be the unsung heroes of the industry, so its great to meet people face to face and express our thanks.

I also wanted to use this opportunity to meet potential new suppliers to work with, and was able to attend cuppings with cooperatives and exporters from Brazil and Uganda. Trade shows are a great place to meet many potential new suppliers and be able to talk face to face about our requirements as a roaster and their needs as suppliers.

I also was lucky enough to have a catch up with a representative from our Brazilian coffee supplier, a cooperative named COOMAP based in Paraguaçu, Minas Gerais. It was great to chat about our mutual visits to each other and discuss how our long term relationship with them is going from strength to strength! COOMAP is a Fairtrade certified cooperative and their coffee forms a very important part of our Fairtrade Blend. We aim to discuss potential joint projects which Ringtons and COOMAP could work on in 2023, so it was great to catch up.

I then went to a cupping hosted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), a Ugandan governmental agency, and had a chat to the staff there. We discussed farmer education and training programs, and I asked their views on how programs like Volcafe Way benefit coffee growing regions. Happily, they confirmed that these programs are hugely beneficial to the areas, as they a) support work done by the UCDA, who lack resources to serve the entire country and b) form part of task forces with the UCDA and other key stakeholders to have two-way conversations about best practises.

World of Coffee was also a great place to see new technology demonstrations. In our cupping lab we currently have an Ikawa Pro 3 for sample roasting, but I was interested to see the new Ikawa Pro 100, which has an increased capacity of 100g for sample roasts. Ikawa also demonstrated their new app called Ikawa Cup, a free cupping tool which can be used to analyse coffee samples quickly and easily.

Finally, it was heart-warming to see so much support for the Ukrainian coffee industry at World of Coffee. At the time of the expo, Ukraine had been battling the Russian invasion for almost four months, and it was great to see the industry pulling together to support our community in Ukraine. 100% of admission fees from the show were to be donated to Ukrainian coffee business and professionals affected or displaced by the invasion, and there were an array of yellow and blue Brewista kettles on almost every stand around the show to show solidarity and support.