OUR VISIT TO NOTTINGHAM COFFEE FESTIVAL
On 22nd October 2022 Co-Founders Alice and Ben spent the day meeting some incredible coffee roasters and amazing small business at the Nottingham Coffee Festival. Organisers Matt & Josh did a great job hosting the first coffee festival in Nottingham and managed to bring together a brilliant community of coffee lovers, roasters, home baristas, local cafe owners and industry professionals all under the roof in a beautiful venue that was St Mary’s Church. We loved meeting new faces and reconnecting with old, here’s our round up of the event, who was there and who to follow!
WHEN was it? Sat 22nd October, 2022
Where? St Mary's church, lace market, High pavement , Nottingham, NG1 1HN
Who did we meet?
200 degrees & Switch up
So why are they called 200 DEGREES? They tend to roast their coffee at a slightly lower temperature than normal of 200 degrees centigrade that tends to yield its smoother, deeper taste. The coffee is then served at around 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now they have fifteen 200 Degrees coffee shops and six barista schools in the UK as well as hundreds of happy wholesale and business customers enjoying their ‘beans and machines’!
One thing we loved about 200 degrees, was their commitment to Switch Up. They were on the stand next to us, and this initiative is designed to help kids out on the streets move away from crime and learn new skills and find a purpose.
Outpost coffee
Outpost is a small, independent & focused specialty coffee roastery based in Nottingham, England. At their core, they’re a group of specialty coffee people on a journey, not too dissimilar to the one you’re probably on right now. We had a great long chat with Marko (in the pic below with Alice!) who heads up their marketing team. His passion for Outpost and coffee was incredible! We also love their tote bags, which aren’t too dissimilar to ours!
Bear
“BEAR wasn't built in a day”
The story of BEAR starts with 2 best buds: Craig and Michael. The pair grew up together, copied each others work at school, and spent most of their teenage years trying to out-skill each other on their skateboards. Fast forward to adulthood - Craig spent some time travelling around Australia and fell in love with the all-day coffee, cocktails & dining scene over there.
After Craig returned to the UK, he decided that he wanted to bring some of that fabulous coffee culture to his hometown of Uttoxeter and so recruited the help of his oldest pal, Michael, to get things off the ground. Craig & Michael got their heads together and set about researching the market, learning all they could and developing new skills with a view to create something super special.
BEAR Uttoxeter was the most anticipated store opening on the High Street, finally opening its doors in February 2016, and has been the busiest coffee spot in town ever since. Following the success of store number 1, our Founding Investor Chris Price joined the team to enable Craig & Michael to develop their vision for BEAR. The brand has now grown to employ over 90 people in our physical stores, online store and Central HQ, and spans across the midlands and beyond!
Stewarts coffee
We were on the stand next to Stewarts, and what a great team they are!
Their story starts with Nottingham coffee visionary Stewart Falconer, hand roasting coffee in the 80’s, before the word “artisan” even existed. After a few cups of the good stuff during his travels abroad, he made it his mission to make quality coffee the norm, not the exception. They still carry on his his tradition and are proud doing so! The original roaster he bought for the job all those years ago is still a part of the furniture today.
Cartwheel coffee
These guys had the coolest merch on the day! We loved their tee’s. The design of their packaging is beautiful too!
Having always had a passion for serving the people of Nottingham, Alex decided to launch his first café in the city centre alongside his wife, Becci. They intentionally designed the café and attached coffee roastery to create the best in-café environment and culture possible, serving both exceptionally high-quality food and coffee—an unfamiliar concept at that time.
Sustainability is super important to them and their packaging is 100% recyclable, and the tasting cards are made from recycled coffee cups which we love. Waste chaff and grounds from the roastery go to allotments to be used in compost. And their energy comes from 100% renewable sources—even the fuel for our electric van.
Kickback coffee
We’ve been following these guys for a while and will hopefully feature them in the RiSE coffee box soon!
The story is simple; it began as a hobby for Alex and grew into something significantly bigger. Thanks to Alex’s friends and family loving what he was doing, it began the journey to make Kickback Coffee into a business. Since 2017, they have been putting out a new single origin roast each month, sampling some incredible coffees and meeting some amazing people along the way. At Kickback Coffee, their aim is to get fresh roasted, high quality, unique tasting coffees out to you wonderful people.
”We often get asked, “What does Kickback mean?” and this leads to so many interesting interpretations, which we love. That being said, Kickback to us means ‘to hang with friends, adventure and enjoy life’ and it’s exactly how we intend to continue doing things”
and…Thats a wrap!
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