Glasgow Coffee Festival: Part One

Glasgow Coffee Festival: Part One

On Saturday December 6th, 2014, a small but nevertheless grand building called The Briggait played host to the first ever Glasgow Coffee Festival. The event was attended by over eight hundred coffee enthusiasts and proved a great success, despite what might charitably be described as inclement weather. It was also the setting for the third and final heat of the 2015 UK Barista Championships.

I was there primarily to support Joe Meagher, aka Flat Cap Joe, owner of the eponymous Flat Caps Coffee in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. To quote Steve Leighton of Has Bean, Joe is a ‘serial competitor’ in the UKBC; he was the Northern Barista Champion in both 2013 and 2014, and has made it through to the finals twice. Indeed, if you visit Flat Caps Coffee, you’ll be greeted by an intimidating array of awards.

We set off from a dark and frosty Newcastle at about seven o’clock in the morning and arrived in Glasgow shortly before ten. The competition didn’t really get going until later in the day, but with twenty-six exhibitors  and who-even-knows-how-many coffees on offer, there was plenty else to be getting on with.

On arriving at The Briggait, a building of high ceilings and low temperatures, I made a beeline for the CoffeeHit stand. The stand was being manned by James Andrews, a friend and former colleague, who was showcasing some cool coffee-brewing kit – including this thing, which now has the distinction of being the only item on my Christmas list. James and I worked together briefly at Pink Lane Coffee back when he lived in Newcastle, and he actually taught me how to tamp correctly, so it was good to catch up.

Speciality coffee is indeed a small world.

Stay tuned for part two, which will be all about the final heat of this year’s UKBC.

This piece was originally published on blackcoffeeandotherstories.wordpress.com in December 2014.