Tea & Coffee World Cup Aligns with the UK’s Consumption Habits

As I write this column I am on a plane en route to the United Kingdom for Tea & Coffee World Cup. It doesn’t seem possible that TCWC Singapore was one year ago, but the 2018 show – in Birmingham, England – is already upon us, and it will be an exciting one as it’s our first TCWC to be held in the UK.

Tea and coffee consumption habits across Great Britain are changing, with more consumers embracing specialty coffee and tea drinkers expanding their tastes beyond black tea. In its 2018 The Tea Report, Tetley writes, “Café culture is no longer simply restricted to coffee shops; we’re becoming a nation of food and drink connoisseurs both in-home and out, increasingly seeking new and exciting hot beverage trends to try. From nitro coffee to turmeric-infused tea, the battle between the coffee bean and the tea-leaf is heating up.”

According to Tetley’s report, 53% of tea drinkers also drink coffee, while 43% of coffee consumers also drink tea. Given all these factors, the UK is ripe for an exhibition and symposium such as Tea & Coffee World Cup. This year’s show, which runs 3-5 September, offers an augmented events schedule, featuring tea classes headed by Jane Pettigrew of the UK Tea Academy, coffee classes run by the London School of Coffee, Ally Coffee and James Aimer, as well as presentations by companies and organisations such as the Specialty Coffee Association, INTL FCStone, Euromonitor International, Olam Specialty Coffee, Marco Beverage Systems, Probat-Werke, and The Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group, among numerous others.

Presentations cover a wide array of topics including: Why Your Customers Deserve Better — Why Good Tea Matters, Biodegradable Tea Bags: An Industry Dilemma, The Changing Specialty Coffee Culture in the UK, Organic Coffee and Tea: Current Trends and Prospects for Growth, Farm to Cup – A Specialty Focus, and How Designers Can Create Better Tea and Coffee Experiences, to name just a few.

The Alliance for Coffee Excellence will be showcasing a selection of Cup of Excellence winners from the recent Rwanda and Burundi competitions, coffees which will be going up for auction in just a few weeks.

The aforementioned is a mere sampling of the roster of coffee and tea classes, and presentations that will be held during Tea & Coffee World Cup. For more information or to register, visit: www.tcworldcup.com.

On behalf of my Bell Publishing colleagues, we hope you can join us in Birmingham!

Related content

Leave a reply

Tea & Coffee Trade Journal