La Cimbali look back fondly on the Cup North event from the start to the finale
Cup North – full speed ahead!
The La Cimbali team first heard about Cup North whilst visiting customers in the North of England. The trip also included a visit to a developing site for Dark Woods Coffee Roastery just outside of Huddersfield, where Coffee Specialist Rob Ward and Sales Executive Sarah Dyson discussed the growing speciality and artisan coffee scene in Leeds, Manchester and the surrounding areas. The talk soon turned to the inaugural Cup North event and that the organisers were looking for key sponsors, so it wasn’t long before La Cimbali had committed to become part of this exciting northern coffee festival.
Rob Ward explains that things went full speed ahead from then on! “The next day we went to see Dark Woods at an old mill in a picturesque setting in the foothills of the Pennines, but at this stage we didn’t know that their vintage Probat roaster would soon be producing some exceptional coffees to be featured at Cup North alongside us too! Then as Cup North drew nearer and the social media buzz increased, more stands signed up as people realised that this was going to be an event not to be missed, and I was glad that we had become part of it early on.
We decided to showcase our M100 HD traditional coffee machine with pressure profile technology, as well as the M34 with PGS (self-adjusting grinder). To enhance the fact that we could create different moods with the pressure profile technology we featured a musical playlist on the stand with different flavours from R&B, Rare Groove, Indie Guitar through to New Folk – an eclectic mix, but one that would fit in well with the feel of the event. Plus, we had teamed up with Dark Woods to supply some coffee for our machines just a week before the start, so we were raring to go.
As the doors opened on the exhibition, people poured in – both public and trade to look at what was going on, and as La Cimbali was one of the first stands, it seemed a logical place to stop for a first hit of coffee. We had both Paul and Damian from Dark Woods working with us on the stand and talking about both the coffee and machines. It was good to see and hear such great feedback on what we were producing with the help of a little technology from both the M100 and M34 coffee machines that showed how differing levels of control and creativity can be available on a machine to help the skilled barista.
It was an exciting 2 days being part of this inaugural celebration of the exploding northern coffee scene, and partnering with Dark Woods experimenting with different ideas in coffee whilst focusing on flavour and quality. We chatted with lots of different people on their experiences of the coffee world…….and with one main thought – how do we keep exploring and developing what we do – there must always be more!”
