On February 12-13, 2022, the seventh Warsaw Coffee Festival took place at the Palace of Culture and Science. This time to prepare a photo report from the entire fair, I was asked to take photos for the Caffe Grano team, with whom I have already cooperated on product, image and other coffee fairs. By the way, my wife also appeared, who also drinks coffee from Caffe Grano. You can find her on Instagram as @bigajek. By the way, lighten on her profile the discount code in Caffe Grano.
Fair at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw
The Palace of Culture and Science is a great place to organize fairs primarily due to its location, it is also a large place for this type of event. Unfortunately, such a location of the event attracts a lot of random guests who want to come only for a moment to check what is going on and the queue winds up like in berea movies. After all, there are often cool events here that are worth coming to, such as:
- Wedding Fair
- Natural Cosmetics Fair Ekopiękno
- Warsaw Book Fair
- Franchise Fair
- Vege Festival
- Shoe and Handbag Fair
- Job Fair
- MUSTACHE.pl YARD SALE
However, I am a little bothered by the space in which they are usually organized, since it is a horseshoe-shaped space that we pass through and only sometimes we have double forks. Most of the stands stand in one sequence, which makes it easy to see and not miss any exhibitor. However, in such a system, traffic jams and bottlenecks often become by groups that will stand in such a passage and block traffic. This problem does not exist in trade fairs in Expo halls, where stands are even more sincere, there are more open spaces, and alleys cross in several places and it is easier for us to turn back, instead of being pulled by a flowing crowd of people.
Once I went here for photos with a photo backpack and although I was standing still, every now and then someone hooked me and made it difficult to take pictures. The next time I limited myself to a regular backpack, in which I had ready equipment, and left an empty backpack in a safe place. Although at such events, however, it is difficult to be able to leave something in a safe place under lock and key.
Warsaw Coffee Festival
According to the organizers, the Warsaw Coffe Festival is “The biggest coffee event in this part of Europe!”. For me, fairs like fairs, but in the era of the pandemic it is actually a big event, although large trade fairs remind me of the Expo hall or Ptak Expo, not to mention events like CES in Berlin, where it is difficult to walk all the stands in one series in one day. Not to mention visiting each of them. Despite everything, I consider the Warsaw Coffee Festival to be a big event, because there were so many exhibitors that you can easily spend two days there to visit each stand and learn a little about each of the exhibitors.
Workshop on coffee
At the Warsaw Coffe Festival, the Edu Zone was also organized, where trainings and presentations were organized. In this way, for two days you can learn a lot about coffee, its roasting and brewing techniques.
For an amateur, coffee is a powder in a bag, which you need to pour boiling water, pour milk and sweeten with a few teaspoons of sugar. However, you can talk about coffee all the time and constantly learn something new. During such events, you can find out from which regions of the world coffee is taken and who is behind it. Because there is a difference between independent roasters, which obtain coffee from plantations and fair supply chains, and such behemoths as Starbucks, who see it only as a business and have somewhere that their beans are collected by children, who get for it in terms of our some 20 zlotys a day. It probably wasn’t at the fair, but it’s worth knowing if your beautiful cup with a signed jackdaw does not support exploitation. Returning to the topic of coffee.
You can also say a lot about the water itself, before we even pour coffee, that’s what to talk about. And once we have boiled water, you need to know the right temperature to pour it. Somewhere in the middle of the road, the topics of grinding coffee begin, under specific techniques and how to apply them. A lot of it? Exactly. At the Coffee Warsaw Festival there was a lot of patience, because good coffee requires it. I find out for myself using a simple grinder, Chemex and refills at home to brew my wife’s favorite coffee.
Barista competition
In addition to the workshops on coffee, there were also barista competitions:
- Polish Coffee in Good Spirits Championship
- Polish Barista Championship
- Cezve/ Ibrik Polish Championship
Unfortunately, I was not there and I am too thin in my ears to speak on these topics, so I will only mention that they were, but I did not take pictures there.
Fairs during the Covid-19 epidemic
I will not write what is necessary according to the government, because it is changing, but I will say how I see it. What is officially said on this subject can be found on the gov.pl website, where the Guidelines for trade fair organizers during the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland are described. In short, there are some restrictions on the number of people per square meter, but vaccinated people are not counted. So in one place there can be 10 vaccinated people and 150 vaccinated people who are in contact with elbows.
Expectations versus reality at the fair
What does it look like in practice? Most of the events are based on the division of such a division, but from what I noticed, it counts the people vaccinated at the entrance, but no one looks who left. In this way, the proportions change and after some time it is not known whether mainly unvaccinated people came out and more can enter, or a vaccinated person who was not taken into account. In practice, the fair looks like our communication place in Warsaw. Crowds who are waiting in a warm passage, so that you can barely get through such a queue, because people get on their backs, just closer to the entrance. It’s also really tight inside, and even if everyone were vaccinated, I don’t see the logic in it, because you can still transmit the disease – any. I will not drill down further on the subject, but I understand a little the indignation of the so-called. foilers for such absurdities.
Well, I will only attach that vaccinated people are asked to show certificates. Nobody has such an obligation, so if someone does such a party, or runs a catering business and does not want to lose a customer, do you think that he will refuse to enter someone because he does not want to show him? I found out about it myself several times in various places, where it becomes an unnecessary formality and I even heard texts like “You can of course not show them, so there is no problem. And so you will enter.” I think that everyone has their own mind and should always keep common sense when going to such events.
Caffe Grano stand at warsaw coffee festival
At the Warsaw Coffee Festival I was invited by Caffe Grano – a local coffee roaster from Warsaw, which works with coffee on many fronts. From our own coffee roaster and its sale, to comprehensive office service by providing coffee machines, their service, and own fresh coffee. They choose the beans themselves and how to roast them, so they can offer fresh coffees with the best smell and aroma. Since I tried their coffee, I stopped buying it in supermarkets, and over time I also equipped myself with my own grinder, coffee maker, overflow and frencza. From now on I know what coffee should taste like, thanks to Caffe Grano.
On the occasion of the Warsaw Coffee Festival – Caffe Grano prepared its own coffee, specially brewed for this occasion. An additional attraction at the fair was the cooperation with the On Lemon brand, which prepared a special #espressotonic from the combination of its tonics and coffee from Caffe Grano, and fresh herbs. It was a unique opportunity to try such flavors, because it is not every day that there is such a possibility, the more that the festival coffee sold out very quickly. What you could hear about her was:
“Coffees from Mexico are often characterized by pleasant, dessert aromas, such as cocoa, roasted nuts or spices. It is no different in this case. The infusion of El Triunfo is a blend of notes of dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts, caramel, sweet peach and orange with a smooth, velvety body and a long, cocoa-nougat finish.”
Igor Stiskun
So it’s no wonder it quickly disappeared in those two days.
