The New York Coffee Festival is just two short weeks away. Taking place the weekend of October 11-13 at New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion, the NYCF is three days of interactive coffee, food, booze, art, and music. And of course, there’s the brand new Roast Masters competition.
But don’t get too jittery jazzed on coffee and coffee cocktails, because there are loads of cool learning opportunities taking place at The Lab throughout the course of the weekend. Designed to “offer visitors an array of interactive demonstrations, workshops and tasting sessions, as well as fascinating talks and lively debates on everything from creating healthier working environments for baristas to sustainability in the coffee industry,” The Lab has a little something for everyone, regardless of coffee skill level or professional involvement.
For coffee professionals looking to dive deep into career growth, there are talks on Baristastainability with Counter Culture‘s Jenna Gotthelf and Promoting Professional Development in Coffee with David Chou of Stumptown Coffee Roasters. For those looking to learn more about sustainability in the coffee sector, there is Can You Recycle That? Why You Should Care About the Life of Your Coffee Cup led by Cliff Albert of Seda Packaging as well as a panel discussion titled Discover the Blockers to Reduce and Reuse that will look at disposable cups and possible alternatives to them. You could attend A Sommeliers Approach to Coffee or learn more about The Women in Coffee Project.
There are cuppings, both of the first harvest from a women-owned wet mill in the Ngozi Province of Burundi, and a spice cupping led by DONA Chai, there’s a chocolate tasting, and there’s plant milk sampling.
The list of panels and talks just keeps growing, so to get a full roster of all the sessions, visit the New York Coffee Festival’s official website. And after you’ve got your learn on, then you can’t go ham on those coffee cocktails.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.