The 2019 Los Angeles Coffee Festival is coming! Festivities run from November 8th-10th at Magic Box by The Reef, the global events space in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets are still available! Buy your tickets today.
Sprudge has partnered with the LA Coffee Festival to bring you previews and on-site coverage from the event all weekend long, part of an international partnership that includes coverage of events in New York City and London. (Click here to read our favorite moments from October’s New York Coffee Festival 2019 event.) Be sure to follow us on Instagram for live coverage from the event. Now in its second year, the LA event promises to be chocked full of coffee festival goodness, so let’s dig in to some of what’s got us buzzing going into event weekend.
As we celebrate the city of Los Angeles and its world class coffee scene at LA Coffee Festival, our hearts go out to victims of the wild fires raging acros California. Click here for more information on how to donate to those affected by the fires, and much love to our readers across California.
The Competitions
The Coffee Masters Tournament is coming to Los Angeles for the very first time, and we could not be more pumped! 16 contenders will compete across seven disciplines in a madcap weekend-long battle of barista skills, walking away with a cash prize and big time prize packages. This year’s tournament is sponsored by Slayer, Mahlkonig, Hario, Straus Family Creamery, and Califia Farms, and features a global cadre of top flight competitive talent. Judges include Anne Lunell, Bronwen Serna, Michelle Johnson, Ben Kaminsky, and David Donde and your MCs through the weekend are Lem Butler and Erika Vonie.
LACF is also home to the incredible Latte Art Live, a weekend-long series of competitions dedicated to the beautiful world of latte art. The stage is sponsored by Mahlkonig, Astoria, Califia Farms, and Straus Family Creamery, and will feature interactive latte art contests, demos, and much more. Don’t miss the chance to learn from accomplished pros like Dylan Siemens (Onyx Coffee Lab), Nicely Abel (Menotti’s), Michelle Johnson and Tricia Lu, and World Latte Art Champion Arnon Thitiprasert.
The Experiences
LACF is about much more than just on-stage action. Attendees can expect a range of unique experiences across three days of showfloor fun, so be sure to see it all. From incredible coffee at the La Marzocco Home Espresso bar, to wide ranging coffee flavor experiences at The Tasting Lab, to a coffee cocktail bar curated by Oban Whisky, Black Cow, and Licor 43, there’s something for everyone at the show. Plus you can expect an epic range of booth exhibitors, featuring top brands like Spirit Tea, Rishi Tea, notNeutral, Oatly, Intelligentsia, Hario, Ikawa, Faema, Coffee Manufactory, and many more.
One of our favorite recurring options at these festivals come in the form of The Lab, a cutting edge quorum of qualified speakers presenting on fascinating coffee topics. This year’s LA edition is packed with stuff you’ll want to see, but we’re especially excited for Friday’s roasters panel featuring Andrew Sinclair of MadLab Coffee (moderator), Edward Cutcliffe of Little Marionette, Sam Sabori of Intelligentsia and Adam Strauss of Unity Coffee; Saturday’s home espresso presentation by known nice guys Ben Blake and Dave Bise of La Marzocco Home; and Sunday’s Women In Coffee panel featuring Erika Vonie (moderator), Maya Albert of Devoción, Debbie Wei Mullen of Copper Cow Coffee, Kristi Persinger of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and Stephanie Alcala and Sarah Dooley of Slayer Espresso.
The Vibe
LACF is all about the vibe: music, art, street food and much more. Check out what’s happening in The Innovation Zone, sneak a bite at a food demo in The Kitchen, visit the Coffee Art Project for a range of original artworks related to coffee and the coffee shop experience, check out live music at the Coffee Music Project, catch a film at The Movie Room, and that’s just the start. A full list of what’s happening is available at the official Los Angeles Coffee Festival website, and follow @Sprudge on Instagram for coverage all weekend long.
Disclosure: Allegra Events, presenters of the NY Coffee Festival, are an advertising partner on Sprudge Media Network.
