Cup North is a United Kingdom-based group that hosts events across the UK to bring greater accessibility to specialty coffee. They’ve helped put on events like the Dublin Coffee Festival, the Manchester Coffee Festival, and the Bermingham Coffee Festival. The group is run, in part, by Hannah Davies and Grace Talbot, two industry veterans who are also queer, and they have started an all-new event, the Queer Coffee Collective. Taking place Saturday, May 11th, the inaugural Queer Coffee Collective: Brews & Brunch event will be a day of food, education, and camaraderie for queer folks in the coffee industry.
Taking place at CAMP in Margate on England’s southeastern coast, the itinerary for the day is community first and coffee second, but there won’t be any shortage of coffee. The day kicks off at 11:00am with a cheeky little brunch, with fresh pastries provided by local baker Oast and coffee from Curve Coffee Roasters. Then, at 12:30pm, there will be a sauerkraut making workshop with led by Davies herself, a “fermented foods fanatic,” and each participant with get a jar of the good stuff to take home for themselves.
There will be a roastery tour of the Curve operations as well as a natural dye and plant ink workshop led by local fashion designer and materials scientist Eirinn Hayhow. Attendees will also get the chance to try their hand at coffee painting and there will be a demonstration on how used grounds gets transformed into coffee leather.
Finally, at 4:00pm there will be an espresso martini party at Forts Cafe. Non-alcoholic and non-caffeinated beverages option will also be available.
All the events at Queer Coffee Collective: Brews & Brunch can be attended individually, with different ticketing requirements and prices. Tickets for the brunch and sauerkraut class are £30, but the roastery tour, dyeing workshop, and espresso martini party are all free to attend (there is a £20 option for purchasing a shirt to use at the dyeing workshop if you don’t want to bring your own). Tickets to the brunch can be purchased on the Cup North website, and RSVPs for the roastery tour can be made via Eventbrite.
For more information, visit the Queer Coffee Collective: Brews & Brunch official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.