Keen On Coffee? Meet the World’s Top Roasters at Cherry Coffee Festival Mar 23-24

There’s so much more to coffee than flavor, aroma, and caffeine rushes. That's the message that Lin Shin, organizer and founder of the first annual Cherry Coffee Festival, will be espousing this weekend as she teaches Beijing about the wider world of coffee culture.

Aside from inviting famous roasters and beans experts from the US and across Asia to the Mar 23-24 event at the east end 24H Gear Square Creative Park (near Dalianpo subway station on Line 6), the fest will also feature talks about sustainability, technology, and the innovative methods that are driving the global coffee scene forward.

Lin says: “In Beijing, a lot of people’s coffee knowledge is limited to what’s in their cup – they’ll know about famous beans like geisha, but not as much about how growers who are trying to become more sustainable, or about single-origin coffee” (the latter being a more exclusive variation grown within a single known locale, be it a particular farm or a type of bean from a single country).

Among the experts who will give talks on such topics at the festival is Samuel Sabori, head of roasting at renowned Chicago retailer Intelligentsia Coffee. Lin says she was especially excited to invite Sabori to speak about specialty coffees and industry innovation because “Intelligentsia is one of the top three most influential coffee brands in the world, and they pioneered the idea of buying beans directly from growers, which is now commonplace.”

Other speakers include Emi Fukahori, champion of the 2018 World Brewers Cup and Irvine Quek, the 2018 World Latte Art Championship winner. Enticing as all that might be, bean fiends will likely be lured by the opportunity to try a range of international varieties that they may not have otherwise had access to. Highlights include the aforementioned Intelligentsia Coffee and fellow American brand Stumptown Coffee (which is highly regarded in its own right), along with Tokyo’s The Local Coffee Stand, Hong Kong’s Hush Hush, not to mention a range of local vendors.

As well as sharing her love of coffee with fellow Beijingers, Lin is also just happy to contribute to local coffee culture. Such prospects seemed dim last April when she lost the lease at her three-year-old Qianmen-adjacent Living Room café and was forced to shut it down.

“While looking for a new space, and thinking about what else to do with specialty coffee in Beijing, I came up with an idea for this festival,” she says, adding that it's her hope to “bring in international coffee people that we admire, and show Beijingers specialty coffee from more diverse angles.”

For a full breakdown of the Cherry Coffee Festival’s speakers, vendors, location, and schedule, click here.

Read: How (and Where) to Order the Perfect Cup of Coffee in Beijing.

Photos: Unplash, bigbendcoffeeroasters.com, berjaya.edu.my