After an incredible four days of coffee celebration, the visitors of The London Coffee Festival were asked to vote for their favourite stands, festival experiences and most innovative products.

With more than 1,100 people taking part in the survey a clear set of winners emerged including Union Hand-Roasted, Starbucks Coffee Co. United Coffee, Ozone Coffee Roasters and teapigs.

Union Hand-Roasted took home both the Most Engaging Stand Experience and Ultimate Coffee Experience awards. The artisan roastery, based in East London, bought its legendary San Francisco roaster to the festival to conduct live roasting on-site.

“We are thrilled to win not one but two London Coffee Festival visitor awards. The festival was a really great experience and the level of enthusiasm from the visitors was infectious. After each demonstration so many spectators stayed behind to ask questions and discover what makes speciality coffee a genuinely unique experience. We’ll definitely be back next year!” Said Jeremy Torz, Director, Union Hand-Roasted.

After live roasting sessions the team from Union Hand-Roasted invited visitors to taste the coffee and take part in a pro-triangulation taste test; creating an experience that allowed visitors to see the coffee journey from green bean to cup.

The Best Stand Design award went to Starbucks Coffee Co. who brought the Guatemalan experience to London, with the launch of their first single origin espresso from Guatemala. The Starbucks stand, which was designed to replicate a Guatemalan farm, was completed with photo booth and various interactive activities throughout the weekend.

The Make Decent Coffee Lounge was another festival favourite, winning the Favourite Festival Feature award. Make Decent Coffee invited visitors to sample the same coffee using four different home-brewing methods (the V60, Chemex, Aeropress and Cafetiere) to show the effects preparation methods have on taste.

ROK Espresso was awarded Most Innovative Product for their ROK Espresso Maker – the manual espresso maker that lets users feel the experience of pulling the water through the coffee grind and prepare it to personal taste.

Coffee was not the only order of the day, tea companies were out in full force at the festival and for the second year running teapigs received the prize for Best Tea Experience. The tea experts were showcasing their range of tea pyramids with an iced tea offering as well as sampling the renowned Matcha, which is said to have 70 times the amount of antioxidants as orange juice.

The Favourite Artisan Market Stall prize was awarded to Alchemy and the Roast Hog took home the prize for Best Street Food Stall.

Ozone Coffee Roasters were awarded the Best Newcomer award – a category added by festival organisers this year to recognise overall exceptional feedback for first time exhibitors.

“Exhibitors at this year’s festival really raised the bar in terms of stand design and creating engaging visitor experiences. We really encourage our partners to think outside the box and get creative – coffee is a vibrant industry and we wanted the event to represent that”, added Ludovic Rossignol, Head of Events for Allegra Events.

The London Coffee Festival took place from 25-28 April reaching unprecedented attendee levels of 16,209 (a 38% increase from 11,728 in 2012), attracted more than 160 exhibitors and raised more than £50,000 for Project Waterfall, the charitable initiative delivering clean drinking water in African coffee-making countries.

FULL LIST OF AWARDS

Favourite Key Feature

Make Decent Coffee Lounge

Ultimate Coffee Experience

Union Hand-Roasted ‘Roastery on Tour’

Most Engaging Stand Experience

Union Hand-Roasted ‘Roastery on Tour’

Favourite Stand Design

Starbucks

Best Tea Experience

Teapigs

Favourite Artisan Market Stall

Alchemy Coffee

Street Food Market

Roast Hog

Most Innovative Product

ROK espresso maker

Best Newcomer Award

Ozone Coffee Roasters