World of Coffee 2022 - Milan, Italy

For the past 2 years the World of Coffee has been cancelled for understandable reasons, but the time had finally come for the coffee community to gather once again. This time the destination was the city of Milan, in the heart of Italy, the home of espressos.

With over 400 exhibitors, best new product competitions, coffee world championships and lots of cupping sessions and workshops on the menu it was an exciting 3 days. 11,000 attendees from over 137 countries travelled from near and far to take part of the event.

There was not just one but five world coffee championships to watch with admiration and the roasters village had never been more buzzing. Decadent Decaf was of course on site to check out what’s been happening in the world of coffee during the past few years, to gather inspiration and have some interesting meetings with potential suppliers of some delicious new and interesting coffees.

 With a whopping 35C outside it felt great to get inside the exhibition halls at the Fiera Milano Congressi. When entering from the second floor, we could look over the ground floor from our bird’s view, two large exhibition halls filled with exhibitors that were ready to show us the best on the market, the air buzzing with excitement and visitors buzzing from overconsumption of caffeine. 

On stage the World Latte Art Championship, World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, World Cup Tasters Championship, World Roasting Championship, and Ibrik Championship took place over the 3 days. Events that are very exciting for baristas and the coffee community in general and the price is highly coveted by the participants.

Our old and dear friends at Swiss Water Decaf were exhibiting and brewing up some new and exciting coffees that we had a chance to try. Based on this little cupping session, I’m thrilled to let you in on a little secret, we will be launching some delicious guest coffees in the next few months.

We also met up with Daterra coffee and found out about all the work they have been doing with Lo caf coffee. Varietals like Laurina and & Amarosa that are naturally low in caffeine. Producing less than 50%, many times closer to 30% of the caffeine of a normal Arabica varietal. We got a chance to try some of these varietals and let me be the first one to tell you that this coffee tastes Amazing with a capital A! Bursting with flavours of apple and citrus and producing a beautiful clean cup.

We left the show feeling excited about the future of coffee but also with a bit of a reality check, it’s key that we take care of mother nature. Coffee prices have shot up in the last year and this is due to the shortage of coffee beans. Production of coffee is extremely impacted by climate change. Extreme heat, drought, torrential rain, hurricanes etc. all affecting the production of coffee. We must do all we can to become carbon neutral and leave as little negative impact on nature as we can. It’s brilliant to see so that there are so many producers and roasters coming up with new and innovative solutions to improve their part of the coffee production chain.

 Unless any unforeseen circumstances come into play, we look forward to next year’s event in Athens, Greece and until then we will put our newfound knowledge and connections into good use so that all of you get to enjoy the best of coffee (in the format of the decaf) that the world has to offer…