Lowther Show

Our commitment to raising the profile of speciality coffee in Cumbria continued last weekend at the hugely successful Lowther Show, near Penrith. It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and a great opportunity to talk to coffee drinkers, many of whom can now be considered ‘regulars’. It is quite humbling to discover that people have walked around the showground in an attempt to seek us out, having passed numerous coffee vendors in the process. Then there are the new faces – those people who take their first sip of our coffee and are quite taken aback by the flavour and smoothness. You get the feeling coffee will never quite be the same for them again.
Click to view slideshow.

The one aspect which continues to surprise me at these shows is how well received latte art is. Having worked in the coffee industry for coming up to 10 years now, it is easy to forget that so many people have yet to experience a well presented latte – the tall glass being the prefered serving option for so many Cumbrian establishments. While the gasps of astonishment are pleasing in one sense, it is sad that too few of our cafes, coffee shops and restaurants are not dedicating enough of their efforts to staff training in this respect.

As well as serving well-presented, delicious coffee, we also offered visitors an insight into the roasting process through displays and video. We were also given a slot on the demonstration stage to talk about coffee brewing – it really shows how far coffee has come in recent years that we are now being invited to participate in these events. We hope to build on this in coming months starting with the next Taste Cumbria event in Cockermouth, which promises to be our best yet!

All the coffees we loving crafted were given away at the show – we just wanted visitors to experience and enjoy speciality coffee. We did have a donations box on the bar and everyone was asked if they would like to drop in a few coins for the Great North Air Ambulance, our nominated charity for 2015. This weekend we managed to raise £1177 [1] and would like to pass on our thanks to everyone who stopped by to enjoy our coffee.


  1. This will be added to the total raised at other events this year – £900 at the Kendal Festival of Food, £550 at Taste Cumbria Ulverston and £600 at the Cumberland Show.  ↩