Creative Coffee Week kicks off in Durban bringing the biggest names in global coffee

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Patrik Rolf, from April Coffee in Denmark, is a four-time finalist at a World Level – a coffee roaster, a barista and renown influencer in the world of coffee and for the first time ever will be visiting South Africa and will be presenting the latest trends in global coffee to top coffee industry professionals, roasters, baristas and coffee business owners.

CCW will also host the April Brewers Cup, reportedly the first of its kind in the country, with top baristas from around the country competing including two former SA Barista Champions and two Cup Tasters Champions.

Rolf will also be joined at Creative Coffee Week by the doyen of Yemeni coffee, Andrew Nicholson, from Windrose Coffee in Oman, who has spent over 20 years working with the most highly sought after Yemeni coffee. He is a Coffee Q-Grader, an international coffee judge and authority on the coffee landscape in the Middle East.

Miranda Caldwell, The Coffee MBA, will be bringing her insights into the business side of coffee. Caldwell’s career has been a two-decade winding path of working with specialty coffee roasters. She’s been a COO, green buyer, sales leader, product marketing manager, educator, barista, café manager, and more.

Coffee industry professionals from all over South Africa will gather at FNB’s Acacia House on Umhlanga Ridge to listen to these international VIP guests, taste some very rare coffees, and learn about the latest international trends in coffee – from agriculture, to processing methods, coffee trading, roasting and brewing coffee at the highest levels.

“It is a huge privilege to be hosting these international names and local talent right here in our hometown of Durban,” says Melanie Winter, editor-at-large of Coffee Magazine, and co-founder of Creative Coffee Week.

“People pay thousands of Euros to fly to Europe or the US to listen to these incredible coffee personalities speak about these important topics, and we have been able to secure their presence here in the beautiful Durban winter, during this educational and inspirational conference on the calendar! We are grateful to our Partners who make it possible for us to bring a little bit of the global coffee world to our community.”

FNB has partnered with Creative Coffee Week since its inception.

Jayendran Pillay, Regional Head, FNB Commercial in KwaZulu-Natal, speaks to the partnership. “At FNB, we understand that businesses are the backbone of the economy, and we will continue providing them with meaningful support to enable them to grow. This initiative demonstrates the real help we are providing, through our support for the coffee sector in South Africa, across the entire value chain, as we see its value in terms of job creation, from SMEs all the way through to large scale coffee operations. We see the coffee sector adding value to most South Africans every day and truly believe in being more than “just banking” to our clients and therefore partnering in such events allows us keep to our promise of Help."