It’s no secret I love my coffee, I was recently invited to London, UK with NESPRESSO for their brand showcase in London. Two jammed days, but what an experience.

Whenever I’ve been in London, I stay quite Central or in the west. On this trip, they put me down at the Hoxton in Shoreditch and I must say, minus the fact that the rooms felt like shoeboxes – what a trendy spot to stay in – especially if you’re a cover lover as it’s in the midst of several coffee roasteries. The hotel is quite busy, and happening (they have properties in Holborn, London and Amsterdam – which il have to check out one day)

The trip commenced with a morning start to the NESPRESSO Cafe – the second concept in the world (the first one is in Vienna) and opened a few months ago (27th June, to be exact). They serve a great range of delicious food (supplied by Do&co), pressed juices to of course, Nespresso Coffee. The cafe also has a Nespresso cube for quick orders for your coffee at home, and sell approximately 60,000 a week from the cube.

Once we spent the morning there, we headed to the main venue – a pop up for the week called Atelier Nespresso where we were divided into groups to experience a range of concepts. The first workshop was called ‘Sydney – The Serve’ – which consisted of learning how to make a flat white (use full fat milk for your flat whites), before being taught by social media experts on how to photograph them – i.e. use day light, use props to tell your story, stand on a stool for the perfect flat lay- and lastly, use textures to make your photos more interesting (personally, that was my favorite). The next workshop was around the main reason why were in London for the press trip, ‘Rio – the Ritual’ which was a journey into Rio, and Brazilian coffee – as well as understanding the way they source, and around the Brazil launch, which is the largest producer of coffee in the world (43.2 million bags are sourced from Brazil every year!). If you like your coffee dark roasted, instense with a walnut and sandalwood body, this is one to try out.

The last two workshops were ‘Paris – the taste’, where a university professor and Karsten, the head of coffee took us into a sensory journey of coffee (which many of you asked about on snapchat!). Lastly, it was all about sustainability – and understanding how important it is to Nespresso, the brand. The workshop was called ‘Juba’ and was led by Alexis, head of coffee development.

To end the trip, and the day – we had a special dinner at Atelier Nespresso. A dinner led by Michelin starred chef, Anthony Demetre where he included Nespresso coffee into some of his dishes like the Roast Wild Pigeon. My favorite part was of course, the dessert – think cinnamon and orange tartlet and a salted caramel crunchy stick.

Thank you Nespresso for an exciting journey of coffee!