I love coffee. It makes me happy. I didn’t always have coffee in my life. In fact, we’ve only been friends for a little over two years. I hated it at first, but now, we are inseparable. Best friends even. I can’t imagine my life without it these days.

When I saw an advertisement for the New York Coffee Festival in the subway, I Googled it right away, and bought tickets. All of my favorite coffee shops were going to be there. And the best part? Endless free coffee tastings the whole day. I’m there!

Here are the details about the New York Coffee Festival. It was a delicious and informative NYC event that you don’t want to miss, especially for any foodies out there.

UPDATE September 2020 The 2020 New York Coffee Festival will be held on October 30th, virtually online. It will be a 12 hour non-stop online stream celebrating coffee, hospitality, culture, and lifestyle. Tickets are free. Also, the dates for the 2021 New York Coffee Festival have already been released. It will be from October 8-10, so mark your calendars!

Basic Information

What?–

New York’s flagship coffee event celebrating the coffee scene in New York City, with over eighty-five coffee and food suppliers.

Where?–

The Metropolitan Pavilion, 6th Avenue and West 18th St. All five floors were filled with all things coffee!

When?–

October 11 - 13, 2019, all day.

Price?–

$30 a ticket, children are free under the age of ten. 100% of proceeds support Project Waterfall. I recommend that you Google around for a coupon code if you want to save some money. Time Out Magazine may have one, or ask around at your favorite coffee shops in the city. They often have flyers for the festival with a coupon code listed on the back.

The Coffee Shops

New York City knows good coffee. It’s hard for me to choose where to get that favorite latte because I have so many favorites around the city. The New York Coffee Festival was full of the best coffee from Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was so fun walking through the five floors of the pavilion and seeing all of my favorite coffee shops in one area. I was in heaven! The problem was knowing what to prioritize first and how to drink all of this amazing coffee in one day. With your ticket comes endless free coffee samples, so as much coffee as you can drink!

Some of the favorites of the day were Devoción, Brooklyn Roasting Company, and Dr. Smood. I am in love with these three coffee shops for different reasons –

Devoción is a new favorite since visiting Williamsburg a month ago. Their coffee is so fresh with a harvest to cup time frame of only ten days. It’s the freshest coffee around!

Brooklyn Roasting Company has been a favorite coffee shop of mine for a while now. I die over their Maple Shay latte.

Dr. Smood was a surprise for me. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. The thing that stood out to me was their white coffee. I loved their white coffee latte with their signature homemade cashew milk and a touch of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and clove. It was amazing.

Oat Milk

There was a big focus on oat milk at the New York Coffee Festival. Oat milk is the new thing in the coffee world, at least it seems to be here in the city. The past six months or so there have been oat milk ads all over the subways and buses. Every coffee shop offers it. It seems like oat milk has taken over a good section of the shelving space at Whole Foods. I’m not even mad about it. Oat milk is delicious. It is creamy and I love it, especially with coffee. I think it is such a good replacement for milk if you are sensitive to dairy. Both Oatly! and Silk made appearances at the New York Coffee Festival. Besides oat milk, almond milk was focused on too, especially the company, Almond Breeze.

Latte Art Live Competition

Now this part of the New York Coffee Festival gets me really excited. The Latte Art Live was my favorite part of the whole coffee festival, well, besides the unlimited free coffee tastings. Some of the best and most talented baristas in New York City came to the New York Coffee Festival to participate in this latte art competition. It was intense. It was so fun to watch. They were making the most intricate latte art designs. I was totally geeking out and soaking up every minute, in the very front row, with my camera ready.

Two baristas would step up at a time to compete and be judged by the three judges. One judge traveled all the way from Australia just to judge this festival. Every competitor had three rounds to show their latte art skills. The first challenge was to make a tulip design. The second challenge was to make a rosetta design. And the third round was to make a swan design. Each latte was made with Almond Breeze almond milk. After the baristas skillfully crafted up their gorgeous latte art, they would present it to the judges. The judges held chips for voting, and on the count down they would place a chip near the latte that they thought had the most impressive latte art. Sometimes it would end up as a tie. To break the tie, the judges would tell them to make a design of their choice to determine a winner. I was impressed with the passion that was displayed for coffee not only by the baristas, but by the judges and all the fans watching.

The sad part was that every latte that they made and designed was immediately dumped into the sink after the judges declared the winner. It was awful to see such a gorgeous, and I’m sure delicious, coffee being completely wasted. But, by this time of the day, I was so “coffeed out” that the thought of drinking any more made me a little sick to my stomach. Even if they would have offered these lattes to the audience watching in, I would have had to refuse it. I’ve never drank so much coffee in one day as I did at the New York Coffee Festival. And, I didn’t sleep at all that night. The caffeine got to me a bit too much.

A Coffee Education

Another great aspect of the New York Coffee Festival was all the information that was available about coffee. They had posters up (like this one pictured below) with coffee connoisseurs ready to talk to you and answer your questions about anything coffee related. During this three day festival, there was a daily schedule of coffee experts giving talks on topics like – Storing coffee to optimize freshness, recycling coffee cups, plant milks and discovering what’s better for you, mastering milks and how to steam plant based milk vs. dairy, and an introduction to Vietnamese coffee and the Phin brewing method. It made me realize how much there is to learn about coffee and how little I actually know about it. If you’re interested in really diving into the coffee world and learning about it from every angle, the New York City Coffee Festival is a great place to start.

Chocolate Samples

Besides the free unlimited coffee samples, there were other companies at the New York Coffee Festival that were sampling their products too, some coffee related and some not. One of the floors of the festival was focused primarily on chocolate. It was heavenly. Some of the best bean to bar chocolate companies were there sampling their goods. They were generous with their samples, encouraging you to try everything. I still regret not buying a lavender infused dark chocolate bar that I sampled that day. It was so good and so unique. Lesson learned. When you find the chocolate bar of your dreams, don’t hesitate, just buy it.

So there we have it! A small glimpse into the New York Coffee Festival. It will be back in 2020, so clear your calendar and get your tickets. I promise that if you like coffee, then you will love this festival. If you’ve been to the New York Coffee Festival, leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.