Coffee festival begins in Bangalore

After recently having a reshuffle of its top executives, the Coffee Board of India is hosting the India International Coffee Festival (IICF) which will take place in the Karnataka city of Bangalore over the next couple of days. The festival is expected to focus on improving the retail market for coffee grown in the nation as well as promoting the health benefits of the beverage.

Coffee consumption per capita has increased in India over the last decade rising from anywhere between 20 and 40 gm, depending on which report you read – but the fact remains that India is gradually being brought into the craze that is drinking coffee.

The arrival of coffee chains in the nation has played a substantial part in this growth as chains such as Café Coffee Day, Java City and the arrival of global, Western associated brands such as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Costa has gone some way into creating a shift in the way that coffee is treated within India.

The five-day event will deliberate extensively on the idea of ‘The Changing face of coffee’ and will aim to reposition coffee in the national psyche with IICF Committee member Anil Kumar Bhandari stating that the Indian Coffee Trust will be working towards demystifying the drink and dispelling the ingrained myth that coffee drinking is bad.

Visitors to the festival will be treated to demonstrations of the latest technologies including product displays from sixty leading companies, both national and international, with focuses on Indian instant coffee, chains and businesses associated with production and farming machinery.

Workshops and conference sessions will be included in the itinerary with hands-on events focusing on espressos and hand roasting going side-by-side with lectures on marketing, production and entrepreneurship within the coffee industry.

Attendees will also get to experience the lighter side of life too during the five days with awards being handed out to recognise India’s best exporters, roasters and baristas whilst, for the first time in the history of the event, there will be a national Coffee Quiz which will whittle down the contestants to just six who will fight for supremacy.

A trip to Kodagu, a region near Bangalore that is a coffee growing stronghold, entitled ‘Coffee Trail to Coorg,’ will be conducted at the end of the festival.

IICF on twitter: @iicf2014