The first thing that hits attendees at the San Francisco Coffee Festival isn’t the fragrant coffee beans but the huge turnout, with crowds of people waiting to sample one cup of espresso from a singular brewer before moving to the next equally long line. “If you’re not leaving SF Coffee Festival with heart palpitations, [you] are doing it wrong,” wrote one attendee on an Instagram story reposted by the official SF Coffee Festival account.
Hosted Nov. 9 and 10 at the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion in the Marina, the annual event is a celebration of specialty coffee. Ticket pricing ranged from $24 to $58 depending on the timing of purchase, but all tickets included free coffee samples. Tea and food vendors were also present but the dominant presence of coffee vendors defined the event.
According to rankings and commentary by WalletHub, San Francisco consumes the second most coffee of any city in the United States. The coffee festival is a living love letter to coffee and its role in creating the third spaces that shape the Bay Area food scene.
“Coffee Review” co-founder and writer Kenneth Davids said, “I got into the whole romance of coffee and I didn’t want to let it go… [The festival is] a cultural phenomenon that is alive and happening now, a dialogue between roasters and customers.”
The festival featured more than fifty vendors who served coffee and tea samples and sold bags of coffee beans. Doug Hewitt is the co-founder and CEO of 1951 Coffee Company, a cafe and social enterprise centered around training refugees to thrive in the coffee industry. He said that they came to the event to “[be] in community with everyone who drinks coffee.” He shared that many graduates of their barista training program were at the event representing other brands.
The festival included panelist speakers, live music performances and a latte art competition in addition to coffee sampling and sales. Panel topics included coffee origins, cafe entrepreneurship and understanding flavor profiles led by experts who have dedicated their lives to coffee, in order to teach listeners how to build their specialty coffee lexicon.
The event attracted coffee enthusiasts from the Bay and beyond, including USF students. Letizia Aquilino, a senior kinesiology major, said, “I got tickets because I’m a huge coffee fan, and a festival all about coffee sounded like a perfect day. I was really excited to try all the different coffees and see what new trends are coming up. Meeting people who are just as passionate about coffee was a big plus too! I expected it to be full of energy and interesting coffee tastings, and it definitely was.”
Branson Lennon, a junior marketing major, said, “I’ve been to a few events […] at Fort Mason before and [the coffee festival] was pretty similar! The only thing I didn’t expect was the live entertainment aspect; they had a latte art competition going on the whole day, along with a panel of specialists trying and critiquing coffee blends.”
Bringing together coffee vendors and coffee enthusiasts, the event celebrated coffee not only as a product but a passion.
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