These days every week of the year seems to have some kind of special theme – and this week, I’ve discovered, is UK Coffee Week. My first thought was that it’s probably all organised by Starbucks in an attempt to herd more highly-caffeinated commuters into their stores, but when I checked the UK Coffee Week website, I saw that the initiative in fact involves many coffee-sellers raising money for Project Waterfall, which delivers clean water projects in African coffee-producing countries. I don’t quite understand why only ‘coffee-producing countries’ should be eligible for clean water, but I suppose they have to pick their battles, and it’s all still for a good cause.

The main fundraising event is The London Coffee Festival. Taking place between 27th-29th April, it will include market stalls celebrating coffee and street food, coffee tastings and demonstrations, the UK Barista Championships (interested to see what this involves – world record for time taken to make a latte?) and live music. Sounds like a pretty good weekend to me – I may go along, perhaps with a good book to accompany many cups of coffee.

Sara Magness, Editorial Administrator