For many years I wanted to go to the Amsterdam Coffee Festival, and in 2026 I finally managed to make that wish come true.

I’ll start by saying that the overall experience was a bit disappointing. Perhaps because I’m used to the scale of similar events in Brazil, I found the structure somewhat precarious and the space quite small for a festival considered the largest in the European Union (London’s is bigger).

The industrial venue where the event took place was gigantic, but only about 1/4 of the space was used. The stalls for roasters were quite small and fragile, most of them from the Netherlands itself (I expected more diversity).

The larger and more elaborate stands were for matcha, chai, cacao, flavored syrups, plant-based milks, and… Starbucks.

One of the things that interested me most was seeing new technologies related to the world of coffee, something the fair offered almost nothing about. I saw more new technologies in the cafes I visited outside the festival.

I attended all 3 days of the event, which I found unnecessary, as 1 day was enough to enjoy the fair. I took 3 workshops and found them all too basic.

The good part was tasting excellent coffees, meeting the people behind roasts I admire, meeting a few new roasters I didn’t know, and listening to some relevant conversations in the 5THWAVE podcast space.

Há muitos anos eu queria ir ao Festival de Café de Amsterdam e em 2026 finalmente consegui realizar esse desejo.

Já comeco dizendo que a experiencia como um todo foi um pouco decepcionante. Talvez por eu estar acostumada com a proporcao de eventos similares no Brasil, achei a estrutura um tanto precária e o espaco pequeno para um festival considerado o maior da Uniao Europeia (o de Londres é maior).

O galpao onde o evento aconteceu era gigantesco, porem apenas cerca de 1/4 do espaco foi utilizado. As barraquinhas destinadas aos torradores eram bem pequenas e mambembes, sendo a maioria deles da própria Holanda (eu esperava mais diversidade).

Os estandes maiores e mais elaborados eram de matcha, chai, cacao, xaropes acucarados de sabores, leites vegetais e… starbucks.

Uma das coisas que mais me interessava era ver novas tecnologias relacionadas ao mundo do café, coisa que a feira quase nao ofereceu. Vi mais tecnologias novas nos cafés que visitei fora do festival.

Participei dos 3 dias de evento, o que constatei ser desnecessário, já que 1 dia era suficiente para aproveitar a feira. Fiz 3 workshops e os achei todos básicos demais.

A parte boa foi provar excelentes cafés, conhecer as pessoas por trás de torras que admiro, encontrar alguns poucos novos torradores que eu nao conhecia, e ouvir algumas conversas relevantes no espaco do podcast 5THWAVE.