Happy 15th Birthday Ristretto!

Ristretto started life as The Daily Grind Trading Company Ltd on 23rd January 2004.

The idea was to provide a service for predominantly corporate clients who wanted to provide high quality coffee at their events. Through their time working in the corporate sector, founders Anne and Joe O’Hara had been subjected to some terrible coffee experiences in meetings, conferences, product launches and trade shows. They just knew it could be done much, much better.

This was at the very start of the 3rd wave in the UK. Flat White in Soho wasn’t to open for another year, most of your favourite London coffee shops weren’t even an idea yet – and everyone told us you can’t move coffee machines around from event to event. Well, that’s where a little ingenuity and persistence paid off. It was a niche service that exposed a demand from an audience that no one else was serving.

It was 2 or 3 years before we bumped into any one else providing anything comparable. By then, we had grown to providing café quality coffee at over 300 events per year not just in London but cities all over the UK, Europe and a few other far-flung places. To date the furthest, we have travelled for our clients is Helsinki in the North and Buenos Aires in the South.

The name-change to Ristretto occurred in 2008, as a result encountering a number of “Daily Grinds” at The London Caffe Culture show – including a Daily Grind Tea company.

This week we are celebrating 15 years of business and taking a look back at some of the amazing events and stats from previous years.

We would also like to take this opportunity to dearly thank anyone and everyone who has been a part of this fantastic journey.

 

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Branding Branding Branding!

So, what’s the hype. We have found the branding of client’s logos on cups, has spiked interest from perspective businesses, and has created a bridge between client and consumer. This great marketing tool allows all coffee cups at any specific conference or exhibition to be branded by your name, stand number and message. Use this innovative medium to bring more traffic to your stand and have that competitive advantage across the event. Let cups do the work for you.

Branding creates a memorable impression, plus it allows customers and clients to know what to expect from their company. In addition, it also peaks interest from the general public, who want to be part of the buzz…

 

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Ristretto Espresso Martini Service

Espresso Martini

Party season is fast approaching and we’ve just added one of London’s most iconic cocktails to our menu – The Espresso Martini…

First created by the mixologist legend Dick Bradsell, in a Soho Brasserie on Greek Street in the 1980s, this rich and creamy cocktail is the perfect way to add a little class to your event.

The Ingredients

50ml Alchemy cold brew coffee

50ml Mr Black Coffee Liquor

25ml Vodka or Patron XO Café

Martini glass – shake with ice, garnish with ground espresso add 3 coffee beans and voilà… your perfect Espresso Martini.

If you would like this service at your next event, email us at events@ristretto.com.

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October…

 

October saw another of our biggest events of the year.

With three espresso coffee machines, three filter coffee stations and five tubs of hot chocolate – Mozfest 2018 was thoroughly caffeinated.

With Ravensbourne College and it’s big famous circle windows playing host to this incredible event, we delivered our 7th annual coffee service, having a lot of fun along the way.

To show you the scale of this event, we have some stats for you below:

A total of 6,700 coffees served.

  • 4,900 espresso based coffees
  • 1,800 filter coffees
  • 25kg of hot chocolate
  • 84kg of coffee beans
  • 800 pints of milk

and 7 event trained baristas to create one flawless event.

If you would like us at your next event, contact us on 0208 540 0167 or email us at events@ristretto.com for your bespoke quote.

Written by Amy King

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How a coffee bar at your exhibition can boost your business leads

After bringing 1678 new leads to our most recent client this week, we felt compelled to update and share this article. So get comfy and enjoy a little consumer psychology.

Two words are key here: Give and take.

Every culture in the world operates by an overwhelming rule – a favour must always be returned. The corollary to this rule is that nobody likes to be in the position where they owe a favour to someone else and they haven’t yet had the opportunity to repay it. It’s just an uncomfortable feeling.

(more…)

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