The Rocks Aroma Festival returns for its 19th year on Sunday 24 July.
The event will bring together some of the best brewers, baristas and boutique roasters from around Australia, and feature more than 60 coffee and gourmet food stallholders, food trucks, latte art competitions and demonstrations, pop-up bars, and performers.
Leading up to the event, from Wednesday 13 July through to Saturday 23 July, the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) will carry out a series of workshops. Classes will be offered during the evenings on weekdays, and afternoon and evenings on weekends.
The workshops are open to both ASCA members and the general public. A final schedule, and registration for the classes, is available via The Rocks Aroma website.
For $25, attendees can spend 90 minutes learning from roasters and baristas from Sensory Lab, Belaroma, Single Origin, Grinders and Five Senses. Presented by Milklab, the workshops will include a Coffee Appreciation Course, Alternative Brew Methods, Master Home Barista Skills, Comparative Cupping, Alternative Brewing Methods, and Latte Art.
To book and for course details, click here.
From 10am – 5pm on 24 July, The Rocks Aroma Festival will celebrate coffee from every corner of the globe. Malgudi Days will bring its South Indian style filter coffee to the festival, while Djebena Coffees will brews coffee the traditional Ethiopian way, in a clay pot called a djebena. Local favourites Sensory Lab and Pablo and Rusty’s will also make an appearance at the event.
This year the festival will feature a pop-up Brew Bar, serving Mr Black artisan cold press coffee liqueur cocktails, and Endeavour Vintage Beer Co’s coffee infused beer.
Visitors to The Rocks can enjoy a full program of music across the festival site, including folk-pop duo Microwave Jenny, and gypsy band Lolo Lovina on the La Toosh stage. Roving performers, and DJs are also on the menu, playing fresh and funky soulful sounds all day long.
Breville’s Latte Art Smackdown is also back for another year. The event will see professional baristas compete in a knockout-style competition that tests their creativity and accuracy of latte art in front of judges.
Those who feel they’ve got what it takes can also join in – an amateur Latte Art competition will take place on the day with one lucky punter taking home a Breville Oracle coffee machine.
Almond Breeze will hit the Aroma Festival stage to run the regional heats of its Breezy Masters competition. The Masters is the first non-dairy competition to be run nationwide, where baristas from across the country are invited to craft the most creative latte art in a bid to compete in America.
Visitors can raise funds for Australian dairy farmers by buying from Sam Project’s mobile café, supported by Pauls, the exclusive dairy milk sponsor of Aroma.
The Rocks attracts more than 14 million visitors each year. The Rocks’ unique heritage is preserved and celebrated in large scale and intimate quality events, outdoor markets, and educational tours.
Visit therocks.com for more information.