Vision
To create a creative home within the Arts House where the ritual of coffee connects people, celebrates local diversity, and every culture finds a seat at the table.
Mission
We celebrate coffee as more than a beverage — it is a bridge between worlds. By bringing the heritage of global coffee-growing communities into our local arts scene, we create an inviting space where art, music, and conversation meet. Through hands-on workshops and the craft of the brew, we invite people to discover, learn, and connect — creating a place where they don't just visit, they belong.
Brew. Bond. Belong.
A one-day event bringing together the specialty coffee community, local makers, cultural organisations, and curious people from across Guildford and Surrey.
The workshops
-
About the session
Start your festival Sunday with something worth waking up for.
On Sunday 7th June, we’re welcoming Willem — founder of Juthan Chocolate — to the Guildford Coffee & Culture Festival for an immersive guided tasting session.
Willem grew up in South Africa, where he learned early to value the unseen work behind every harvest. That perspective is at the heart of Juthan — and at the heart of this session. Based in Surrey, Juthan is a true bean-to-bar maker, meaning every step — from sourcing raw cacao to crafting the finished bar — is handled with care and intention. The brand’s dedication to the craft has won multiple national awards, including Great British Food Gold and Great Taste.
This is an introduction to chocolate beyond the expected. Willem will walk you through the journey from cacao bean to finished bar, exploring the subtle decisions that shape flavour at every stage: how the land and climate dictate the bean’s profile; how heat is used to unlock or refine complexity; and why mouthfeel is a deliberate choice, not a given.
Much like specialty coffee, craft chocolate is deeply connected to origin, process, and flavour. If you care about what’s in your cup, you’ll find the same world waiting in the bar.
There will be space to taste, reflect, and ask questions in a relaxed setting. Willem will also be at the Juthan stall throughout the day if you’d like to continue the conversation.
Later on Sunday at 14:00, Willem’s co-founder Karolina is hosting a separate session — Food Is Pleasure — exploring how attention and expectation shape the way we experience what we eat. While this morning session explores the craft of the maker, Karolina’s afternoon session explores the experience of the eater. Both ticketed separately.
About Willem
Willem is a Surrey-based bean-to-bar maker crafting small-batch chocolate from ethically sourced cacao. Growing up in South Africa, he developed a deep respect for the unseen work behind every harvest — a value that shapes every bar Juthan makes and every session he leads.
-
About the session
Some coffee tells you where it’s from. Esnayder’s coffee takes you there.
On Sunday 7th June, we’re welcoming Esnayder Cuartas-Alvarez — founder of Sabor Coffee — to the Guildford Coffee & Culture Festival for a session that is part tasting, part personal history.
Sabor Coffee is a specialty importer rooted in the rural heart of Colombia’s coffee region. Esnayder grew up on Finca Las Cruces in Quinchia — land his family has farmed for more than 70 years. Now fully organic and sustainable, Sabor brings coffee directly to the UK from the family farm and from carefully selected neighbours — people Esnayder knows and trusts. This is direct trade in the most literal sense. No intermediaries. No distance.
From the Farm to Your Cup is a 60-minute sensory journey through the life of a coffee bean — told by the man who grew it. You’ll see, smell, and handle the coffee at each stage of its journey — from the raw green bean to the finished roast. You’ll hear about the realities of the harvest, life at altitude in the Colombian hills, and Esnayder’s own path from Quinchia to the UK.
It’s a rare chance to meet the person behind the harvest, and to understand what it really takes to get coffee from the plant to your cup.
No experience required. Just come curious.
About Esnayder
Esnayder grew up on Finca Las Cruces in Quinchia, Colombia — land his family has farmed for more than 70 years. He took over in 2005, shortly before his father passed away, transforming its practices into a fully organic, sustainable operation. Later, running a restaurant in London brought him deep into the city’s specialty coffee scene — and gave him a new lens on the crop he’d grown up with. Sabor was the natural next step: bringing coffee directly from the family farm, and from trusted neighbours, to the UK. For Esnayder, coffee has always been personal. This session is his chance to share why.
-
About the session
Some roasteries make great coffee. Skylark makes great coffee — and gives every penny of their profit away.
On Sunday 7th June, we’re welcoming Tara from Skylark Coffee to the Guildford Coffee & Culture Festival for an intimate cupping session: a guided tasting journey through some of the most extraordinary specialty beans roasted in the South Downs.
Based at the foot of the South Downs, Skylark sources specialty coffee from around the world — blueberry-rich Ethiopians, jasmine-scented Colombians, juicy Indonesians — and roasts each one with real care and intention. What makes them extraordinary goes beyond the cup: 100% of Skylark’s profits go to charity, supporting ethical growers, environmental projects, and communities the coffee world has too often overlooked.
You may already know their beans. If you’re a regular at the much-loved Canopy Coffee here in Guildford, you’ve had a taste. Now’s your chance to experience them up close — with the people behind them.
A cupping is to coffee what a wine tasting is to wine: a structured, sensory journey through flavour, aroma, and story. Tara will guide you through a selection of Skylark’s finest, helping you notice what’s in the cup and understand why it’s there.
No experience required. Just curiosity — and a genuine love of something delicious.
This is the kind of session that changes the way you think about your morning cup.
About Tara
Tara came to Skylark four years ago after six and a half years managing a busy café — ready for a new chapter, and already deep in her love of coffee. She joined the team as a production worker, and has grown into her current role as Head Trainer and Accounts Manager: supporting Skylark’s café partners, developing people, and helping to build something that genuinely does good. What started as a career move became a vocation. Tara now spends her days working with great people, great coffee, and a roastery that measures its success not just in flavour — but in impact.
-
About the session
Food is one of the simplest sources of pleasure we have. Yet many of us have learned to rush it, question it, or hold back from fully experiencing it — often with a quiet sense of guilt around enjoying it. Over time, pleasure becomes something we manage, rather than something we trust.
This session offers a different perspective.
On Sunday 7th June, we’re welcoming Karolina — nutritionist, eating-psychology coach and co-founder of Juthan Chocolate — to the Guildford Coffee & Culture Festival for a relaxed, seated session with open conversation and time to reflect.
Using coffee and chocolate as her theme, Karolina will gently explore how pleasure plays a role in both our experience of food and our overall wellbeing — and how attention, environment, and expectation shape the way we taste. Specialty coffee has taught us to slow down and notice. Craft chocolate works exactly the same way. This session brings both together as an invitation to do just that.
You’ll leave with a few simple, practical ideas — ways to slow down, taste more fully, and feel more satisfied. The kind that actually stick.
There will be space to taste, ask questions, and reflect in a calm and welcoming setting. Juthan will also be at the festival stall throughout the day if you’d like to explore further.
Juthan is a Surrey-made, award-winning craft chocolate brand — single-origin cacao, small-batch roasted, no emulsifiers, no shortcuts. The same philosophy that draws people to specialty coffee is at the heart of what Juthan does.
Earlier that morning at 09:30, Willem — Juthan’s founder — is hosting a separate session on the craft journey from bean to bar: origin, roast, and the subtle decisions that shape flavour. Two sessions, one story. Both ticketed separately.
About Karolina
Karolina is a registered nutritionist and eating-psychology coach whose work explores the relationship between food, pleasure, and wellbeing — helping people move away from control and guilt, and towards a more satisfying, balanced way of eating. She is also co-founder of Juthan Chocolate, a Surrey-based, award-winning craft chocolate brand built on the same principles she brings to her practice. Her sessions are practical, grounded, and free of wellness jargon. Just good thinking about something we all do every day.
-
Ever looked at your coffee and thought — I could paint with this?
On Sunday 7th June, Toby invites you to see coffee through completely different eyes. Turns out your morning brew makes a pretty incredible artistic medium — rich, warm, and full of possibility.
Unravel your inner Picasso. No experience needed, no artistic background required — just curiosity and a willingness to see where coffee takes you creatively.
Come and make something. You might surprise yourself.
About Toby
Toby is an illustrator studying at UCA Farnham, with a passion for character-driven visuals and storytelling. His work draws on influences from sports and history — capturing movement, emotion and expression through vivid characters and scenes.
If you think you're not creative? Toby dares you to pick up some materials and try.
-
About the session
End your festival Sunday with something that might just surprise you.
On Sunday 7th June, we’re welcoming Chris from Cannon Coffee Roasters and Elkan from Rubia Café for the final coffee session of the day — a deep dive into one of the most misunderstood corners of the coffee world: decaf.
Cannon was founded in Guildford in 2021 by Chris, who set out to do things differently — roasting with care, consistency, and a genuine respect for the bean. Operating from their roastery in Clay Lane, they roast small batches with painstaking attention to profile, because they believe every coffee deserves to be the best version of itself. Decaf is no exception.
Chris will walk you through the surprisingly rich history of decaf and the science of how caffeine is actually removed — and yes, where it goes. Meanwhile Elkan will be brewing throughout, working through a range of decafs processed by different methods, before walking you through his own approach to extraction.
And of course, you’ll taste. Because the most convincing argument for good decaf is drinking it.
There will be space to ask questions, share thoughts, and take your time — in a relaxed, small-group setting of 10–12 guests.
The 17:00 slot is no accident. Talking about — and drinking — decaf as the day winds down felt exactly right. We think you’ll agree.
If you’d like to close the evening more gently still, join us afterwards for a guided Qigong session at 18:30 — a grounding end to the day. Ticketed separately.
About Chris
Chris founded Cannon in Guildford in 2021 after a decade in the specialty coffee industry, with a clear ambition: to roast authentically, consistently, and without compromise. His background spans roasting, espresso machine engineering, and café consulting — working closely with cafés and businesses to improve coffee quality from green sourcing through to the final cup.
About Elkan
Elkan comes to coffee from a chemistry background, with a focus on precision brewing and extraction. He runs Rubia Café, based inside Bike Bros in Guildford — a spot built around dialling in great coffee and sourcing standout beans from some of the world’s best roasters. For this session, he brings both the scientific rigour and the curiosity that makes decaf such a fascinating subject.
-
The perfect way to close a festival Sunday.
We’ll end the Guildford Coffee & Culture Festival at 18:30 with a guided Qigong session in the main room — calm, intentional, and open to everyone.
About Qigong
Qigong (pronounced chee-gung) is an ancient Chinese system of coordinated movement, breathing, and meditation, often described as “meditation in motion.” Rooted in traditions thousands of years old, it is designed to cultivate and balance Qi — vital energy — supporting overall health and focus.
The Session
After a day of tasting and conversation, this session offers space to slow down and reset. Through simple, flowing movements and steady breath, Devdan will guide you through a gentle practice that needs no prior experience and asks nothing of you but your presence.
Suitable for all levels, including complete beginners.
About Devdan Sen | Qigong & Tai Chi Teacher
Devdan Sen has practised Tai Chi since the early 1980s and trained within the Lim School of Martial Arts since the mid-1990s. He teaches traditional Yang-style Tai Chi and Qigong with a grounded, accessible approach — making both practices genuinely available to all levels. He currently runs courses at the Guildford Institute for those wishing to deepen their practice.
The workshops will book up quick so secure you space by booking below.
Workshop sessions are held upstairs and there is no lift. The market hall is on the ground floor and is fully accessible. If you have specific access requirements, please get in touch before booking