Something's brewing at RDS as city hosts first tea and coffee festival

"In coffee we're seeing around a 10pc increase in volume year on year in the last three or four years…it's been going on for more than the last five years. If I go back 20 years, you went to America and you saw people walking around with large coffees-to-go in their hands, and you thought that'd never come to Ireland.

"But it's here now ... people need to have a cup of coffee before they start work or at work. That has been a transformation."

According to Retail Excellence Ireland, hot beverage sales in the second quarter of 2014 are up almost 8pc on 2013. Euromonitor figures reveal 3,992 tonnes of coffee were sold here last year, an increase on retail volume sales in 2012.

Coffee retail volume sales are expected to reach €71.7m next year.

"It's no secret that the Irish consumer has developed an ever-more discerning taste for coffee in recent years with the retail market growing exponentially in the last decade," says Damian Marshall, event manager of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe's Irish Chapter, who are partly running the festival.

Stephen Morrissey is the only Irish person ever to become World Barista Champion. He trained in Bewley's before emigrating to London in 2008, the year he won the World Championship.

Now based in Chicago and director of communications for coffee retailer Intelligentsia, Morrissey says the coffee landscape has changed utterly since he's been away.

"The explosion hadn't happened. There wasn't really an awareness of what coffee has the potential to be."

"There's always going to be a market for what we call functional coffee, pure caffeine delivery, sometimes I want that myself in the mornings.

"But people are beginning to recognise coffee as something culinary, in the same way that they're doing with craft beers and artisan foods."

Independent tea producer Nicola Kearns says there is now growth potential in the speciality tea market. "In a year and a half it's just tripled, quadrupled, the business has just grown and grown.

"Maybe in the first six months I sold to about 25 shops, now I have over 300.

"People are demanding better-quality tea. Cafes are putting more effort into their tea selection.

"It was kind of what I'd call the poor relation of the cafe but now they're really considering what teas they serve."

In a previous life, Kearns flew all over Europe training cabin crews - inspiring her to form "Niks Tea" in 2012.

"I remembered all the lovely tea houses and I realised that in Ireland, we actually didn't have anything like really nice loose teas that were easily accessible. You could order it online but you couldn't go into your local health store or fine food store and get a modern contemporary range.

"Rooibos tea, which is the bush tea that is grown in South Africa, has been really popular. I've got three in the range and one is after-dinner mint which is one of the most popular.

"It's got chocolate in it as well and it's caffeine free and gluten free."

The RDS festival. which runs until Sunday, will include the semi-finals of competitions to find Ireland's best barista and latte artist and events for consumers and business.