VegCoffee Mix & Match Competition attracts non-vegetarian visitors to Vegetarian Food Asia

The 10th Vegetarian Food Asia held from Friday to Sunday featured the second VegCoffee Mix & Match Competition, with a combination of cafe culture and vegan culture which attracted many non-vegetarians.

This year's competition highlighted a vegan and coffee theme, requiring competitors to make desserts and coffee within an hour.

The organizer of this event, the Hong Kong Roasters and Coffee Commissioners Association, said this is the only live competition in Hong Kong where coffee and roasting are held at the same time.

Lei Bui-dak, 45, chairman of the Vegan Coffee Creation Competition organizing committee, said they wanted to further promote vegan culture through the growing popularity of the cafe culture in Asia.

"We wanted to explore how well vegan and cafe cultures could be integrated so that the vegan culture will become widely known as a lifestyle. We were happy to see that the competition did succeed in attracting many non-vegetarians who came because they were interested,” he said.

“I came to this exhibition after seeing the Coffee Association's promotion on Facebook​​,” said Cheung Ming-wing, a coffee lover, who specifically came to watch this competition.

“I’m not a vegetarian, but I think I might try going vegan after this exhibition,” he said.

Lim Sze-han and Chan Sung-ming participated in the VegCoffee Mix & Match competition, presenting a work called "The Hong Kong Tea Set".

"The theme of our work is a very classic Hong Kong afternoon tea with pineapple buns and coffee, and all the ingredients of the pineapple bun are vegan," Lim said.

“We are not vegetarians. We came to this contest because we were curious about vegan culture and our desire to help spread it for the better,” said Lim and Chan.

Lim said that they had made a lot of efforts before the competition, such as tweaking the recipe many times and trying it over and over again before they finally reached a result they were satisfied with.

"It's hard to be vegan and keep the flavor of the dessert at the same time, but we did a lot of experimenting to present something that tasted better," Chan added.

“I hope that the combination of coffee and vegan food will make people more aware of vegan culture, ” Lim said.

Lim and Chan's work finally won second place in the competition, and they said they would keep trying on the road of vegan desserts.

Aside from the competition, this year's exhibition held at the HKCEC in Wan Chai, was also a big draw, which offered more than 6,000 vegetarian and green living products and services.

Jenny Pan, a ten-year-old vegetarian who attended the exhibition for the first time,  said she was very impressed by the whole exhibition.

"There are all kinds of vegetarian food and other products, like the vegan pistachio cream from Turkey. This is like a paradise for all vegetarians," Pan said.

Entry is free with online registration. If visitors have not made a booking, they must pay HK$25 for a ticket.

This year's opening coincides with International Women's Day, so all women are entitled to free admission to the exhibition on Friday.