West Virginia Coffee Festival founder and organizer Rachel Barnette loves coffee — a latte.
Owner of Bean Theory Coffee in Poca, Barnette was introduced to the specialty coffee community at the Columbus Coffee Festival while she was an amateur barista nearly a decade ago.
“That’s where I really started to learn about coffee,” she said. “I have seen what it does for the coffee community there, and it’s just so cool to see all these competitors that aren’t competitors. It really shaped how I view the coffee community.”
After moving back to the Mountain State a few years ago, Barnette wanted to bring that spirit and energy with her.
“Starting a business with specialty coffee, you really long for that camaraderie, the community, because it’s tough by yourself,” she said. “I was like, ‘How can we build that here? How can we find that community here?’”
With some encouragement from her Columbus coffee friends, Barnette started planning the first West Virginia Coffee Festival, reaching out to shops and roasters from across the state to invite them to participate.
“The feeling of planning it, getting to talk to these people all across the state and then all of a sudden, we’re in the same room and these friendships and this community forms,” she said. “To step back and look at it, it was magic. We ended up forming such great connections.”
Other coffee shop owners and baristas throughout the state formed a planning committee with Barnette: Mountain Table based in Renick; Black Dog Coffee Company from Shenandoah Junction; Sibling Coffee Roasters located in Charles Town; and Huntington’s Hill Tree Roastery.
“I cannot do this alone, and because I didn’t want to do it alone, we formed a committee,” she said. “It’s created by coffee people for coffee people, with the goal in mind of continuing to expand our community while educating the public about what specialty coffee really is and what makes it different.”
2025 marked the inaugural West Virginia Coffee Festival, held at Valley Park in Hurricane. This year, in addition to being much bigger with 32 total vendors and in a new venue -- the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center --Barnette said they’re implementing a more structured layout to hopefully make lines run smoother.
With 17 roasters, an increase from 11 last year, more than 100 samples will be available during this ticketed sampling event, broken up into three block sessions to choose from. Attendees will be able to sample one coffee at a time, before moving out of line and entering another.
Each block is two-and-a-half hours and costs $15. The first begins at 9 a.m., and the festival concludes at 5:30 p.m., with a 30-minute break in between blocks. Each session is capped out at about 1,300 people, and Barnette said they are anticipating approximately 4,500 people total for the event.
“Because we’re asking our roasters to give away so many samples of coffee for free, which is quite an expense to them, we have to be able to tell them a number to give away,” she said. “We’re implementing a more-structured layout so it’s easier. That’s why we do the block system, so we can kind of control our crowd.”
All-day tickets are available in limited quantities at $30 a piece.
“That’ll permit you to stay inside the room at all times, so you have access to the festival from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. with the understanding that between blocks, our roasters are probably going to take a break or re-brew coffee, those kinds of things, but you have all-day shopping access,” Barnette said.
The planning committee is also adding educational elements to the festival, such as brewing demonstrations and information about farm-to-cup coffee.
“We have so many cool things planned,” Barnette said. “We’re hoping to add 10- or 15-minute segments during each block so people can learn about the coffee industry.”
In addition to coffee roasters, non-coffee vendors will have local honey, maple syrup, baked goods, candles, jewelry, design-your-own mugs, West Virginia Coffee Festival merchandise and more for sale -- and they are encouraged to get creative, Barnette said.
“Most of them are doing at least one thing on site that’s coffee themed,” she said. “They get to try something new, and it always sells so well. Plus, who’s going to spend a whole day drinking a whole bunch of coffee and not want to get something to eat?”
Barnette said she hopes attendees walk away with a revitalized view of what coffee can be and what it can provide.
“For those of us in the industry, coffee is so much more than just a drink,” she said. “None of us do this (just) for the coffee. We do this for the community. There is something so special about being in a place where people from all walks of life can come together over something as simple as a $5 cup of coffee, and we get to be the ones to provide that.
“I want people to leave with the understanding that we can do really cool things with coffee, but we also can use it to connect, bring people together and see these really cool relationships form, as well as this community amongst ourselves,” she continued.
The West Virginia Coffee Festival will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 25 in the South Hall of the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Tickets are on sale now, available online at wvcoffeefestival.com as well as the convention center’s website and box office.
“How quickly it’s growing and how excited other people are is revitalizing us in the planning,” Barnette said. “The more excited other people get and the bigger it gets, the more excited we get. It keeps snowballing, which is great.”
While full for vendors, sponsorships are still available, and Barnette encourages people to keep up with the West Virginia Coffee Festival on social media @wvcoffeefestival.
“When you walk into a place like the festival, you get to meet the coolest people and find yourself talking to people you never would have talked to before, and I think that’s something we lost during COVID -- people forming genuine connections, randomly, spontaneously,” Barnette said. “We’re hoping this event prompts that. It’s always been and will always be about community.”
