I’ve finally finished sorting through my hundreds of photos, and even stayed up late (until 6am, in fact) just editing a 4min video of the whole thing. You can check it out on my Youtube here:

If you can’t be bothered watching the video, here’s the general lowdown on what happened. I went with my best friend, both of us being avid coffee drinkers at uni, although it looks like I’ve lost my touch as I’ve only had a few cups yesterday, whilst she had 5.

Firstly, look for the maps so you know where go crazy next. There are four sections: The Latin Quarter, the Continent, the Orient, and the Oasis. All very different. All transporting you to the different corners of the world. All very delicious.

There really were loads and LOADS of people, and it was sometimes very hard to get from one point to the next. The Aroma Festival also coincided with the weekly The Rocks Markets, so it meant double the fun! There weren’t just coffee stalls, but also food stalls, jewellery, clothes, collector’s items, figurines, even a stall on fossils!

We saw only three cupcake stalls there, so I don’t know if we missed any. They were very cute, but also slightly on the pricey side. I bought a cupcake from both “My Little Cupcake” and “The Cupcake Bakery”, plus a very cute teaspoon which I shall post once I get around to photographing it.

The stalls were very interesting. You had all kinds of coffee and other beverages there. From Peru to France, India to Turkey. Australian bush teabags, loose leaves, and coffee beans of every flavour and combination. Melted chocolate passed off as hot chocolate (which I don’t recommend you try on a full stomach). Surprisingly, I didn’t see any Japanese, Korean, or Chinese tea stalls at all. Perhaps I just missed it again.

Mango and passionfruit pavlovas and Turkish gozlemes. Exotic candies and licorice. Strawberries and fruit dipped in chocolate, coconut, honey, and other wonders. It was the perfect offset to the bitter taste of the countless of coffees you may have consumed. Topped off with eating in front of the beautiful Sydney Harbour at sunset, it was just divine.

At 5:30 when the stalls were starting to close, we finally decided to trudge back home. Every garbage bin was stacked with empty cups. Festival-goers all went back patting their bellies happily. The winter sun crept down sneakily behind us, and it was dark within the 15 mins it took us to walk from the Orient section to the train station.

I still crave the coffee I drank at the French stall. Mmm… divine.