2nd Birthday Competition

An espresso, made by my Rancilio Silvia espresso machine, in a classic white cup and saucer from Acme & Co., New Zealand, distributed in the UK by Caravan Roastery.Last weekend I celebrated the Coffee Spot’s second birthday with a coffee-crawl around London, taking in three of my favourite Coffee Spots, Doctor Espresso Caffetteria, The Wren and White Mulberries. I had a lovely time and, if you’re interested, you can see what I got up to in the gallery.

I’m also running a special competition with some great prizes. You can win a copy of this year’s The London Coffee Guide or some coffee from the lovely Round Hill Roastery. To enter, all you have to do is tweet about your favourite Coffee Spot, or post about it on Facebook.

I’m not sure why, but the competition has been rather slow to take off this year. I’ve got eight prizes to give away in all and so far I’ve had four entries, so if you enter now, you’re in with a pretty good chance of winning. Just don’t tell your friends…

No, wait… Tell your friends! All your friends!

You can find full details of how to enter the competition after the gallery.

  • The Coffee Spot's 2nd Birthday Coffee Crawl started at Doctor Espresso's Caffetteria. We managed to get in, despite Doctor Espresso himself, who was sitting outside on guard duty with his baseball bat!
  • The main draw, other than the delightful Doctor himself, was the beautiful 1950s Gaggia espresso machine that has pride of place in the store.
  • I'd never been to Doctor Espresso's on a Sunday morning before. There's a lovely, family atmosphere, especially when sitting out in the sun. A great way to start the day!
  • Next stop, The Wren. We were looking for a church designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Somehow I don't think it's this one though...
  • This is more like it! The lovely folks opened specially for the Coffee Spot's birthday!
  • Inside, we were welcomed by the soaring space that is The Wren.
  • Since it was the Coffee Spot's Birthday, there was always going to be coffee. And cake. Here is some of the spread we managed to consume.
  • Talking of 'we', I was joined by a few friends. Andrew, who came up with me, Daniel of 100 Cups of Coffee fame, Hayley & Tracey, plus Sarah, all the way from Bristol!
  • So to the coffee, where things were very black and white: a cup of filter for me; a flat white in glass for Andrew.
  • It was also hot and cold; another flat white and a Sandow's cold brew. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cold brew, but the bottles are to die for (I took this home with me!).
  • There was also lots of cake. Here we sampled various Friands from the wonderful folks at the Candlestick Bakery.
  • Talking of which, the Candlestick Bakery donated three whole boxes of Friands to the Coffee Spot! That's 36 Friands which I've been enjoying all week. A very generous gift.
  • The final stop was White Mulberries where there's been some artwork done on the counter since my last visit!
  • It really is very good indeed. It's drawn by the fantastic Tim Shaw.
  • While we were there, we were given free run of the cakes (and there were a lot of cakes to choose from)...
  • ... plus free run of the coffee too. Another very generous birthday gift, particularly when you consider that my frends Steve & Suzie joined us all the way from Edinburgh!
  • The coffee. I tried this single-origin espresso from Koppi in Sweden and very nice it was too. Andrew, meanwhile, was sticking to the flat whites.
  • I was talked into sampling the fantastic macaroons which were truly excellent, while Andrew had the red velvet cupcake, a fitting end to a fantastic day.
The Coffee Spot's 2nd Birthday Coffee Crawl started at Doctor Espresso's Caffetteria. We managed to get in, despite Doctor Espresso himself, who was sitting outside on guard duty with his baseball bat!1 The main draw, other than the delightful Doctor himself, was the beautiful 1950s Gaggia espresso machine that has pride of place in the store.2 I'd never been to Doctor Espresso's on a Sunday morning before. There's a lovely, family atmosphere, especially when sitting out in the sun. A great way to start the day!3 Next stop, The Wren. We were looking for a church designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Somehow I don't think it's this one though...4 This is more like it! The lovely folks opened specially for the Coffee Spot's birthday!5 Inside, we were welcomed by the soaring space that is The Wren.6 Since it was the Coffee Spot's Birthday, there was always going to be coffee. And cake. Here is some of the spread we managed to consume.7 Talking of 'we', I was joined by a few friends. Andrew, who came up with me, Daniel of 100 Cups of Coffee fame, Hayley & Tracey, plus Sarah, all the way from Bristol!8 So to the coffee, where things were very black and white: a cup of filter for me; a flat white in glass for Andrew.9 It was also hot and cold; another flat white and a Sandow's cold brew. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cold brew, but the bottles are to die for (I took this home with me!).10 There was also lots of cake. Here we sampled various Friands from the wonderful folks at the Candlestick Bakery. 11 Talking of which, the Candlestick Bakery donated three whole boxes of Friands to the Coffee Spot! That's 36 Friands which I've been enjoying all week. A very generous gift.12 The final stop was White Mulberries where there's been some artwork done on the counter since my last visit!13 It really is very good indeed. It's drawn by the fantastic Tim Shaw.14 While we were there, we were given free run of the cakes (and there were a lot of cakes to choose from)...15 ... plus free run of the coffee too. Another very generous birthday gift, particularly when you consider that my frends Steve & Suzie joined us all the way from Edinburgh!16 The coffee. I tried this single-origin espresso from Koppi in Sweden and very nice it was too. Andrew, meanwhile, was sticking to the flat whites.17 I was talked into sampling the fantastic macaroons which were truly excellent, while Andrew had the red velvet cupcake, a fitting end to a fantastic day.18
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To win a copy of this year’s The London Coffee Guide or some coffee from the lovely Round Hill Roastery, this is what you have to do.

First of all, find your favourite Coffee Spot. It doesn’t have to be one that’s been published in the last year, it can anywhere I’ve published since the Coffee Spot started. Go to the top of your browser and copy the link address. It should look something like this:

http://www.brian-coffee-spot.com/2013/08/29/dr-espresso-caffetteria/

You then need to share the link on Facebook or Twitter and let me know which of the prizes you’d like if you win. Alternatively, can use the “Share” button at the bottom of the post.

On Twitter

To qualify, your tweet needs to contain the link to your favourite Coffee Spot, the name of the Coffee Spot (or the twitter name of the Coffee Spot) and either @ldncoffeeguide if you want to win a copy of the London Coffee Guide or @roundhillcoffee if you want to win some coffee.

Finally (and this is the really important bit), you need to tag the Coffee Spot (@BrianCoffeeSpot) in your tweet (otherwise I won’t know that you’ve entered).

An example might look like this:

My favourite Coffee Spot on @BrianCoffeeSpot is The Wren http://www.brian-coffee-spot.com/2014/08/14/the-wren/. I’d like to win a @ldncoffeeguide.

or

My favourite Coffee Spot on @BrianCoffeeSpot is White Mulberries http://www.brian-coffee-spot.com/2013/10/28/white-mulberries/. I’d like to win some @roundhillcoffee.

On Facebook

Post the link to your favourite Coffee Spot on your own timeline (not the Coffee Spot’s!) and let me know if you’d like to win a copy of the London Coffee Guide or some Round Hill Roastery coffee. If you could tag the Coffee Spot in the post, along with your chosen prize, so much the better, but Facebook’s a bit more selective about who it lets you tag.

Then, and this is very important, send me a private message on Facebook messenger. If you don’t, I won’t know that you’ve entered and, even more importantly, I won’t be able to let you know if you’ve won since I can’t send people messages from the Coffee Spot Facebook account, only reply to messages sent to me. Facebook’s great, isn’t it?


You can enter as many times as you like, but you must choose a different Coffee Spot each time and you can only enter once per day for each prize. So, if you were really keen, you could tweet twice a day, once for the London Coffee Guide and once for the Round Hill Roastery Coffee and you could post twice a day on Facebook. The closing date is Friday, 17th October.

For each prize I’ll pick, at random, two winners from Twitter and two from Facebook. That makes eight lucky winners in all! Winners will be contacted via private message and you will need to provide me with a postal address which I’ll forward on to the London Coffee Guide or Round Hill Roastery. They will then send you your prize. If you’ve chosen the Round Hill Roastery, I’ll also need an e-mail address so Round Hill can contact you and let you choose what coffee you want.


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3 thoughts on “2nd Birthday Competition

  1. Pingback: Doctor Espresso Caffetteria | Brian's Coffee Spot

  2. Pingback: The Wren | Brian's Coffee Spot

  3. Pingback: White Mulberries | Brian's Coffee Spot

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