The Coffee Spot is Four!

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.I really should have posted this yesterday, but I’m currently in Shanghai, attending a week-long business meeting, which requires socialising with my colleagues in the evenings, so free time for writing Coffee Spot posts is something of a premium. Anyway, the significance of yesterday is that it marked the Coffee Spot’s fourth birthday!

I launched the Coffee Spot on Friday, 28th September 2012 (at 14.15 to be precise). Back then, I had no idea just how big it would become and how it would evolve to drive much of what I do. This weekend, for example, I have a list of coffee shops to visit in Shanghai…

In the Coffee Spot’s fourth year, I published 234 times, covering 152 Coffee Spots, with the remaining posts covering various coffee events, roasters and the Coffee Spot Awards. The Coffee Spot has been visited by over 80,000 people and between you, you’ve looked at more 135,000 pages on the Coffee Spot (up from 115,000 views last year).

So, thank you, everyone, whether you dip into the Coffee Spot every now and then, or whether you read every single post and page. Without you, there really would be no point in my doing this.

You can read a review of the Coffee Spot’s fourth year after the gallery.

  • The Coffee Spot's fourth year kicked off with a visit to Swindon's Baila Coffee & Vinyl.
  • November saw the Coffee Spot back in Manchester visiting Ancoats Coffee's new premises.
  • December, it was the turn of Liverpool and the delightful Coffee & Fandisha.
  • What better way to start 2016 than with a flat white at Silhouette in Hackney?
  • February, and the Coffee Spot was back in the USA, in Sweetleaf in Brooklyn.
  • March, and it is the turn of Tradewind Espresso, one of several new openings in Bristol.
  • April, and the Coffee Spot was back in London at Taylor Street Gallery.
  • May, and I was in Lisbon, visting the Copenhagen Coffee Lab...
  • ... while in June I was in Copenhagen visiting the Copenhagen Coffee Lab!
  • July saw the Coffee Spot re-visiting old friends, Yorks, in its new premises.
  • In August, it was back to London and the welcome sight of Frequency.
  • And finally, to round of the Coffee Spot's fourth year, a trip to Hong Kong and 18 Grams.
The Coffee Spot's fourth year kicked off with a visit to Swindon's Baila Coffee & Vinyl.1 November saw the Coffee Spot back in Manchester visiting Ancoats Coffee's new premises.2 December, it was the turn of Liverpool and the delightful Coffee & Fandisha.3 What better way to start 2016 than with a flat white at Silhouette in Hackney?4 February, and the Coffee Spot was back in the USA, in Sweetleaf in Brooklyn.5 March, and it is the turn of Tradewind Espresso, one of several new openings in Bristol.6 April, and the Coffee Spot was back in London at Taylor Street Gallery.7 May, and I was in Lisbon, visting the Copenhagen Coffee Lab...8 ... while in June I was in Copenhagen visiting the Copenhagen Coffee Lab!9 July saw the Coffee Spot re-visiting old friends, Yorks, in its new premises.10 In August, it was back to London and the welcome sight of Frequency.11 And finally, to round of the Coffee Spot's fourth year, a trip to Hong Kong and 18 Grams.12
Javascript Sliders by WOWSlider.com v4.6

The Coffee Spot’s fourth year saw a new innovation with the launch of the Coffee Spot Guides. Although the first Coffee Spot Guide (to New York City) was published in September last year, since then a further nine guides have been published with more in the pipeline.

October saw me attend my first Glasgow Coffee Festival, while in November I was back in Manchester for Cup North. From there, it was a head-long rush to the end of the year, with the Coffee Spot Calendar making an appearance along the way.

2016 kicked off with the Coffee Spot Awards and an important announcement about the future of the Coffee Spot. Originally I’d intended to spend the first six months of the year looking for ways to generate coffee-related income, but within a few weeks of making that decision, I’d been offered a job that was far too good to turn down, so all my various projects went on the backburner where they remain…

February saw me return to the USA, a journey which was chronicled in the second of my Brian’s Travel Spot series. Back in the UK in March, I looked into the interesting subject of Speciality Coffee in Capsules which has proved to be one of the year’s most popular posts. April brought the London Coffee Festival, while May saw me visiting Porto for the first time in many years, a trip that brought some unexpected, but very welcome, discoveries.

In June, I was off travelling again, this time to Dublin for the World of Coffee and then my new job had me go to Copenhagen, the perfect opportunity to find a host of new Coffee Spots. July and August were a pair of quiet months, with no overseas trips and no coffee events to attend, although I was still travelling around the UK on behalf of Caffeine Magazine, visiting the likes of Cambridge and Nottingham.

The Coffee Spot’s fourth year was rounded off in style when my new job decided that I needed to go to Shanghai for a week-long meeting, which is where am I right now. On the way, I spent a week in Hong Kong, as chronicled in the latest instalment of Brian’s Travel Spot, where I also found some amazing Coffee Spots.

Typically I hold some sort of event to mark the Coffee Spot’s fourth birthday, but since I’m in Shanghai, I suspect that very few of you will actually come and join me. However, wherever you are, please raise a cup or glass of your favourite coffee and wish the Coffee Spot a happy fourth birthday.  You can even have some cake if you’d like. If you are feeling really enthusiastic, why not post a picture of the moment on social media with the hashtag #Happy4CoffeeSpot?

Here’s to another successful year!


If you liked this post, please let me know by clicking the “Like” button. If you have a WordPress account and you don’t mind everyone knowing that you liked this post, you can use the “Like this” button right at the bottom instead. [bawlu_buttons]

Don’t forget that you can share this post with your friends using the buttons below.

2 thoughts on “The Coffee Spot is Four!

  1. Congratulations, Brian; what a great milestone! I will certainly raise a KeepCup in your honour this weekend!

    All the best for the coming year,
    Bex

Please let me know what you think. Guidelines for comments are in the "Posts" drop-down menu.