Author Archives: Brian Williams

About Brian Williams

Author of Brian's Coffee Spot, you can read all about me in the "About Me" section of the blog (www.brian-coffee-spot)

200 Degrees Coffee Roasters

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The 200 Degrees Coffee LogoBefore there was ever 200 Degrees, the award-winning coffee shop in the centre of Nottingham, there was 200 Degrees Coffee Roasters, who first brought my attention to Nottingham as somewhere where you could get decent coffee.

200 Degrees grew out of Belle and Jerome, a well-known coffee shop in West Bridgford, just down from Trent Bridge cricket ground, and a desire of the owners, Rob and Tom, to roast their own coffee. The catalyst was third partner, Tim, who brought a passion for roasting, having caught the coffee-bug in New Zealand.

Called 200 Degrees after the temperature green beans are roasted at, 200 Degrees grew from fairly humble beginnings to become what is now a fairly major player in Nottingham’s growing speciality coffee scene. As well as supplying its own coffee shop, 200 Degrees also supplies a number of other local shops, roasting a couple of espresso blends, a filter blend and three or four single-origin filters.

As well as supplying coffee, plus the necessary kit to go with it, 200 Degrees is also expanding into training, both for its wholesale customers and for the general consumer, as seen in its training room at the 200 Degrees Coffee Shop.

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The Pudding Pantry

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Detail from the sign hanging outside Nottingham's The Pudding PantryNottingham’s speciality coffee scene is taking off, with options ranging all the way from 200 Degrees Coffee Shop to Pelham Street’s Wired Café Bar. Slipping effortlessly into the gap between great coffee and comfort food, is The Pudding Pantry, which opened in April 2014 on Trinity Square.

Long and thin, The Pudding Pantry offers a full table service. You have the choice of sitting inside, where the dedicated seating area is separated from the counter by a small flight of stairs, or outside, in a large, fenced-off area on the pedestrianised street.

If I said that you don’t come to The Pudding Pantry for the coffee, that’s not knocking the coffee, which is from Kiwi imports, Ozone. Rather, it’s just that there’s so much else on offer that it would be silly just to come here for the coffee! As the name suggests, The Pudding Pantry is strong on sweet things, with a particularly good line of breakfasts and brunches, including one of my favourites, American-style pancakes. In that respect, it reminds me of the likes of The Bristolian and Glutton & Glee.

Currently, it’s espresso-only, but there’s a desire to add pour-over to the menu, so watch this space!

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The Coffee Spot Christmas Gift Guide

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The Christmas Logo from Press CoffeehouseIt’s always a tricky question, isn’t it? What to get for that coffee-loving friend of yours. It’s particularly tricky, if, like me, they’re towards the far end of the coffee-geek spectrum, when any choice runs the risk of being ill-informed. Do you get them coffee? Or coffee-related kit? Or a book about coffee perhaps?

Never fear, the Coffee Spot is here to help you out, whether you’re a novice, looking for pointers for gifts for your coffee-obsessed friend, or if you’re that coffee-obsessed friend, looking for a handy guide to point your friends towards. There’s also a few suggestions for presents for your coffee-loving friends who’ve not yet disappeared down the rabbit-hole of speciality coffee and just need a little nudge along the way.

As with all things Coffee Spot, this guide’s not definitive, nor is it a “best-of” list. Instead, my suggestions are all things which I’ve come across over the past year and thought “that would make a good present”. With one or two exceptions, they’re things which I own, having either bought them or been given them during the year, so don’t worry, it’s not a proxy list of things you should be getting me this Christmas!

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Wired Café Bar

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The Wired Cafe Bar logo from the sign hanging outside on Pelham Street.In the two years since I last visited Nottingham, its coffee scene has exploded, with various spots opening up. Representing the hipster end of the market is Pelham Street’s Wired Café Bar, with its scaffolding-pole furniture, exposed air-conditioning ducts and quirky manner (its website, for example, proudly proclaims, “we’ve got a La Marzocco… and we’re not afraid to use it!”). There’s a basement too!

Oh, and it’s got some cracking coffee: Allpress’s Redchurch blend and decaf on espresso, two single-origins guests on Chemex. These rotate as-and-when, with Wired trying to have at least one from local start-up, Outpost Coffee Roasters. The likes of Allpress and Workshop also make regular appearances. Wired fulfils the “bar” side of the name with a small range of bottled beer and wine, although these are very much in the background, the focus firmly on the coffee.

Wired also has a good cake selection and an impressive food offering, particularly given that it’s all prepared in a tiny kitchen behind the counter. There’s typical British breakfast fare: eggs, sausage and bacon, all on a variety of toast and muffins, which can also be had separately, while lunch consists mostly of sandwiches, with one or two specials.

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Blue Bottle Coffee, Chelsea

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The Blue Bottle Coffee logo from the A-board outside the Chelsea coffee shop: the outline of a bottle painted in solid blue above the words "Blue Bottle Coffee".Near the southern end of New York City’s wonderful High Line and opposite Chelsea Market, this was famed Californian roasters, Blue Bottle Coffee’s first Manhattan coffee shop. However, despite its proximity to the High Line, this shouldn’t be confused with Blue Bottle’s High Line Café, which is just a block away on the High Line itself (it also has seasonal opening hours; being a partly outdoor location, it’s currently closed, reopening in April 2016).

Back to the Chelsea branch, which isn’t far from fellow-roasters Intelligentsia and its coffee shop in the High Line Hotel. However, while that’s a very upmarket setting, Blue Bottle, situated in what was the loading dock of the Milk Building, is much more down-to-earth. Split over two levels with minimal seating, it still manages an impressive range of filter coffee to go with the usual espresso-based menu.

You can sit downstairs at one of two window bars, or outside on the pavement on one of two matching benches. You can also sit upstairs, where there’s a second counter, unless it’s being used for training courses (usually Saturday afternoons). This also used to host the famous Blue Bottle syphon bar from 11 until 2 on the weekends, but sadly this is no more.

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2016 Coffee Spot Calendar Update

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It’s that time of year again. After the success of the Coffee Spot Calendar over the last two years, I’m back with the 2016 Coffee Spot Calendar! As before, I’ve produced a professionally-printed A4 calendar on glossy paper. Each month there’s a landscape, A4 picture from one of my favourite Coffee Spots of the last 12 months. I’ve also produced a limited number of desktop calendars. This year, however, there’s an additional bonus: the Coffee Spot Lighting Calendar!

Each calendar costs £12.00 (£15.00 for the Lighting Calendar) and, if you’re in the UK, there’s a flat fee of £2.00 postage and packing, regardless of how many you order. There are also discounts for multiple purchases. If you think we’re likely to meet up in the near future (I’ll be at the La Marzocco Generation Coffee event in London on this Saturday, 12th December), I’ll even waive the postage and hand your calendar over in person!

For orders for Europe, the postage and packing is £4.00 for one or two calendars, while for the rest of the world, it’s £6.00. I apologise for the excessive postage charges, but this is what it’s costing me to send them to you!

December 26: All the calendars are now SOLD OUT. However, you can still order them from me; what I’ll do is get the printers to send it direct to you. Unfortunately this means that I no longer get any volume discounts and so have to charge £15 for each wall calendar and £10 for each desktop one.

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Intelligentsia, High Line Hotel

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The word "Intelligentsia" written over a pair of wings, bracketing the words "Fresh Roasted Coffee", all in white.Intelligentsia, the Chicago-based coffee roaster, with cafés in Chicago (5), Los Angeles (4), Boston (2), Austin (1) and New York (1), has a place close to my heart. I visited the downtown branch in the Monadnock building on my first trip to Chicago in 2003, long before the Coffee Spot came to be. I’ve been a regular visitor there ever since (if visiting each time I’ve been to Chicago counts as regular!) and I’ve enjoyed Intelligentsia’s coffee elsewhere (for example, Gasoline Alley). Naturally, I jumped at the chance to actual visit Intelligentsia proper in New York.

Located in the lobby of the High Line Hotel, just across 10th Avenue from the High Line itself (and across the road from Underline Coffee), it’s one of the most sumptuous coffee-shop locations I’ve seen, giving Stumptown on West 8th Street a run for its money. As well as the permanent zinc-topped coffee counter in the lobby, a refurbished 1963 Citroën coffee truck sits out front in the hotel grounds for those who don’t want to wander inside.

The Citroën serves a limited range of espresso and pour-over coffee. Inside, there’s a choice of the famous Black Cat seasonal espresso blend, plus a single-origin espresso, another single origin on pour-over (Chemex or V60) and decaf.

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Cup North 2015 Part III

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A lovely flat white in one of Carvetii's cups, showcasing Carvetii's latest seasonal espresso blend at Cup North.Welcome to Part III of what’s become my annual visit to Manchester for self-styled two-day Northern Coffee Party, Cup North which took place at the start of November. In Part I, I looked at Cup North’s new venue, the Victoria Warehouse, as well as running my eye over some of the exciting kit on display and watching some of the competitions: the Tasters Cup, my favourite barista competition, and the (in)famous coffee-throwing championships!

Last week, in Part II, I focused exclusively on the coffee. I started with a demo of The Dragon, a manual syphon method, then I got to play on a pair of espresso machines, a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle and a La Marzocco Strada. Finally, I set myself a challenge to convert some friends to the wonders of not putting milk or sugar in their coffee with some help from Grumpy Mule.

This week, in Part III, I’ll have a look at all the wonderful food on offer, whiz round the rest of the roasters (there were an awful lot of roasters at Cup North this year), including an important but often overlooked aspect of the coffee industry: milk. Finally, there’s brief mention of everyone I missed.

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Boston Tea Party, Ringwood

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The Boston Tea Party in Ringwood, Hampshire, housed in an old grain warehouse.It’s touch-and-go whether the Boston Tea Party at Ringwood is the closest to my home, or whether that honour goes to the Salisbury branch. In many ways it’s a typical Boston Tea Party, having taken another iconic building (in this case, an old granary from the 1800s) and turned it into a first class coffee shop, providing good quality food, including an outstanding all-day breakfast menu, and Extract Coffee to the small Hampshire market town of Ringwood. Better still, it is literally just off the A31, so it makes an excellent stop if you are travelling that way.

Like many a branch of the Boston Tea Party, Ringwood has plenty of outside seating. However, with the exception of the original on Park Street and the Honiton branch (both of which have secluded gardens at the back) this may have the best, with multiple tables neatly arranged outside in the pedestrianised Furlong Centre. Inside, the Tea Party spreads over three floors, with the top floor (which used to be the hayloft) having only been opened last year (Ringwood itself opened in 2012). There’s the usual range of Boston Tea Party seating, including comfortable chairs, long sofa benches and more traditional tables.

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Jika Jika, Euston Square

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A flat white in the sun, seen from directly above, at Jika Jika on Euston Square.Jika Jika started life in Bath about five years ago. It’s recently moved premises there, downsizing to a smaller outlet by the station. About a year ago it also opened a second branch. In London. As you do.

Close enough to Euston station to be worth visiting if you’re en route to catch a train, it’s just around the corner from the northern exit of Euston Square tube station (turn right, away from Euston itself, and ignore the branch of Costa). It’s somewhere I kept going past, thinking, “Is that the same Jika Jika as in Bath?” and “I must go in there one day”. So, eventually, I did. Twice.

There’s not a lot to Jika Jika, which occupies a corner of the Euston Square hotel (which, ironically, also houses the aforementioned Costa). However, it packs a lot in, including decent breakfast and lunch offerings. There’s a solid espresso menu, based around a bespoke espresso blend (plus decaf) from Cornwall’s Origin, using a two-group La Marzocco which dominates the counter at the back of the small space. If you have time to linger, the décor is interesting, including plenty of pictures and amusing coffee-related quotations.

January 2017: Jika Jika is now closed. As far as I know, the branch in Bath has also closed.

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