Our third shortlist today is the shortlist for the “Best Coffee Spot near a Railway Station”, although it should really be called “Best Coffee Spot at or near a Railway Station”, except that was a bit of a mouthful, even for me. And this year, since I’ve not been travelling much, I’ve expanded the criteria to include airports. Now that really would be a mouthful. Next year I will have to come up with a better, more concise name!

Whatever I call it, this was won last year by Espresso Station, Moor Street Station and rewards those Coffee Spots serving great coffee to travellers around the world. When you’re desperate for good coffee, railway stations, airports and other transport hubs are rarely the best places to be. But what if there was a great Coffee Spot just outside the station (or even in the concourse!) or a few minutes’ walk away and you didn’t know about it? Then this award is for you…

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We continue the second day with the next shortlist for the 2020 Coffee Spot Awards, the “Best Filter Coffee” Award, which was won last year by Tasting Flights at Glitch Coffee. One of the great journeys that I’ve taken with the Coffee Spot is realising the amazing range of flavours in a good pour-over or batch brew, which has opened my eyes to a whole new world of coffee.

To give you an idea of how far I have come since starting the Coffee Spot, I initially owned a cafetiere and an espresso machine and either drank my coffee at home with milk (cafetiere) or as espresso. Now I have two pour-over filters, a Clever Dripper, an Aeropress, dedicated grinder for filter coffee and a gooseneck kettle. I drink my filter coffee black and I have to put milk in my coffee to make it drinkable, then I’m drinking the wrong coffee! This award celebrates those Coffee Spots which continue to help me on my journey of discovery.

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We kick off the second day with shortlist for the 2020 Coffee Spot Award for “Coffee Spot with the Best Lighting”, won last year by Coffee Addict.

Lighting in coffee shops has long held a fascination for me, with most of the galleries containing a shot or two of an interesting light-fitting. This Award celebrates those Coffee Spots with particularly outstanding lighting. Note that I was back writing about Coffee Addict again this year, but I decided to keep Coffee Addict off the shortlist so that someone else would have a chance of winning.

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The last of today’s 2020 Coffee Spot Awards shortlists is the “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot”. In 2019 this went to Lost Sheep Coffee and it celebrates those Coffee Spots which are firmly rooted in, and which serve, their local communities. Unsurprisingly, the shortlist contains some of my favourite Coffee Spots of the year, which are often slightly off the beaten track.

This year the shortlist is a fairly concise affair due to my lack of travelling, but nevertheless it manages a wide geographical spread, with Coffee Spots from around the UK as well as from both coasts of the USA and with a pair of entries from Phoenix and the surrounding area.

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Our third shortlist in the 2020 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Coffee Spot with the Best Basement” Award. As regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for Coffee Spots with good basements. In 2019 this Award went to Society Café, The Corridor.

To some, a basement is a dark, sometimes dingy, cramped space. However, when they are at their best, basements are cosy, welcoming spaces that provide the perfect spot to curl up with your coffee. This award celebrates those Coffee Spots with outstanding basements, the sort of places you want to go and spend all day in! It also includes those Coffee Spots which, while not technically basements, have that basement-like feel to them.

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Our second shortlist in the 2020 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Best Takeaway Coffee” Award, which was won last year by Workshop Coffee at The Pilgrm. It recognises those places which, braving the elements, still produce an excellent cup of coffee. This includes coffee carts, coffee stalls, those Coffee Spots which are so small that they only serve takeaway coffee and those Coffee Spots where I regularly get my takeaway coffee (even if they offer a regular sit-in option).

Although many coffee shops were only offering takeaway for a large part of the year, I wasn’t travelling very much, limiting myself to visiting my local coffee shops in Guildford, all of whom were serving takeaway and happy to accept my reusable cups. As a result, this year’s shortlist is fairly concise affair.

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The first shortlist for the 2020 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot” Award, won in 2019 by The Hideout. Finding Coffee Spots in cities such as New York, Edinburgh or Manchester is to be expected. However, while good Coffee Spots are everywhere, some of them are in very unexpected places, both geographically and in terms of setting.

This Award is very much defined by the nominees on the shortlist. Some of these are geographical, a reward for bringing great coffee to unexpected places. Others are a recognition of a great or unusual setting for a Coffee Spot. This year, for example, there are quite a few Coffee Spots inside other places/shops in the shortlist.

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Merry Christmas to all my readers old and new! I hope, despite everything that’s gone on this year, that you’re having a great Christmas. Once again, it’s time for the Coffee Spot Awards, now into their NINTH year! The Awards provide a chance for me to reflect on all the great places I’ve visited and to give them all some more well-deserved time in the limelight. As usual, there are 20 Awards, the shortlists published between now and New Year’s Eve, with the winners announced on New Year’s Day.

2020 has easily been the strangest year in the Coffee Spot’s history. Things started off normally, with my (at that point) annual trip to a sunny part of America (California, this time, followed by a week in Phoenix, a week in northern Arizona and a long weekend in Portland, Maine). I was back in the USA in February and March, a trip that was abruptly cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. And that was it as far as travel went. For a long time, even visiting coffee shops was out of the question. A strange year indeed.

Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with the Coffee Spot this year, following me on Twitter, liking my Facebook page, and looking at my Instagram pictures. While I do this for the love of coffee, it means a lot to me that so many of you take the time to read and comment on my writing. Without you, it really would be pointless.

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