Coffee Spots come in all shapes and sizes, but for some reason I have a real soft spot for small Coffee Spots. Last year, the “Smallest Coffee Spot” Award was won by Tintico, Greek Street.

This year I have once again been blessed by some very small Coffee Spots, serving some very fine coffee. As in previous years, this Award is entirely subjective: no Coffee Spots were measured during the judging process! This is one of the few Awards where I could have filled the shortlist over again: the world seems full of lots of really lovely, small, Coffee Spots.

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We’re halfway through the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards, so it’s time for the shortlist for the “Best Espresso” Award, which was won in 2021 by Nostos Coffee. When it comes down to it, I still tend to judge a Coffee Spot by the quality of its espresso. Of course, this is entirely subjective and down to taste. I would never knock a place that made a good espresso just because it wasn’t to my taste.

This award is for those Coffee Spots which served me the best and most memorable espressos of the year. I started the Coffee Spot as a confirmed Italian espresso drinker with my palette evolving and expanding over time. This year I had some truly sublime espresso, leading to this being one of the most hotly contested of this year’s Awards.

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Next up in the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards is the shortlist for the “Coffee Spot with the Best Outdoor Seating” Award. Celebrating all those wonderful Coffee Spots with excellent outdoor seating, this was won last year by Caffi Caban.

To qualify for this award, it’s not just a case of sticking a couple of tables or chairs on the pavement outside your coffee shop. Too often, what could be a lovely spot is marred by traffic noise, or cramped conditions, or just being in the wrong place. The best outside seating is often away from the road and passing pedestrians and offers shelter from the wind, rain and/or sun (although rarely all three at once!). Fortunately, there are plenty of Coffee Spots which do exactly that and this is one award I could have filled many times over!

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We get another day of the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards shortlists underway with the “Best Saturday Supplement” Award, won in 2021 by Frozen Solid Coffee Project. The Saturday Supplement is a place where I can write about coffee, coffee-related events, places which I liked but which didn’t really fit into the category of a Coffee Spot and frankly, anything else that takes my fancy! This Award recognises the best of this year’s Saturday Supplements.

Just so we’re clear on this, the Award is not about my writing (that would be far too self-serving). It’s about the actual subjects that I’m writing about, which this year were rather thin on the ground. I wrote a few Travel Spots this year, plus various Coffee Spot Guides, all of which take up slots that would normally go to Saturday Supplements. I also wrote a few series about the same subject, and while each was a standalone piece in its own right, it would feel indulgent to enter them all into this year’s shortlist.

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Today’s third shortlist is 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. This was won in 2021 by Over Under Coffee, Wandsworth Town and rewards those Coffee Spots serving great coffee to travellers on rail networks around the world.

When you’re desperate for good coffee, railway stations 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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Continuing the Coffee Spot Awards is the shortlist for the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards, the “Best Filter Coffee” Award, which was won last year by Freak & Unique (and Other Coffees). 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 mulitple pour-over filters, a Clever Dripper, an AeroPress, dedicated grinder for filter coffee and a gooseneck kettle. I drink my filter coffee black and if 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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Let’s get Thursday underway with the shortlist for the 2022 Coffee Spot Award for “Coffee Spot with the Best Lighting”. This was won last year by Taylor’s Coffee House.

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.

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Next in the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards is the shortlist for “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot”. In 2021 this went to Bank Street Social 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 Award has quite a wide geographical spread, with Coffee Spots from across America, ranging from California to Portland, Maine, while in the UK, there are several much closer to home on The Wirral.

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The third shortlist in this year’s Awards is for the “Coffee Spot with the Best Basement/Mezzanine” Award, which last year went to Java Roastery, Moseley Village. As regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for Coffee Spots with good basements, although this year I have really struggled to find any! As a result, I’ve expanded the Award to include mezzanines, another favourite feature of mine, but even so, this year’s shortlist is very short indeed!

At first sight, mezzanines (upstairs) have very little in common with basements (downstairs) but they are both spaces separate from the main coffee shop where you can get away from it all. This award celebrates those Coffee Spots with outstanding basements or mezzanines, 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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The second shortlist in the 2022 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Best Takeaway Coffee” Award, won last year by Lily London, Guildford. It recognises those places which, often 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).

It was the case that I didn’t feature many takeaway places on the Coffee Spot, but these days, now that I travel extensively for work, I often have to grab a coffee to go during a break in the meeting (always remembering to bring my own cup with me!). As a result, I’m finding lots of great takeaway places out there, serving some really excellent coffee.

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