We kick off the second day with shortlist for the 2015 Coffee Spot Award for “Coffee Spot with the Best Lighting”. This is a new Award this year and follows on from the success of the Coffee Spot Lighting Calendar. It replaces the Coffee Spot Most Resembling a Coffee Shop Award.

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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The last of today’s 2015 Coffee Spot Awards shortlists is the “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot”. In 2014 this went to Darkhorse Espresso 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.

This Award has quite a wide geographical spread, with Coffee Spots from as far afield as Seattle, Philadelphia, Dorset, Lymington, Swindon, Brighton, Sheffield, Newcastle, Esher and Notting Hill.

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Our third shortlist in the 2015 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, so last year I introduced the “Best Basement” Award which was won by The Fleet Street Press.

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!

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Our second shortlist in the 2015 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Best Takeaway Coffee” Award, which was won last year by Tamp Culture. 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).

In fairness, I don’t feature a lot of takeaway places on the Coffee Spot, partly because, for me, a lot of what makes a good Coffee Spot is the atmosphere. This can be hard to achieve at a stall when you’re serving your coffee in a paper cup (another bugbear of mine; so these days I always take my own cup with me!). This year, I spent a large amount of my time commuting up to London for work, so this list is overly dominated by places at London stations and around my office in Paddington.

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The first shortlist for the 2015 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot” Award, won in 2014 by Kaffeine at Lord’s. Finding Coffee Spots in cities such as New York, Edinburgh or Manchester is to be expected. However, 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.

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Merry Christmas to all my readers old and new! I hope you’re having a great Christmas. As the year comes to an end, it’s Awards time again. I can’t believe that these are the FOURTH Coffee Spot Awards. How did that happen? It only seems like yesterday that my friend Andrew Rilstone was suggesting the first Coffee Spot Awards. I’ve come a long way since then and 2015’s been a packed year, with more Coffee Spots than ever visited and written about.

With that in mind, it’s time to reflect on 2015 with the fourth Annual Brian’s Coffee Spot Awards. Once again there are 20 Awards, the shortlists for each being publishing between now and New Year’s Eve, the winners being announced on New Year’s Day.

Thank you to everyone who’s visited the Coffee Spot, followed me on Twitter, liked my Facebook page, +1ed me on Google+ (not many of you in that category!) and liked my pictures on Instagram. 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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Happy New Year to all my followers old and new! As we get 2015 underway, here are the winners of the third Annual Brian’s Coffee Spot Awards. As before, there are 20 Awards, celebrating all the wonderful Coffee Spots I wrote about during 2014. The shortlists for all 20 Awards were announced between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve and now we have the winners!

Before we go on, I know I’ve said this before, but a big thank you to everyone who has visited the Coffee Spot, followed me on Twitter, liked my Facebook page or +1ed me on Google+. While I do this for the love of it, it means a lot to me that so many of you take the time to read and comment on my writing. And help spread the love for good coffee.

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So, here it is, the final Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2014, the only one that you, my readers, decide. It’s the “Most Popular Coffee Spot” Award, which is based on the total number of views received by each Coffee Spot in 2014.

Last year this was won last year by Look Mum No Hands South Bank Pop-up with a rather precise 999 views (and no, Im not making this up!). This year we have two Coffee Spots which have broken the 1,000 views mark, which I’m quite excited by. Of the 10 most viewed Coffee Spots three are from London, two from Oxford and there is one each from Exeter, Bath and Cirencester. The remaining two are Saturday Supplments. It’s also interesting that two of the top 10 were published last year!

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Welcome to the penultimate Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2014, the Brian’s Coffee Spot Special Award, which was won last year by Southsea Coffee Co. This is a special award for those Coffee Spots which don’t quite fit into the other categories, but which nonetheless I absolutely love… It’s also a chance for me to recognise and reward those wonderful Coffee Spots that I come across during the year and which mean something special to me.

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Welcome to the next Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2014, the “Most Passionate About Coffee” Award, which was won in 2013 by Workhouse Coffee, King Street. For me, this is one of the most important awards, and also one of the hardest to judge, which is why I’ve left it to the last day.

It’s not just about the coffee, it’s also about people who love and care about coffee. Everyone who I’ve covered in the Coffee Spot is passionate about coffee and one of the great things is how much love there is out there, both for the coffee and for those who make it. However, those shortlisted for this award stand out from the crowd.

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