Next up today, the 2020 Coffee Spot Award shortlist for “Best Physical Space”, which was won last year by Pražírna Kavárna. One of the most important things for me is how a Coffee Spot looks and feels. This, to me, is just as important as the coffee.
This award celebrates those Coffee Spots in which there’s a pure joy in just sitting there, soaking it all in. It’s not just about physical beauty and elegance. Instead, it’s as much about atmosphere, layout and overall feel.
The second of today’s 2020 Coffee Spot Awards shortlists is for the “Best Flat White” Award, which was won last year by First Draft Coffee & Wine.
Although I love black coffee, espresso with milk is very much its own thing. This award recognises those who have produced the perfect blend of coffee and milk with the smoothest, silkiest flat white (although awesome cortados, etc, also qualify).
First up today, the 2020 Coffee Spot Award shortlist for “Best Roaster/Retailer”, which was won last year by Wood St Coffee Roastery. Initially, this award was only open to retailers, but in 2014, I expanded it to include roasters, who now dominate the award. Contenders have either appeared in the Meet the Roaster series or are cafe/roasters which I’ve visited during the year.
Although the Coffee Spot is mostly about places to have coffee, I still drink the majority of my coffee at home, so those wonderful people who provide me with my coffee beans need a mention. The problem, as with all these awards, is knowing where to draw the line for the shortlist. I’ve visited lots of coffee shops/roasters this year, but I’ve made a decision, by-and-large, to stick to either roasters I’ve written about as roasters or coffee shops where the beans are roasted on site.
Welcome to the final 2020 Coffee Spot Awards shortlist of the day, the “Best Cake” Award, won in 2019 by Donut Shop. Despite what it says on the tag line, the Coffee Spot’s not all about the coffee. After all, what would a cup of coffee be without a decent slice of cake to go with it? So, cake plays a major part in the Coffee Spot and this Award celebrates the Coffee Spots which excel in the cake department.
This is another of my favourite Awards and while I haven’t had as much cake this year (in coffee shops, that is; I’ve had plenty at home), when I have, I’ve been treated to some absolutely fantastic cakes, buns, pies and slices.
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 Alex Coffee.
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!
We’re halfway through the 2020 Coffee Spot Awards with the shortlist for the “Best Espresso” Award, which was won in 2019 by Blueprint Coffee & Books. 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. Over the last few years, I’ve had some truly sublime espresso, which has led to this being one of the most hotly contested Awards. This year is no different, with a host of excellent espressos, mostly naturally-processed ones, leading the way.
We kick off the third day of the 2020 Coffee Spot Awards with 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 Pavilion Café.
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!).
This is one shortlist which hasn’t been diminished by the COVID-19 pandemic. At first I thought that this was because lots of places had added outdoor seating, but actually all bar one of the Coffee Spots on the shortlist came into 2020 with some great outdoor seating!
The last of today’s 2020 Coffee Spot Awards shortlists is the “Best Saturday Supplement” Award, won in 2019 by Coffee & Science with Bean Thinking. 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 Saturday Supplements in 2020.
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 included a cat cafe, trying a new coffee species, a coffee festival, a YouTube Channel, and several other things besides, all of which makes the comparison a little tricky, but that’s my problem!
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…
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.