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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Happy New Year to all my followers old and new! As we get 2020 underway, here are the winners of the eighth annual Brian’s Coffee Spot Awards. As before, there are 20 Awards, celebrating all the wonderful Coffee Spots I wrote about during 2019. 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’s visited the Coffee Spot, followed me on Twitter, liked my Facebook page and looked at 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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So, here it is, the final Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2019, 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 2019, although this year I’ve tweaked the rule slightly and included Coffee Spots published within the last two months of 2018.

Last year this was won last year by Decent Espresso with 1,109 views. This year, of the 15 most viewed, 14 are Coffee Spots, with 11 from the UK. There’s also just one Saturday Supplement. This is, in some ways, my favourite Award since I don’t have to make any decisions. After 19 shortlists, it’s quite a relief not to have to decide who’s in and who’s out!

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Welcome to the penultimate Coffee Spot Awards Shortlist for 2019, the Brian’s Coffee Spot Special Award, which was won last year by Sarah’s Caring Coffee & The Coffee Bean. 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 2019, the “Most Passionate About Coffee” Award, which was won in 2018 by Discourse Coffee. 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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