Today’s Saturday Supplement is a blatant piece of self-publicity if ever there was one. As some of you may know, my friend Paul, wearer of many hats, possessor of too many first names (and, consequentially, too few surnames) and all-round-good-egg, has a podcast called Espressno (and no, I don’t know why he called it that either).

What you may not realise is that last month, while I was in Sheffield on Coffee Spot business, I made a sneaky day-trip to Leeds where I met Paul, who, somewhat foolishly, sat me down, handed me a microphone and then pressed record. The result is Episode C of Espressno, half-an-hour of me talking and occasionally letting Paul get a word in edgeways (It’s only fair, it is his podcast after all).

I would encourage you to listen to it, not least because Paul needs another listener…

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2014 is the year of the Coffee Festival and it looks to be ending as strongly as it started.  Things kicked off in April with the annual fixture that is the London Coffee Festival, soon followed by the inaugural Amsterdam Coffee Festival (which I’d have gone to, had it not been so close to the London Coffee Festival!). Not to be outdone, there was the first ever Dublin Coffee and Tea Festival (September) which, alas, I also couldn’t attend, and Manchester’s Cup North on the first weekend in November, which I did attend.

The end of the year sees two back-to-back events in Glasgow. The first, happening today (29^th November) is the inaugural Scottish Coffee Festival, while exactly a week later comes the subject of today’s Saturday Supplement, the inaugural Glasgow Coffee Festival!

In a fit of bad timing, conflicting commitments and an expiring free train ticket, I’d already arranged to go to Edinburgh/Glasgow this weekend. That was before I even knew that the Glasgow Coffee Festival was taking place. Such is its strong line-up that I’ve seriously considering returning next weekend just to attend. Sadly things haven’t worked out, but that’s no reason for you not to go!

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After the success of last year’s Coffee Spot calendar, which sold over 100 copies, I’m back with the 2015 Coffee Spot calendar! As before, I’ve produced a professionally-printed calendar, A4 in size, on glossy paper. Each month there’s a landscape, A4 picture from one of my favourite Coffee Spots of the last 12 months. Just as last year, I’ve also printed a very limited number of desktop calendars (just as last year, I’ve done 10).

Each calendar costs £12.00, with a flat fee of £2.00 postage and packing, regardless of how many you order  (UK only). There are also discounts for multiple purchases. If you think we’re likely to meet up in the near future, I’ll even waive the postage and hand your calendar over in person!

For orders for Europe, the postage and packing will be £4.00 for one or two calendars, while for the rest of the world, it’s £6.00. I apologise for the excessive postage charges, but this is what it’s costing me to send them to you!

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After the success of last year’s Coffee Spot calendar, which sold over 100 copies, I’m back with the Coffee Spot calendar for 2015! As before, I’ll be producing a professionally-printed calendar, A4 in size, on glossy paper. Each month there will be landscape, A4 picture from one of my favourite Coffee Spots of the last 12 months. Just as last year, I’ll also be printing a very limited number of desktop calendars (I did 10 last year).

Each calendar will cost £12.00, with a flat fee of £2.00 postage and packing, regardless of how many you order  (UK only). There are also discounts for multiple purchases. If you think we’re likely to meet up in the near future, I’ll even waive the postage and hand your calendar over in person!

For orders for Europe, the postage and packing will be £4.00 for one or two calendars, while for the rest of the world, it’s £6.00. I apologise for the excessive postage charges, but this is what it’s costing me to send them to you!

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Last weekend I celebrated the Coffee Spot’s second birthday with a coffee-crawl around London, taking in three of my favourite Coffee Spots, Doctor Espresso Caffetteria, The Wren and White Mulberries. I had a lovely time and, if you’re interested, you can see what I got up to in the gallery.

I’m also running a special competition with some great prizes. You can win a copy of this year’s The London Coffee Guide or some coffee from the lovely Round Hill Roastery. To enter, all you have to do is tweet about your favourite Coffee Spot, or post about it on Facebook.

I’m not sure why, but the competition has been rather slow to take off this year. I’ve got eight prizes to give away in all and so far I’ve had four entries, so if you enter now, you’re in with a pretty good chance of winning. Just don’t tell your friends…

No, wait… Tell your friends! All your friends!

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Today’s Saturday Supplement marks a very special occasion: the Coffee Spot is two years old! Tomorrow it’ll be exactly two years since I launched the Coffee Spot (14.15 on Friday, 28^th September 2012 to be precise). This time last year, when The Coffee Spot was one, I’d made 123 posts, covering 107 Coffee Spots and had over 31,000 views. However, that’s nothing compared to my second year, which has seen 179 posts, covering 113 Coffee Spot, with a staggering 84,000 views, up almost three-fold on my first year!

This success is largely down to you, dear readers. Without you, there would be no point in the Coffee Spot, so to thank you, I’m organising a Coffee Spot birthday coffee-crawl. This will take place on Sunday, the Coffee Spot’s actual second birthday, and will take in three of my favourite London Coffee Spots.

Anyone who wants to is welcome to join me at any (or all) of the three Coffee Spots. You can just pop in to say hello or you can stay as long as you like (well, as long as the individual Coffee Spot will have you; I suspect you’ll have to leave when they close for the night!).

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Following on from last week’s Saturday Supplement reporting on the launch of “The Bitter Trade”, I thought I’d take this opportunity to plug three other books that I have read recently. What’s more, they’re all actually about coffee!

The first, “The London Coffee Guide”, does what it says on the cover. As an added bonus, there’s a brief but informative “coffee knowledge” section at the end. Coincidently, I was also at its launch (it came out at London Coffee Festival).

The second, “Coffee Obsession” by Anette Moldvaer of London coffee roasters, Square Mile, is published by Dorling Kindersley. It’s a wonderful introduction to the world of coffee, covering everything from growing coffee to making and drinking it, and includes everything in between.

My final book, “From Lime Street to Yirgacheffe”, is by Robert Leigh. It deals with the author’s trip from his home in Liverpool to the coffee growing regions of Ethiopia where he was researching a report on traceability and sustainability in the coffee industry for a UK coffee importer. A first person account of his journey, “From Lime Street to Yirgacheffe” is beautifully written and is an honest, penetrating insight into coffee growing and production in present-day Ethiopia.

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