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Posts containing general information about Brian’s Coffee Spot

The Coffee Spot is One!

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The Coffee Spot CupToday’s Saturday Supplement marks a very special occasion: the Coffee Spot is one year old! Exactly one year ago today, at 14.15 on Friday, 28th September 2012, the Coffee Spot was launched with great fanfare. I can’t be too sure how many people actually visited the Coffee Spot that day since I wasn’t really paying attention, but I’m sure it wasn’t that many! Fast forward to today, 123 posts, 107 Coffee Spots and over 31,000 views later, and the Coffee Spot is doing quite well, in no small part to you, dear readers.

The whole point of the Coffee Spot is to share the love of great coffee and great places to have coffee. Without you, my readers, there would be no sharing, so thank you one-and-all, whether you’ve read every single Coffee Spot since the launch or whether you just dip in and out when you feel like it. This special Saturday Supplement, a review of the year gone by, is dedicated to each and every one of you.

And, by way of saying thank you, I have a very special competition (with prizes!) at the very end of the post!

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Caffeine Magazine

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The cover of Issue 34 of Caffeine Magazine, an espresso being poured over ice cream to make an affogato.Issue 34 of Caffeine Magazine, came out a couple of weeks ago. If you’re new to the Coffee Spot or you haven’t heard of Caffeine Magazine, then you’re missing out, since it’s long been one of the UK’s foremost coffee publications.

As regular readers will know, I used to be Caffeine Magazine’s UK café correspondent. I made my debut in Issue 4, writing the Neighbourhood Watch feature, in which I explored the coffee scene in towns & cities around the UK, with my articles graced and enhanced by the wonderful photography of Amelia Hallsworth. In all, I wrote 26 Neighbourhood Watch features, with the last one appearing in Issue 31 (I got Issue 21 and Issue 28 off for good behaviour!). There’s more about Neighbourhood Watch and why we decided to bring it to an end here.

Caffeine publishes bi-monthly and is available for free in many good independent, speciality coffee shops around the country, with a particular emphasis on London. However, if you’re struggling to find a copy, it’s also available on-line for both Apple and other platforms (including Apple, Android, Kindle and Windows 8). Even better, there’s a postal subscription available; a year’s worth of Caffeine Magazine for just £23 (postage included, UK only; higher prices for Europe and worldwide). You can also order back issues, although many of the early ones have sold out.

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State of the Nation(s)

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An espresso, in a classic white cup on a white saucer on a tableDear readers. I thought I had better explain myself, especially to those of you who are new to the Coffee Spot, but also to my regular readers who could be forgiven for thinking I’ve disappeared!

Normally I post twice a week, once on a Monday and once on a Thursday. However, for the last month, I have been a bit remiss in keeping up with my schedule, for which I can only apologise. The simple explanation is that I have been away on holiday (or perhaps, given where I went, vacation would be a better term…). I had high hopes of at least posting once a week while I was away, but that slowly went out of the window…

The good news is that while I was away, I did find the odd Coffee Spot worthy of a mention (21 in all, across three cities!). The other good news is that I am now back and, starting on Monday, will be back to posting twice a week.

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Coffee Spot Tour of Edinburgh

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An espresso, made by my Rancilio Silvia espresso machine, in a classic white cup and saucer from Acme & Co., New Zealand, distributed in the UK by Caravan Roastery.The Coffee Spot goes from strength-to-strength. When I started, I intended to publish once a week. Four months on, I am publishing twice a week and averaging over 500 views a week, with over 200 regular visitors, which is amazing! However, real life occasionally raises its head, so for the next four or five weeks, I am going to have to go back to publishing once a week.

It’s nothing serious, just that I’m very busy and then off to America two weeks today. Much as I love the Coffee Spot, I don’t want to spend half my holiday blogging, so going down to once a week makes sense. While I’m away, I’ll try to blog at least one Coffee Spot from the three main places I’m visiting: Boston, New York City and Montreal. Any recommendations gratefully received, especially Montreal, since it’s my first visit there.

In the meantime, I thought you’d enjoy a brief round-up of my recent Coffee Spot tour of Edinburgh, plus a couple of my old favourites, all in the form of a slideshow (click on the picture for the full Coffee Spot)… If this proves successful, I might do a few more roundups on Mondays, with the regular Coffee Spots published on Thursday as normal.

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The Story So Far

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An espresso, in a classic white cup on a white saucer on a tableWow! When I launched the Coffee Spot almost exactly a month ago, I didn’t really know what to expect, but so far, it’s been an amazing experience. It’s also hard to believe that it’s only been a month. It feels like I’ve been doing this for ages!

So what’s the story so far? Well, the Coffee Spot’s been to Edinburgh, the Great Glen Way, Bristol, London and my home town of Guildford. Next week I’m off to Plymouth and Exeter, hunting out more great places, so they’ll feature soon enough. Meanwhile the Coffee Spot itself is staying in Guildford to take a look at another coffee retailer and then going up to London for a takeaway coffee. After that, there’ll be more visits to London and a return to Bristol and Edinburgh.

Finally, the Coffee Shop’s going global! Well, international at least. In the first instance, this will be a retrospective of some places I’ve been in the last couple of years. The shortlist is Paris, Rome, Budapest and Chicago/Milwaukee. If you have any preferences out of those four, leave me a comment and let me know which one(s) you prefer.

However, I do have a plea to make…

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Welcome to Brian’s Coffee Spot

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Hello everyone and welcome to Brian’s Coffee Spot, a twice-weekly blog celebrating great coffee and, perhaps more importantly, excellent places to drink great coffee. And eat cake. Mustn’t forget the cake.

If you want to know about the Coffee Spot, check out the About pages. There’s no obligation to wade through them all though. If you just want to dive straight in, go for it! There are three great coffee spots already on the site:

For the first couple of weeks, I’ll be posting more than once a week, just to get everyone going, but after that things will settle down to a post a week [Famous last words! Three months in and I’m resigned to the fact Brian’s Coffee Spot is a twice a week blog. Even posting twice a week, I’m still finding great Coffee Spots faster than I can write about them!].

Please feel happy to share the Coffee Spot on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ and spread the word.

Thanks for stopping by,
Brian.

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Brian’s Coffee Spot Goes Live, Friday, 14.15

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The good news is that Brian’s Coffee Spot goes live on Friday, 28th September at 14.15 (British Summer Time). For those of you who organise your lives by a proper time standard, that’s after the afternoon repeat of the Archers on BBC Radio 4!

Until then, the posts will remain password protected. So, if you want to see who’s going to be in the Coffee Spot, you can get a sneak preview by scrolling down or casting your eyes to the “Recent Posts” list on the right.