Category Archives: Saturday Supplement

A Saturday Supplement is any post that’s not a Coffee Spot

2020 Awards – Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot

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Details taken from the menu board at The Hideout, where it proudly claims "No Takeaway Cups".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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Coffee Spot Awards 2020

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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.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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The Philosophy of Cheese

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The cover of The Philosophy of Cheese, by Patrick McGuigan, published by the British Library.Since there is a dearth of coffee shops that I can write about at the moment, I’m branching out a bit to write about books instead. So welcome to the first of four posts about the British Library’s Philosophies series. Astute readers will realise that this is a little self-serving since I wrote one of the early books in the series, The Philosophy of Coffee. However, since I’m now selling the rest of the (food-related) titles on the Coffee Spot, I thought I should say something about them, starting The Philosophy of Cheese.

The Philosophy of Cheese is, like all the books in the series, a compact volume, packed with interesting, entertaining facts. It might seem a strange choice (The Philosophy of Tea is a more likely first bedfellow), but the truth is, I really like cheese, so it was the first one I reached for. I usually have five or six cheeses in the house at any one time (currently I have Cheddar, Stilton, Bree, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella and Parmesan) and quite often pair cheese with coffee (a really mature bree, the sort that’s just about ready to crawl off the plate, goes really well with espresso, for example).

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Amtrak’s Sunset Limited to Tucson, Day 2

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The driver climbing up in the evening sun to get into the cab of the lead locomotive of the Sunset Limit at Houston, TexasWelcome the second part of this Travel Spot post detailing the journey that I took in March 2018 on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Tucson, Arizona. This was itself the final leg of a larger train journey which had seen me start in Providence, Rhode Island, in the teeth of a New England winter, and travel down via Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to Manassas just south of Washington DC, then carry on to New Orleans on Amtrak’s Crescent service.

I left New Orleans at nine o’clock on Monday morning, the whole journey taking roughly a day and a half to cover the 2,400 km through Louisiana, all the way across Texas (which took almost a day!) and then along the Mexican border through New Mexico and Arizona, arriving in Tucson just after sunset on Tuesday evening. I was in coach class for the first day, which is covered in Part I, travelling from New Orleans to San Antonio, where we arrived just before midnight. There I transferred to a sleeper compartment for the rest of the journey, which is covered in this post.

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Amtrak’s Sunset Limited to Tucson, Day 1

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The track disappearing behind Amtrak's Sunset Limited just after departing Beaumont, Texas, on its way to Los Angeles.Welcome to another Travel Spot post and what is in effect the final two-part instalment of a trip I took in 2018, which back then went under the provisional title of Another Grand Adventure. There are actually two more posts in the series, about my adventures on my flight home, but these are the last two posts to be written, hence the “final instalment” tag.

They detail the journey that I took in March 2018 on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Tucson, Arizona, itself the final leg of a much larger train journey. I’d started in Providence, Rhode Island, in the teeth of a New England winter, and travelled down via Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to Manassas just south of Washington DC, then carried on to New Orleans on Amtrak’s Crescent service.

After a weekend in New Orleans, I was on my way again, departing at nine o’clock on Monday morning. The train took roughly a day and a half to cover the 2,400 km through Louisiana, all the way across Texas (which took almost a day!) and then along the Mexican border through New Mexico and Arizona, arriving in Tucson just after sunset on Tuesday evening.

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The Coffee Spot Christmas Gift Guide 2020

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The Coffee Life, an on-line micro-business, one of this year's Coffee Spot Gift Guide recommendations.Welcome to the annual Coffee Spot Christmas gift guide. This is my sixth guide and, much to my surprise, it’s the earliest (two whole weeks before Christmas!) that I’ve published it. So, if, like me, you leave present-buying to the last minute, here are some suggestions for gifts for your coffee-loving friends and relatives. Whether you’re a novice, looking for pointers for buying for your coffee-obsessed friend/relative, or if you’re that coffee-obsessive, looking for a handy guide to point your friends/relatives towards, the Coffee Spot is here to help.

As with all things Coffee Spot, this guide’s not definitive, nor is it a “best-of” list. Instead, my suggestions are all things which I’ve come across this last year and which I’ve thought “that would make a good addition to the guide”, which I’ve split into three categories, one of which is new this time around.

I say this every year, but it is worth repeating: while this is a Christmas gift guide, it serves just as well as a birthday/anniversary gift guide, so don’t forget to bookmark it and return to it throughout the year…

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Brian’s Travel Spot: A Weekend in New Orleans

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Traditional wrought iron balconies in the French Quarter of New Orleans.The first time I visited New Orleans was in 2010, when I took travelled on Amtrak’s City of New Orleans, an overnight service from Chicago. This covers the 1,500 km route, which roughly follows the Mississippi all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, in around 20 hours. It was therefore fitting that my return to New Orleans, in March 2018, was also by train. This time I travelled on the Crescent, another overnight service which starts in New York City, although I picked it up at Manassas, just south of Washington DC.

This was part of a much longer journey which had seen me start in Boston, before taking a series of trains down Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor from Providence. Swapping a New England winter for the spring-like weather of the Gulf Coast (it was 25°C!), I spent a weekend in New Orleans before catching another train, Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, to Tucson, which marked the end of my train travel for the trip. Ideally, I’d have taken the train to Phoenix, my final destination, but sadly it lost its passenger service long ago, so instead I drove the last leg. From there, I flew back to the UK, making my final way home.

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The 2021 Coffee Spot Calendar

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My flat white, made with a naturally-processed Brazilian single-origin from Neighbourhood Coffee, and served at The Flower Cup in a fetching yellow cup with a blue saucer and some awesome latte art.Every year, I’m late getting the Coffee Spot Calendar out. Every year, I vow that I will be better prepared and get it out earlier the following year. Every year, I fail. You’d think that this year, since I’m not travelling (and, for the last month, I’ve not even been visiting coffee shops), things would be different. And you’d be wrong. So, with apologies for its late arrival, please say hello to the 2021 Coffee Spot Calendar, which is now on sale.

As always, it’s professionally-printed on glossy paper, each month featuring a landscape, A4 picture from one of my favourite Coffee Spots of the last 12 months. The calendars cost £15.00 (£10.00 for the desktop version) with a flat £2.50 postage and packing charge, regardless of order size. If you think we’re likely to meet up in the near future, then there’s a no-postage option: pick this and I’ll hand your calendar over in person! If you’re ordering from outside the UK, then the postage will be more, I’m afraid (full details after the gallery).

If you get your orders in by the end of next week, I should be able to get your calendar to you before Christmas (for UK orders).

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James Hoffmann’s YouTube Channel

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James Hoffmann, trying an espresso he's just pulled on a La Pavoni Europiccola manual lever espresso machine.With a very few coffee shops for me to write about at the moment, I am once more searching for meaningful Coffee Spot content. Today’s offering is therefore another first as I turn my attention to the videos of James Hoffmann. Before I go on, it’s worth mentioning that I am not a great fan of video. First and foremost, I am a reader, followed by a listener. Video comes a distinct and distant third. So, how come I’m writing about videos, specifically James Hoffmann’s YouTube channel, in today’s Saturday Supplement?

I’ve known of James for many years (I even met him, once, for about 30 seconds, at a London Coffee Festival: I’m sure he had no idea who I was) and have vaguely been aware of his YouTube Channel for a couple of years. However, I only really discovered it while writing my own Coffee at Home series earlier this year, his videos frequently coming up on internet searches for a variety of topics. At first, I just watched them for research, but as I did, I discovered that I was really enjoying them. Now I am a regular viewer, slowly making my way through James’ back catalogue.

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Koja by Surrey Hills Coffee (COVID-19 Update)

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My flat white, made with the Surrey Hills Coffee Holmbury Hill blend and served in my HuskeeCup at Koja.Koja, a Swedish word meaning “a cosy little den”, came into being in August this year. On the one hand, it can be seen as the rebirth of Surrey Hills Coffee on Jeffries Passage, but it’s also very much its own place, resisting the temptation to become a clone of what had gone before.

When I visited, on Koja’s second day of trading, it was just offering takeaway service. As summer turned to autumn, Koja introduced limited seating downstairs, although I never seemed to be in the position to visit, either passing by at closing time (at the relatively early hour of two o’clock in the afternoon) or else it was a Saturday and very busy. With the tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in England at the start of November, Koja returned to takeaway only, and I thought it was high time I popped back to see how things were going.

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