Category Archives: Saturday Supplement

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

Smokey Barn

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A beautiful espresso extraction from a bottomless portafilter at Norwich's Smokey Barn Coffee Roasters.Norwich has a small, vibrant and thriving coffee scene, based around old favourites such as The Little Red Roaster and Strangers Coffee House, along with (relative) newcomers such as Kofra. Part of that mix, although a little under the radar, is local roaster, Smokey Barn, the brain-child of civil-engineer-turned-coffee-roaster, Chris.

From humble beginnings in 2011, when he roasted in a shed in his garden (the original and literal “Smokey Barn”), Smokey Barn moved into its current premises, just 10 minutes’ walk from the railway station, at the start of 2014. Smokey Barn has one of the most beautiful interiors I’ve seen in a roastery (which are not usually renowned for their beauty), kitted out in brick and wood, a far cry from most, which are typically industrial units.

Smokey Barn typically roasts five single-origin beans, plus decaf, with the (very) occasional blend thrown in. These are all available on-line from Smokey Barn, or you can pop into the roastery itself and buy a bag or two from Chris (best call ahead first to check that he’s in, though). Even better, if you ask him nicely, Chris will make you a coffee as well, using Smokey Barn’s fully-equipped espresso bar.

June 2021: Chris sold Smokey Barn in 2016 (I think). I’m not sure what happened to the company over the intervening years, but these days it’s still going strong, run by sisters Sophie & Megan, who continue to roast, but have also turned the roastery into a coffee shop (and about time too in my opinion!). One day I hope to get back to Norwich so that I can do a proper update.

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Glasgow Coffee Festival 2015 Preview

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The poster for the 2015 Glasgow Coffee FestivalCoffee Festivals come thick and fast this time of the year. The end of September saw not one, but two inaugural festivals, the New York Coffee Festival, and, slightly closer to home, the Northern Ireland Coffee Festival. Then, last Saturday, along came the first Edinburgh Coffee Festival, while this weekend, it’s the turn of Prague’s Coffee Festival.

The coming weekends see two of last year’s favourites making their second appearances. At the start of November (7th/8th), Cup North returns to Manchester, while next Saturday (October 17th) we have the return of the Glasgow Coffee Festival. Sadly I wasn’t able to make it last year due to various diary commitments, plus Glasgow annoyingly being at the other end of the country from where I live (how dare it!). This year, however, it’s been circled on my calendar for a long, long time.

Held in the Briggait, a soaring hall that was built as Glasgow’s fish market over 100 years ago, it’s just around the corner from festival organisers, Glasgow’s very own Dear Green Coffee roasters. Tickets are just £11.25 (including booking fee), which gives you access to nine hours (10:00 – 19:00) of coffee-based events, including the UK’s first-ever roasting championships.

PS If you’re heading up to Glasgow for the Festival, don’t forget to check out my Coffee Spot Guide to Glasgow for some of my favourite places to go.

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Full Court Press Update

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A cup of filter coffee from in a classic white cup, seen from above at Full Court Press.I first visited Full Court Press, or FCP Coffee as it is also known, the day before it opened, back in May 2013, then again two days later, when it still smelled faintly of paint. Since then I’ve been in a few times during my regular visits to Bristol.

In many ways, Full Court Press is much as I first found it, with owner and head barista, Mat, still regularly changing up the coffee, bringing in exciting beans from roasters from all over the country and beyond. For example, during my latest visit, one of the filter coffees was a Sumatran Blue Batak from Italian speciality roaster, Gardelli, the first time I’ve had its coffee. And very fine it was.

One change is behind the counter, where Will, of Didn’t You Do Well fame, has found a permanent role following Didn’t You Do Well’s sad closure. It was great to have a chance to catch up and to see him looking so well and so happy.

However, the biggest change had taken place beneath my feet…

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Wild & Wood, London Wall

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A lovely, creamy piccolo in a classic espresso cup, seen from above on an over-sized floral saucer.Wild & Wood is something of a pioneer in London’s speciality coffee scene. When it opened in 2008, the number speciality coffee shops in London could still be counted just using your fingers and toes. It’s also one of the first Coffee Spots I ever wrote about, Wild & Wood having been a regular haunt of mine in the years before I started the Coffee Spot. I also revisited it in April last year.

For seven years, Wild & Wood went about its business in its own uncompromising way from a small shop on New Oxford Street. Then, earlier this year, the building was cleared for redevelopment and Wild & Wood was left homeless, much to the consternation of its many fans and regular customers.

However, this particular story has a happy ending as, at the end of August, Wild & Wood reappeared on London Wall. Those who fear that the move will have ruined Wild & Wood needn’t worry: owners Bozena and Kit have pretty much transplanted Wild & Wood, keeping the same atmosphere and attitude that made it so popular.

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Boston Tea Party, Park Street Update

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A latte with a fern-leaf motif in the milkIn many ways, the Boston Tea Party on Bristol’s Park Street, where the Boston Tea Party chain began, is also where the Coffee Spot started, albeit a good few years later. It’s the first place that I wrote about, the first Coffee Spot being published three years and two days ago on 28th September 2012. As the Coffee Spot heads into its fourth year, it seems only fitting that I should revisit where it all began.

So, what’s changed in that time? Well, quite a bit, actually. The coffee is still the same, the Tea Party favouring a bespoke Extract Coffee Roasters’ seasonal espresso blend, and while the food menu has gone through some iterations, it’s still the same core of excellent cakes and all-day breakfasts.

No, what’s actually changed is the place itself. Well, not so much changed, just expanded. Since I was last there three years ago, the seating has pretty much doubled, with the Tea Party adding a second garden and a second upstairs room.

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The Decaf Challenge

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A handful of green coffee beans on the left and a handful of decaffeinated green beans on the right, showing the difference in colour, with the decaffeinated beans a dark shade of grey.Today’s Saturday Supplement is something of a hobby horse of mine: the search for great decaf coffee. Generally speaking, I believe that the state of decaf in the speciality coffee industry is pretty healthy. For example, I was in Cardiff on Monday, where I had two excellent decaf flat whites, one in Artigiano Espresso (roasted by Origin) and the other in The Plan (roasted by James Gourmet Coffee).

So, it’s not that there isn’t great decaf out there, being roasted by some top-quality roasters. Instead, the issue’s one of perception, with the decaf drinker often being made to feel like a second-class citizen. It’s a rare day when I don’t see a tweet along the lines of “death before decaf”. Frankly, I find it insulting to all decaf drinkers out there, not to mention the great roasters who are going to considerable lengths to produce amazing-tasting (caffeinated) coffee, extracting the maximum flavour from the beans, only to have their products reduced to a mechanism for delivering caffeine. Why? I just don’t get it.

To counter this, I launched the Coffee Spot Decaf Challenge at this year’s London Coffee Festival, the aim being to highlight the great decaf coffee out there.

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The Coffee Spot is Three!

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cropped-1-x-1-DSC_4909_spotless.jpgToday’s Saturday-Supplement-on-a-Wednesday marks a very special occasion: the Coffee Spot is three years old! Well, it will be: on Monday, 28th September it’ll be exactly three years since I launched the Coffee Spot (14.15 on Friday, 28th September 2012 to be precise). This time last year, when The Coffee Spot was two, I’d made 179 posts, covering 113 Coffee Spots in my second year, which had attracted over 84,000 views. This was up from my first year, when I’d made a mere 123 posts, covering 107 Coffee Spots with 31,000 views.

My third year, however, has been even better. Although I’ve made roughly the same number of posts (180, covering 115 Coffee Spots), my third year has seen well over 115,000 views, more than my first two years combined! 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 party. This will take place on Wednesday, 30th September, two days after the Coffee Spot’s actual third birthday, and will be at the lovely Beany Green, Paddington. Anyone who wants to come is welcome to join me.

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Quarter Horse Coffee Roasters

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The Giesen roaster at Quarter Horse, Birmingham.Quarter Horse Coffee started life on Oxford’s Cowley Road (where the original Quarter Horse Coffee has become Peleton Espresso), where it used coffee from Square Mile. However, in 2015, Quarter Horse moved to Birmingham, setting up a café/roastery. Nathan, who founded the original Quarter Horse with colleague James, hails from Normal, Illinois, and was a roaster before he came to the UK, so this marked a return to his (roasting) roots.

Quarter Horse created a lovely spot on Bristol Street, the roastery sharing the space with a large, open café (which features in its own Coffee Spot), Originally, this was behind a waist-high counter, which meant that the roastery was visible from pretty much every part of the building, but a major remodelling during the enforced COVID-19 shutdown saw the roastery enclosed in its own room. The roastery is still going strong, with the roaster, a 15 kg Giesen (which has been the mainstay of the operation since it opened in 2015), visible through a window in the wall dividing the roastery from the café.
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Lanark Coffee (Drink, Shop & Dash Update)

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Shot of a tulip cup on a black saucer, taken from above. The coffee is almost gone, but the latte art pattern, a tulip, is still plainly visible in the remainder of the milk in the bottom of the cup.Drink, Shop & Dash was the smaller sibling and speciality coffee outlet of next door neighbour, Drink, Shop & Do on the Caledonian Road. It was part of a growing speciality coffee scene in the area, led by the (now venerable) Caravan and including Noble Espresso (now Craft Coffee) and Notes. Just around the corner from King’s Cross station, it was a welcome spot, especially when you needed to take the weight off your feet.

So, I was surprised and more than a little disappointed when Phil Wain reported on twitter that Dash had closed. However, all was not as gloomy as it first appeared. It turned out that the two key people running Dash had, for entirely independent reasons, given their notice within a week of each other. Faced with a sudden recruitment crisis, Drink, Shop & Do had a dilemma. Fortunately, up popped Greg of Haggerston’s Lanark Coffee. Greg knew of the predicament from links with Dash’s roasters Alchemy and a deal was struck.

No sooner had Dash closed, it had reopened, Greg taking over behind the counter at the start of September. Naturally, I had to go along and see what Greg and Lanark had done to the place…

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Lunch Business Awards 2015

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The Lunch Business Grab & Go Awards logo for 2015My involvement with the Lunch Business Awards goes back three years, to a chance encounter with Maria Bracken, the Awards organiser, in Attendant, the Fitzrovia coffee shop in a disused gents toilet. Since then I’ve worked with Maria every year, nominating Coffee Spots for the Awards, principally in the Best Coffee and Best Tea Experience categories. In particular, I’ve tried to nominate places outside of London.

I was delighted when, two years ago, Boscombe’s Café Boscanova won the Best Coffee Experience Award. I wasn’t so successful with my nominations the following year, but I was even more excited this year when the shortlists came out. Three of the five coffee shops on the Best Coffee Experience shortlist are places I’ve nominated and I nominated the entire shortlist for Best Tea Experience. Tea? I know? The irony of this is not lost on me. Joining them is the wonderful Daisy Green, which is on the shortlist for Group Operator of the Year.

The Awards Ceremony took place on Monday evening (14th September) and I was there, loyalties torn, since I really wanted everybody that I nominated to win. However, you can’t have everything. After a quick rundown of the shortlists you can find out who won each of the Awards I’d nominated people for.

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