Category Archives: Saturday Supplement

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

Brian’s Travel Spot: The Pacific Northwest

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The amazing Multnomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge. There are two parts to the falls, the larger one dropping into a pool before passing under a bridge and over the second, smaller falls.Welcome to the third and final instalment of Brian’s Travel Spot, following my three week adventure across the United States. The first instalment, imaginatively entitled New England, covered my time on the east coast in New England: Boston, Providence and Portland, Maine, to be precise. The second instalment, Heading West, covered my journey west, by train, from Portland in Maine, to Portland in Oregon, a total of just over three days on the train, although I had a couple of stop-offs along the way. This, the final instalment, covers my week in the Pacific Northwest and my flight home.

I wrote Brian’s Travel Spot to enable you to follow my adventures as they unfolded. Unfortunately, as the trip went along, the Travel Spot got further and further behind, so now you’ll be reliving my adventures. As with the first two posts, I’ll update this post every few days, in between my normal Coffee Spot posts, the idea being to capture the highlights, with the emphasis on the travel rather than the coffees shops (although they feature too).

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London Coffee Festival 2015: La Cimbali Sensory Sessions

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The front of La Cimbali's Coffee Notebook, given away as part of the Sensory Sessions at the London Coffee Festival.Welcome to the third of my detailed London Coffee Festival Saturday Supplements. If you want to know what I made of the festival as a whole, take a look at my round-up. In this series, I’ll be covering individual aspects of the festival. In the first two instalments I’ve looked at all the interesting coffee kit that I came across and written about my coffee experiences. Now it’s the turn of something quite special.

I’ve recently returned from the Pacific Northwest, where I had the pleasure of visiting the likes of Portland’s Either/Or, with its espresso and beverage flights, and Seattle’s Slate Coffee Roasters where I had an amazing, one-on-one coffee tasting flight. To follow that up, I want to tell you about one of the highlights of this year’s Coffee Festival, the excellent La Cimbali sensory sessions.

Located in the main hall, about halfway up on the left-hand side, La Cimbali has always brought innovative ideas to the London Coffee Festival, but this year it surpassed itself with its sensory sessions. These highlighted the impact of taste (and our other senses) on how we perceive coffee and on how the way we prepare coffee can radically change our perceptions.

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Coffee Tasting Flight at Slate

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The sign from the window of Slate Coffee Roasters in Seattle: the words 'SLATE COFFEE ROASTERS', one word per lineEvery now and then something comes along that is so special that it immediately jumps out at you. Such is the case with the wonderful Slate Coffee Roasters of Seattle and its amazing coffee tasting flight. Slate is a coffee shop/roaster that has been going for a couple of years now and somewhere where the focus is more clearly on the coffee than anywhere else I’ve been. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the coffee tasting flight.

I’ve written about Slate as a Coffee Spot in its own right, while this Saturday Supplement is solely about a detailed description of the coffee tasting flight because I feel it deserves the attention. I’d already been forewarned by my friend Kate Beard about Slate and its amazing deconstructed espresso (more of which later), but it was the coffee tasting flight that jumped out at me, partly because it has no price attached.

Why? Because the coffee tasting flight is pretty much what you make of it and its charged accordingly. Think of it as a 45 minute, personal curated coffee tour. Want to taste the same coffee four different ways? No problem. Want to explore the differences between processing methods? You got it.

June 2019: My visit to Slate was one of my personal Coffee Spot highlights. I’m therefore deeply saddened to learn of reports of mistreatment of the staff.

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Heading West

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Have coffee, will travel. Making an Aeropress on Amtrak between Boston and Albany.Welcome to the second instalment of Brian’s Travel Spot, which follows my three-week adventure across the USA. The first instalment, imaginatively entitled New England, covered my time on the east coast in New England: Boston, Providence and Portland (Maine), to be precise. This instalment covers my journey west, by train, threading my way, city to city, to my ultimate destination.

The idea behind Brian’s Travel Spot is that it enables you to follow my adventures as they unfold. As with the New England post, I’ll update this post every few days, in between my normal Coffee Spot posts, the idea being to capture the highlights, with the emphasis on the travel rather than the coffees shops (although I’m sure they’ll feature).

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London Coffee Festival 2015: Coffee Experiences

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The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the second of my detailed write-ups of the London Coffee Festival. If you want to know what I made of the festival as a whole, take a look at my round-up. Here I’ll be covering individual aspects of the festival. I started with all the interesting coffee kit that I came across at the festival, while today I’ll be looking my coffee experiences, with another Saturday Supplement dedicated to the La Cimbali sensory sessions. The remaining Saturday Supplements explore themes such as cups and the coffee itself.

So, what do I mean by coffee experiences? This is a new category for this year and so deserves a little bit of explanation. By coffee experiences, I mean the things that go around the coffee itself, in this case, coffee cupping (and variations thereon from Assembly and Union Hand-roasted), a coffee roasting demonstration (Union again) and some latte art lessons, courtesy of The Roasting Party).

We’ll round things off with an interesting feature: man vs machine, where the Steampunk, from Alpha Dominche, went head-to-head with a human to see who could make the best coffee (and, in one case, tea!).

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Brian’s Travel Spot: New England

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A cappuccino from Render Coffee in BostonWelcome to a somewhat new direction for the Coffee Spot as we head off into the unknown with Brian’s Travel Spot. As my followers on twitter may already know, I’ve just embarked on a three-week adventure across the United States. The aim of this little (well, not so little by the time I’ve finished it) piece is to keep a record of what I’ve been doing.

The idea is that it enables you, dear reader (or should that be dear readers? Perhaps I’d better not be too ambitious and stick with dear reader for now), to follow my adventures as they unfold. I’ll update this post every few days, in between my normal Coffee Spot posts, the idea being to capture the highlights, with the emphasis on the travel rather than the coffees shops (although I’m sure they’ll feature).

I’ve never tried my hand at travel writing before, so it could be an adventure in more ways than one! So, if you’ve made it this far, take the plunge, and come along with me as I traverse the USA!

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London Coffee Festival 2015: The Kit

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The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the first of my detailed write-ups of the London Coffee Festival. If you want to know what I made of the festival as a whole, take a look at my round-up. Here I’ll be covering individual aspects of the festival, this being the first of a series of themed Saturday Supplements. Today we’re going to start with all the interesting coffee kit that I came across at the festival, with subsequent Saturday Supplements exploring themes such as cups, my coffee experiences, the La Cimbali sensory sessions and the coffee itself.

So, what do I mean by kit? Last year I looked at a shiny espresso machine, a fancy filter machine and a hand-grinder (the wonderful hausgrind, made by Knock, which, along with its smaller brother, the feldgrind, now features in its own Saturday Supplement). Last year’s shiny espresso machine, from Sage, and the fancy filter machine, from Alpha Dominche, will also be featuring in future Saturday Supplements.

However, back to this year, which features a slightly more diverse range, including a neat stand to help with making/storing your coffee/coffee kit, an amazing set of scales, a home coffee roaster and a steam wand/boiler system which could help revolutionise the espresso bar.

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Caffè Culture Awards 2015 – The Winners

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The Caffe Culture Show logoA week last Wednesday (13th May) I was at London’s Olympia, attending the Caffè Culture show and, in the evening, the Coffee Stops Awards, where I was in the running for the Best Media for Coffee Award. If you’re interested, you can find out how I did and who won the other nine Awards.

However, back to Caffè Culture. This is the third year running that I’ve been to Caffè Culture, but this time was a bit different since I’d been asked to judge the Caffè Culture Exhibitor Best Drink Award.  Prior to the show, this involved me whittling a list of 25 entries down to a shortlist of five. Then, on the Wednesday of Show I was to visit the stands of all five shortlisted exhibitors to try each of the drinks before selecting the winner.

I had a fantastic time at Caffè Culture and you’ll be able to find out what I made of it in a future Saturday Supplement. However, for now, let’s concentrate on the Best Drink Award. I really enjoyed meeting all the exhibitors, discovering the stories behind their products, trying the drinks themselves and then deciding on the eventual winner.

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Coffee Stops Awards 2015 – The Winners

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The Best Media For Coffee Award at the UK Coffee Stops Award for 2015.So, it’s that time of year again. Last year, I was fortunate enough to be involved Coffee Stops Awards, set up by Chris Ward to promote all that’s good about the independent coffee sector in London. This year, the Awards are back, bigger and better than before and now covering the entire UK.

Last year I was in the running the Best London Coffee Blog Award, where I eventually finished second behind the winner, Daniel of Cups of London Coffee. This year Daniel and I were back, this time in the expanded category of Best Media for Coffee, where we were up against some seriously stiff competition, including professional publications such as Caffeine Magazine and on-line powerhouses like the Coffee Forums UK.

As with last year, there were 10 categories in the awards, each one chosen by popular vote. Voting closed on Wednesday at four o’clock, just hours before the Awards were presented at the Caffè Culture Show. In all, over 60,000 people voted this year, an impressive turn out. Thank you to everyone who voted, especially those who voted for me!

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London Coffee Festival 2015: Round-up

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The London Coffee Festival LogoIt’s been a busy few weeks for the Coffee Spot, with lots of travel and extra-curricular activities, culminating in the three days I spent at this year’s London Coffee Festival. However, it doesn’t end there, since this week will see the Caffè Culture Show, where I’m judging one set of Awards, while simultaneously being in the running for an award of my own in the annual Coffee Stops Awards (this year extended from London to the whole of the UK).

However, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s get back to the London Coffee Festival, which, I’ll venture to say, was bigger and significantly better than last year’s event. Just like last year, I’ll be writing a series of themed Saturday Supplements, each covering a different area, combining my experiences across the three days that I attended (Friday, an industry day, and the two consumer days, Saturday and Sunday).

Today’s Saturday Supplement features a general round-up of the festival, what I made of it, the highs and lows, and what was different from last year. The remainder will cover kit, cups (yes, once again, cups played a large part in my Coffee Festival), my coffee experiences, the La Cimbali sensory sessions and the coffee itself.

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