Category Archives: Saturday Supplement

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

London Coffee Festival 2014: The Kit

Posted on by
19

The London Coffee Festival LogoAfter taking last weekend off to catch up with the inaugural Coffee Stops Awards 2014, we’re back at the London Coffee Festival, which took place last month at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.

This year I attended three of the four days; Friday (the industry day) and Saturday and Sunday (public days) and rather than writing about each day, I’m doing a series of themed posts. This is the third in the series and focuses on what I’ve called “the kit”. This probably needs a few words of explanation: by kit, I mean the shiny espresso machines, fancy grinders and cups. This Saturday Supplement is actually Part II, with Part I two weeks ago featuring the cups.

Last year, I spent quite a lot of time looking at shiny espresso machines. However, this year I was rather more circumspect with my drooling and this is post is focused on three specific items, each leaders in their own classes. They are an espresso machine, a fancy filter machine and a hand-grinder.

Continue reading →

Wild & Wood Coffee: Update

Posted on by
6

Wild & Wood: genius use of space and an lovely, all wooden interiorSadly, the weekend hasn’t started early: it’s just a Saturday Supplement on a Wednesday… By way of explanation, I have such a backlog of Saturday Spots, plus a few updates (like this one) and my reports from the London Coffee Festival, that I’m running short of Saturdays! So, for the next few weeks, Wednesday is the new Saturday as I attempt to catch up…

Wild & Wood Coffee is one of the first places I covered for the Coffee Spot, a favourite haunt of mine from my pre-Coffee Spot days. Back then, as a regular visitor to the British Museum, I would often break my day with a trip to Wild & Wood for afternoon coffee and cake.

These days, when I head up to London, I’m usually on the prowl for new Coffee Spots and I don’t get much time to visit the British Museum. Indeed, I don’t get a lot of time to check out my favourite Coffee Spots, old or new. So, when I visited the British Museum with a friend a couple of weeks ago and she suggested that we went somewhere nearby for lunch, I jumped at the chance to re-visit Wild & Wood.

October 2015: Wild & Wood closed at the start of July this year as the whole block that Wild & Wood was in is being redeveloped. The good news is that it re-opened at the end of August in a new location on London Wall! See what I found when I went to visit.

Continue reading →

Coffee Stops Awards 2014 – The Winners

Posted on by
20

Daniel, winner of the Coffee Stops Awards "Best London Coffee Blogger", flanked by the two bloggers he pipped for the award, yours truly, and Jonny of London Cafe Review. A couple of months ago, pretty much out of blue, I became aware of the Coffee Stops Awards. Set up by Chris Ward to promote all that’s good about London Coffee, they’ve been a phenomenal success. Everyone’s been talking about the awards, social media was buzzing and even I may have mentioned them once or twice… That I was up for the Best London Coffee Blog Award was neither here nor there…  Well, maybe it had a little something to do with it.

There were 10 awards, each decided by popular vote. In the end, more than 18,000 people voted over a two week period, which is pretty spectacular. Voting closed on April 2nd. There was a lull for the London Coffee Festival 2014, then the counting started, culminating in the Awards ceremony which was held last Wednesday (23rd April) at the Ozone roastery in Shoreditch.

Chris was joined by a host of luminaries, including ITN newsreader, Alistair Stewart. The various winners were announced, culminating in the final award of London’s Best Coffee Shop. The winners were presented with tickets for two direct flights to the “home of coffee” provided by sponsor, Ethiopian Airlines.

Continue reading →

London Coffee Festival 2014: The Cups

Posted on by
40

The London Coffee Festival LogoWelcome to the second of my Saturday Supplements on the 2014 London Coffee Festival at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. This year I attended three of the four days; Friday (the industry day) and Saturday and Sunday (public days) and rather than writing about each day, I’m doing a series of themed posts. The first one was a general round up of the festival, while this one focuses on cups. Yes, cups. Cups played a big part in my festival experience this year.

Regular readers will know that I am bit militant when it comes to cups. Good cups maketh good coffee. Well, not quite. Bad cups ruin good coffee; bad coffee in a good cup is still bad coffee. It just looks slightly better.

I have quite a collection of coffee cups at home, especially espresso cups, but I’m always on the lookout for more… In particular, I’m always on the lookout for good reusable takeaway cups. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s espresso in a paper cup. Fortunately for me, this year’s festival was a good one for cups.

Continue reading →

London Coffee Festival 2014: Round-up

Posted on by
22

The London Coffee Festival LogoIt’s that time of year again. Funnily how quickly it comes around. Yes, it’s the London Coffee Festival at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. Once again it was my pleasure to attend, this time for three days; Friday (the industry day) and Saturday and Sunday (public days). Last year, I wrote two Saturday Supplements, one for each day I attended (Friday and Sunday). This time I’m doing something a little different, writing a series of themed Saturday Supplements, each one covering different areas, but combining my experiences across all three days.

So, today’s Saturday Supplement will feature a general round-up of the festival, what I made of it, the highs and the lows, and what was different this year from last. The remainder of the series will cover the kit (in two parts), the food, UK Barista Championships, and the coffee itself. I drank an awful lot of coffee over my three days, but still didn’t really touch the massive range that was on offer.

(“Kit” probably needs a few words of explanation: by kit, I mean the shiny espresso machines, fancy grinders and cups. Yes, cups. Cups played a big part in my festival experience this year.)

Continue reading →

London Coffee Festival 2014: Preview

Posted on by
5

The London Coffee Festival LogoHow time flies! It only seems like yesterday that I was heading for my first London Coffee Festival, wondering what delights it would hold. Now I’m looking forward to next weekend when this year’s event will once again grace the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane!

For those who don’t know, the London Coffee Festival is the flagship event of UK Coffee Week and the UK’s leading coffee festival. Consisting of six festival zones (down from eight last year) and 13 areas of activity, there’s food, music, art and, of course, coffee!

If you want to know what I thought about it last year, you can read my 2013 Preview and see what I made of Friday’s Industry Day or Sunday’s Consumer Day. This year the format is very much the same, with industry days on Thursday and Friday and three-hour consumer sessions on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday.

My first piece of advice is that if you want to go, get your ticket now! They are selling fast and I confidently predict that by next weekend they will have all gone. With that caveat in mind, I present my preview of the London Coffee Festival 2014!

Continue reading →

Coffee Stops Awards 2014

Posted on by
4

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.I wasn’t going to do a Saturday Supplement, but then the Coffee Stops Awards came out and I changed my mind…

So, here’s a plug for the Awards, which have been set up by Chris Ward to promote all that’s good about London Coffee. This, in itself, is more than enough reason to get behind the Awards and give them some support. The fact that I’m in the running for the Best London Coffee Blog Award is neither here nor there…

There are, in fact, 10 awards and the public were able vote for each one. Even better, the sponsor, Ethiopian Airlines, is providing two direct flights to the “home of coffee” for the winners of London’s Best Coffee Shop! Voting closed on April 2nd, with the Awards to be presented at the Awards Night on Wednesday 23rd April.

I also thought, while I’m here, that I’d do a quick rundown of what I got up to during my almost three weeks in the USA, which you’ll find in picture form in the gallery. Seven of the Coffee Spots from the trip (Boston: Pavement Coffeehouse, Render Coffee; Philadelphia: La Colombe, Menagerie, Plenty, Exilr; New York City: Bluebird Coffee Shop) are already up with many more to come!

Continue reading →

Caffeine Magazine Newcastle: Flat Caps Coffee

Posted on by
3

One of the cleanest cups of coffee I've ever had, at Flat Caps Coffee, Newcastle.I started this series of articles, taken from my feature in Issue 6 of Caffeine Magazine, with one established player in Newcastle’s coffee scene (Pumphrey’s Coffee). So it seems appropriate to end it with another, Flat Caps Coffee, run by the ever-affable Joe Meagher, ex-banker turned purveyor of fine coffee.

When Joe left banking to become his own boss, he chose coffee as his natural outlet. Initially considering a coffee cart, he quickly realised that there was no consensus must-visit coffee shop in Newcastle. Spotting a gap in the market, Flat Caps Coffee was born. For a long time Joe was a one-man band, but recently he has taken on what he terms “an apprentice” with the view to being able to take the odd day off without having to close the shop!

Flat Caps Coffee will celebrate its fourth birthday in August, making it something of an established player in Newcastle’s fledging speciality coffee scene. I spent a very happy hour perched on a stool at the counter chatting coffee with Joe (who disappointingly wasn’t wearing his trademark flat cap) pausing only while Joe served his customers.

You can find out what Joe had to say after the gallery (which is from my original visit to Flat Caps Coffee).

Continue reading →

Caffeine Magazine Newcastle: Pink Lane Coffee

Posted on by
6

One of the intimate nooks in Pink Lane Coffee, appropriately enough painted pink...I present the third of four Saturday Supplements taken from an extended version of my article in Issue 6 of Caffeine Magazine It features Pink Lane Coffee, a coffee shop which has taken the same journey as the subject of the previous Saturday Supplement, Ouseburn Coffee Co. (OCC), but in the other direction, branching out into roasting via the Colour Coffee Company. I chatted with founder, Anthony Atkinson (Anth), who runs Pink Lane and the Colour Coffee Company with his wife.

Anth started as an account manager for a large coffee supplier, but as self-confessed coffee geek, Anth wanted the freedom that he wasn’t getting working for a large company. As the rep for the northeast of England, he visited lots of great coffee shops in the region as well as travelling to legends such as Colonna & Small’s in Bath.

It was while travelling around the northeast that he spotted a gap in the market in Newcastle, which, despite boasting Flat Caps Coffee and Pumphrey’s, still didn’t have the sort of coffee shop Anth was seeking. This led to the setting up of Pink Lane, where the focus is on coffee and all its glorious variations in flavour.

Continue reading →

Caffeine Magazine Newcastle: Ouseburn Coffee Co.

Posted on by
9

The Ouseburn Coffee Co. logo: the letters OCC above, with 'Ouseburn Coffee Co.' below, separated by a thick horizontal line.I present the second of four Saturday Supplements, drawn from an extended version of my article in Issue 6 of Caffeine Magazine on the Newcastle coffee scene. Although not specifically written as part of my Meet the Roaster series, it ticks all the boxes, so I have included it as such.

In complete contrast to Pumphrey’s, the subject of my previous article in this series, today it’s the turn of new-kid-on-the-block, Ouseburn Coffee Co. OCC, as it’s known, has been around for less than two years, but has quickly established itself a reputation as a roaster of some of Newcastle’s finest coffee. Based in the sometimes-overlooked Ouseburn valley, just east of the city centre, Al, Simon, Pete and James, the men behind OCC, have created something special. All friends, who grew up in Newcastle, they gigged together in bands in their early years before going their separate ways.  They returned to Newcastle two years ago and got back together, this time to create coffee rather than music.

Each of these Special Saturday Supplements can be read as a stand-alone article or the four can be read together as a coherent whole. The more astute amongst you will notice that in a radical departure from recent practice, this Saturday Supplement has come out on a Saturday! For more details, please see my recent State of the Nation(s) 2014 post.

Continue reading →