Today’s third shortlist is for the “Best Coffee Spot near a Railway Station”, although it should really be called “Best Coffee Spot at or near a Railway Station”, except that was a bit of a mouthful, even for me. This was won in 2020 by Gourmet Coffee Bar & Kitchen, Crewe and rewards those Coffee Spots serving great coffee to travellers on rail networks around the world.

When you’re desperate for good coffee, railway stations are rarely the best places to be. But what if there was a great Coffee Spot just outside the station (or even in the concourse!) or a few minutes’ walk away and you didn’t know about it? Then this award is for you!

This year, for whatever reason, has been particularly good for Coffee Spots near stations, so much so that I could have filled the shortlist two times over, although two thirds of the shortlist is from London, which reflects my limited travel options this year!

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Continuing the Coffee Spot Awards’ second day is the shortlist for the 2021 Coffee Spot Awards, the “Best Filter Coffee” Award, which was won last year by Pair Specialty Coffee & Tea. One of the great journeys that I’ve taken with the Coffee Spot is realising the amazing range of flavours in a good pour-over or batch brew, which has opened my eyes to a whole new world of coffee.

To give you an idea of how far I have come since starting the Coffee Spot, I initially owned a cafetiere and an espresso machine and either drank my coffee at home with milk (cafetiere) or as espresso. Now I have mulitple pour-over filters, a Clever Dripper, an AeroPress, dedicated grinder for filter coffee and a gooseneck kettle. I drink my filter coffee black and if I have to put milk in my coffee to make it drinkable, then I’m drinking the wrong coffee! This award celebrates those Coffee Spots which continue to help me on my journey of discovery.

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Kicking off the second day is the shortlist for the 2021 Coffee Spot Award for “Coffee Spot with the Best Lighting”. This was won last year by Ue Coffee Roasters at The Old Smithy.

Lighting in coffee shops has long held a fascination for me, with most of the galleries containing a shot or two of an interesting light-fitting. This Award celebrates those Coffee Spots with particularly outstanding lighting.

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The last of today’s 2021 Coffee Spot Awards shortlists is the “Best Neighbourhood Coffee Spot”. In 2020 this went to Little Yellow Pig and it celebrates those Coffee Spots which are firmly rooted in, and which serve, their local communities. Unsurprisingly, the shortlist contains some of my favourite Coffee Spots of the year, which are often slightly off the beaten track.

In previous years, this Award has had quite a wide geographical spread, but 2021 saw me staying closer to home. Nevertheless, there’s a strong shortlist this year, with quite a few new coffee shops making their mark.

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The third shortlist in the 2021 Coffee Spot Awards is for the “Coffee Spot with the Best Basement” Award which went to Short + Stout in 2020. As regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for Coffee Spots with good basements. To some, a basement is a dark, sometimes dingy, cramped space. However, when they are at their best, basements are cosy, welcoming spaces that provide the perfect spot to curl up with your coffee.

This award celebrates those Coffee Spots with outstanding basements, the sort of places you want to go and spend all day in! It also includes those Coffee Spots which, while not technically basements, have that basement-like feel to them. I must confess that theis year I was struggling a little for entries on this shortlist, so I may have stretched that definition more than I normally do.

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The second shortlist in the 2021 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Best Takeaway Coffee” Award, won last year by Canopy Coffee. It recognises those places which, braving the elements, still produce an excellent cup of coffee. This includes coffee carts, coffee stalls, those Coffee Spots which are so small that they only serve takeaway coffee and those Coffee Spots where I regularly get my takeaway coffee (even if they offer a regular sit-in option).

This year things were slightly different due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While many coffee shops were only offering takeaway for much of the year, I wasn’t travelling a lot, so this year’s shortlist is fairly concise affair.

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The first shortlist for the 2021 Coffee Spot Awards is the “Most Unlikely Place to Find a Coffee Spot” Award, won in 2020 by Heartwork Coffee Bar. 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.

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Merry Christmas to all my readers old and new! Once again, it’s time for the Coffee Spot Awards, now into their TENTH year! The Awards allow me to reflect on all the great places I’ve written about this year and to give them all some more well-deserved time in the limelight. As usual, there are 20 Awards, the shortlists being publishing between now and New Year’s Eve, with the winners announced on New Year’s Day.

Last year, I noted that 2020 had easily been the strangest year in the Coffee Spot’s history. In some ways, 2021 has topped that, although in other ways, having made it through 2020, I had some idea as to what to expect. Writing a blog about visiting coffee shops when you can’t visit any is always going to be tricky, although that’s nothing compared to trying to run a coffee shop in the middle of a pandemic. On the plus side, having spent 15 months hardly going any further than the hills behind my house, I did manage two big trips, one to Iceland in July and the other to America in November.

Thanks to everyone who’s shared some or all of the year with me by reading my posts on the Coffee Spot, following me on Twitter, liking my Facebook page, or looking at my Instagram pictures. While I do this for the love of coffee, it means a lot that you take the time to read and comment on my writing. Without you, it really would be pointless.

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