Northern Slant GuestMeet Gareth Patterson: doctor, coffee lover, and founder of the Belfast Coffee Map.
Belfast has come far in the past 20 years. Having enjoyed two decades of relative peace, we have seen our capital city flourish to become today what is one of Europe’s trendiest travel destinations, and one of the most liveable city’s in the United Kingdom. Had you granted our parents in their youth the opportunity to glimpse today’s Belfast, I don’t think they would quite believe their eyes.
As an avid traveller, I love nothing more than experiencing new places; the sights, the sounds, the smells, the people. When I travel I have always been keen to ensure that the experience I have is unique, authentic and true to the place I am in – that means no Irish pubs if I can help it! No more so is this the case than when it comes to food, and especially, coffee! There’s nothing that excites me more when I travel than sitting down before I depart, with my pen and journal in hand, researching my destination’s coffee scene and discovering where I’ll be guaranteed a hot beverage and an overall experience that hits the spot. If nothing else, at least, I know I can be guaranteed caffeinated success!
It was on a visit to Barcelona two years ago that I first encountered the idea of coffee mapping. On stumbling upon a quaint specialty coffee shop in the Gothic Quarter I discovered the then recently published Specialty Coffee Map of Barcelona. I’d felt like I’d hit the jack pot! Not only did the resource list what were purported to be the best coffee shops in Barcelona, but it did so on a beautifully crafted paper resource. And so, for the remaining four days of my trip, what had first set out to be a beach side holiday with a couple of museums and galleries thrown in for good measure, soon transformed into a caffeinated walking tour of Spain’s historic city. And it did not disappoint!
Belfast is a city I have called home in since I moved there for university in 2007. Having two sets of grandparents who lived in the Greater Belfast area, I spent much of my childhood visiting Belfast and hearing tales regaled of the Belfast of old; its global reputation as a manufacturing giant in ship building, linen, and rope, and its cultural heritage in music, art, and theatre. Belfast is a city that has charmed me from a young age and a city I admire greatly. And so, on returning home from my summer trip to Barcelona, I kept going back to the idea of coffee mapping whilst thinking about ways in which I could play my part in promoting the city that I knew and loved.
The coffee scene in Belfast has exploded in a very short space of time, with coffee shops like Ground Espresso Bar and Established opening their doors only four years ago. Since then coffee culture in Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole has flourished, with locals increasingly recognising the skill involved in creating a memorable cup, and visitors to our city recognising our country as somewhere which takes its coffee seriously (but in that lovely modest way we do things here thrown in for good vernacular measure!).
For me, specialty coffee embodies the best of humanity: environmentally friendly farming, ethical employment, intentional selection of beans, careful, skilful roasting of the bean and finally the serving of the coffee drink itself. It is an art form in how to do things well, from source to customer. Passionate about my city and about the coffee scene I saw thriving, I embarked on creating our city’s very own coffee map, a locally curated, designed, illustrated and printed paper resource promoting the best of local. And so, in May 2017, my dream became a reality, when after 5 months of planning, meeting, emailing, agonising, stressing, and copious coffee consuming, the first Belfast Coffee Map was launched.
I have been blown away by the reception Belfast Coffee Map received following its launch, and the success it has enjoyed in the past 11 months. There is here, undoubtedly, an appetite amongst locals to support and get behind independent businesses, be they coffee mappers, coffee shops, artists, writers, florists, and I have been greatly heartened by the spirit of this place which at its core is so proud to be from here, and proud of what comes from here. The coming year is another exciting one for us as we embark of our next adventure in coffee mapping. We are currently busy planning for the launch of Belfast Coffee Map 2.0 – an opportunity to refresh and update the content recognising how much our coffee scene has grown even in the past 12 months, and our first North Coast Coffee Map, showcasing the thriving independent coffee scene along the Causeway Coast from Ballymena all the way to Derry.
Belfast and Northern Ireland are truly special. Despite the change and growth we have seen in the past two decades, we have never lost what truly makes us, us. Our cutting sense of humour, our ability to self-deprecate with such ease, our love of craic, and most of all our generous authenticity. And that’s why, for me, our wee country is one of the best.
