Monday morning, eh? All the fun of the weekend is slowly but surely disappearing from your memory banks and being replaced by this week's to-do lists.

Only one thing can help and we don't mean gin.

We don't know about you, dear reader, but we would struggle to start our day without a cup of coffee. And once the first couple of heart-starters have been drained, we usually feel alive enough to begin thinking about brewing up a cup or two with a flavour to savour.

Whether you like yours fruity, nutty, chocolatey, sweet, dark or honeyed there is a coffee blend out there for you. And there is every chance that you will be able to find it at this year's Glasgow Coffee Festival.

Taking place on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May 2019, 10am-6pm, at The Briggait in Glasgow, the caffeine-fuelled festival looks set to sell out again. All the early-bird tickets have already been snapped up.

Dear Green Coffee Roasters

Founded in 2015 by former chef Lisa Lawson, the two-day event is organised by her company, Dear Green Coffee Roasters.

Lisa found her passion for speciality coffee while on a working holiday in Australia. During her stay, she learned the ins and outs of coffee roasting.

On her return to the UK, she founded Dear Green Coffee Roasters and then she hit upon the idea of starting the Glasgow Coffee Festival as a way of shining a light on Scotland's growing specialty coffee culture.

The festival will showcase artisan roasters, top class cafés and brilliant baristas.

Visitors will be able to pick up a trick or two at the master classes, workshops and demonstrations and there’ll be plenty to inspire their creative side, from latte art to a film premiere.

Cupping Lab

In a first for the festival, it will play host to a heat of the United Kingdom Cup Tasters Championship on Saturday 4th May.

One of three heats taking place across the UK over the coming months, the 33 top competitors will go through to the finals at the Manchester Coffee Festival in November 2019.

Contestants will slurp their way through eight sets of triangle tests (three samples of coffee where two are the same and one differs) to spot the odd one out. The competition gets increasingly harder as the coffees in each set get increasingly similar. The results are instant as contestants lift their cups to discover if a red dot on the base tells them they have spotted the odd one out. It’s billed as the coffee equivalent of a penalty shoot-out.

For those looking to get in on the action themselves, there’ll be a Cupping Lab where visitors can sniff, sip and scrutinise a variety of offerings from the world of coffee.

Reusable cups

Following the positive response to last year's move away from disposable cups, the Glasgow Coffee Festival will continue to pioneer a culture change and embrace reuse where and whenever possible.

Visitors will be asked to bring their own reusable cup to the event to help combat the 30,000 tonnes of coffee cup waste produced in the UK each year. Event sponsors KeepCup will also be on hand to loan reusable cups to anyone who needs to borrow one for the day.

And, just as in previous years, all profits from the festival will be donated to two great causes. This year they have chosen World Coffee Research and Glasgow City Mission as their charities of choice.

Tickets start at £16.50 and include admission to the event, a goody bag, one hot drink and entry into the prize draw.