The rich and earthy flavor of coffee in the air, La Marzocco espresso machine sitting on the counter, the obligatory map of Africa on the wall, cartons of Oatly milk stored in the fridge, at least one man bun… these and more are the characteristics of specialty coffee shops in Madrid. So, if you find a specialty café to be quirky and even eccentric, it means you’re in the right place, and someone is about to brew the heck out of your cup of coffee.

Specialty coffee shops have a distinct and unique way of doing things that communicates in no subtle way, their high regard for good quality coffee. The coffee beans sourced directly from farms in Puerto Rico, Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Brazil, or Guatemala, etc. have premium flavor profiles curated perfectly through every step from planting, to production and roasting. Besides the obvious benefits this has on the brew quality, it’s also quite sustainable. If you can trace a coffee to its source, then it’s more likely from a sustainable source.

Specialty coffee is relatively new in Madrid, but it has risen in popularity in the last two to three years with new cafés opening up all over the city. So if you’re in Madrid and you’re craving a cup of coffee with a distinct flavor profile, below are the top specialty coffee shops in Madrid you can check out!

Toma Café

Toma Café is located in the Malasaña neighborhood which boasts lots of the arts, cultural scenery in Madrid. Put succinctly, Malasaña is the hipster capital of Madrid so it’s no surprise you can find specialty coffee there.

Toma Café is easily one of the best places to find good coffee in Madrid. Each cup of coffee is brewed expertly by experienced baristas. The atmosphere is relaxed, comfortable, and friendly. Toma Café has something that a lot of specialty coffee shops in Madrid don’t have – a really good breakfast and brunch menu.

They have a working kitchen, and the menu has delicious offerings like avocado toast, yogurt and fruit bowl, and a bunch of pastry offerings made fresh daily. Their lattes and flat whites are specifically delicious with a distinct taste that can be traced back to the careful and patient brewing process of the baristas, and the filtered water.

• Facebook & Instagram: @tomacafe & @tomacafewarriors 
• Address 1: Calle de la Palma, 49 (metro: Noviciado or Tribunal)
• Address 2: Calle Santa Feliciana 5 (metro: Iglesia or Quevedo)

Hola Coffee

Hola coffee is located in Lavapiés, which is known for being the cultural hub of different types of ethnic restaurants, bars, and tapa places in Madrid. Hola coffee has a very light and airy vibe and atmosphere.

Picture this: it’s Saturday morning and you’re sitting on one of their benches, sunlight is sipping in through the windows and bouncing off their white walls. You can hear the machine brewing coffee, James Blake is playing softly in the background, you’ve been served a freshly brewed drip, and you can feel the different flavor profiles in each sip while you enjoy a good read or talk about your love for Madrid’s art scene with a friend. It’s a good day.

• Facebook & Instagram: @holacoffee
• Address: Calle del Dr. Fourquet, 33
• Metro: Embajadores or Lavapiés

Acid Café

Prepare to be out-hipstered at Acid Café. Concrete walls and floors, minimalist decor, metal tables, wooden stools, strategically placed plants, toasted scones, metal straws (because the planet), gluten-free vegan cookies and yes, delicious and high-quality coffee brewed intricately with all the hipster love they can muster.

The minimalist decor is perfect to put you at ease. The vibe is toned down and usually quiet, making it ideal for spending an afternoon reading a book and sipping on some good coffee. It’s also quite big so there’s more than enough sitting for groups.

• Facebook & Instagram: @acid.cafe
• Address: Calle de la Verónica, 9
• Metro: Antón Martín

Ruda Café

Ruda Café is located in the neighborhood of La Latina, known for having a wide variety of cocktail bars and tapa spots. Ruda Café has a quaint and rustic vibe with exposed brick walls and wall-mounted shelves stacked with tons of coffee and coffee paraphernalia.

It’s quite small and embodies more of a coffee tasting room vibe with just enough sitting to host those who truly appreciate their finely brewed coffee. Also if you’re looking to get a bag to go for your French press at home, Ruda has some of the finest beans.

• Facebook & Instagram @rudacafe
• Address: Calle de la Ruda, 11
• Metro: La Latina

Boconó Coffee

Bocono Coffee is located in La Latina/Embajadores neighborhood. It’s a good-sized café that can take large groups. They also have a delicious brunch menu that’s very affordable, and a fine collection of cakes baked in house. The scenery and atmosphere are very welcoming and great for an afternoon coffee date! While you’re there, check out their impressive gallery wall which is perfect for the gram.

• Facebook & Instagram: @bocono.coffee.roaster 
• Address: Calle de Embajadores, 3
• Metro: Tirso de Molina or La Latina

Specialty coffee shops in Madrid are on the rise

There are more specialty coffee shops in Madrid with new ones opening up every day. I recommend these five places because they come up on top. I’ve also spent a considerable amount of time and money in each, so I make these recommendations with certainty. If you’re a coffee nerd, feel free to chat up the baristas at any of these places and learn more about where they source their beans and their brewing process.

By Jiji Majiri Ugboma (IG: @Jiji129)

Jiji is the Creative Director of Clever-ish Magazine (IG: @cleverishmag)

All images are from each cafés respective social media accounts

Specialty coffee shops are in demand in Madrid, and thankfully so. I’m sorry old-school bars, but after trying high quality espresso, it’s really hard to enjoy your café con leche anymore.

This feeling was particularly strong for Kevin, a Canadian who’s been living in Spain for eight years and is the owner of the newly-opened Plántate Café. “Everybody who’s into coffee will be able to tell you a story about their first good cup,” says Kevin. “After that moment there’s no turning back.”

Kevin’s first was in London at Brown’s of Brockley, and it literally changed his life. While living in Lavapiés for years, he longed for a good cup of coffee so badly that he’d bike up to Malasaña’s Toma Café every morning. When the daily trek turned unsustainable, he decided to buy their coffee beans and start making cold brew at home. Then he got a V60 to make filter coffee.

Little did Kevin know, he was slowly becoming a coffee connoisseur. “Opening up a coffee shop was just a side project.” But as is often the case with side projects, they become your full-time job. And that’s just what happened.

Kevin opened Plántate Café in July. Before setting up shop, he and his two friendly baristas – Antonio (Spain) and Fernando (Brazil) – went to train with the top roasters at London’s Square Mile so they could bring their skills back to Lavapiés.

The guys at Plántate Café are fully dedicated to spreading the specialty coffee culture done right, and proud of the relationships they have with their suppliers. They get their house espressos from three top roasters: Puchero, from Valladolid; Right Side, from Barcelona; and Square Mile, from the UK (whose decaf is said to be the best in the world).

Their drink menu features the musts: flat white, macchiato, cold brew, filter coffee, an assortment of teas, and more.

And if you’re in the mood for a snack, you can order toast with avocado, a cup of yogurt with chia seeds or cake.

You can also buy plants such as cacti and orchids (hence the name, Plántate Café), plus magazines and coffee-making gear from leading brands like Hario (Japan).

Since opening they’ve received a lot of local love from the neighborhood, thanks to a balance of excellent coffee and treats at fair prices, a friendly staff and a great ambience.

So come on in and check it out!

Info

• Instagram: @plantatecafe
• Address: Calle Mesón de Paredes, 28
• Metro: Tirso de Molina / Lavapiés

A few years ago breakfast in Madrid rarely consisted of more than a cafe con leche in one of the more traditional tapas bars. Nowadays the coffee shop scene has really taken off, and it’s becoming more and more common to see  quirky little cafes offering brunch, iced coffees and other less traditional options. 

Martina Cocina fits perfectly into this category. It’s situated in the La Latina/Tirso de Molina area, where you can find a whole host of cute coffee shops. My friend Elefteria and I went on a Thursday morning, hoping for brunch and a good place to catch up. 

The cafe is dotted with people working on their computers (they have wifi), reading, or having breakfast with a friend. The ambience is fairly calm and quiet, and you can choose to sit on the communal bench in the middle of the room, or to tuck yourself away at the back on the cushioned sofa. I guess Martina Cocina has gone for the “shabby chic” look, with bulbs hanging from the ceiling from rope and an eclectic mix of distressed wood furnishings. The look works, and the vibe reminds me of somewhere I would find in my hometown of Brighton.

The cafe only serves brunch on Saturdays, but we still managed to have a great make-shift brunch, as the cafe has a fairly wide range of breakfast options. Each day they make a selection of different quiches and empanadas, and we ordered one of each as well as the more traditional pan con tomate and some yoghurt and fruit. Elefteria is a vegetarian and there were plenty of options for her to choose from. All of the food was good, and we would especially recommend trying the cheese and onion empanada. Our waitress was really friendly and warm, which made us feel comfortable enough to sit for a while and work. 

The cafe specialises in teas (they literally have a whole menu just for tea) and they also serve coffee from all over the world. I should probably also mention the amazing looking cakes displayed by the counter – seriously regretting not ordering one!

The cafe isn’t just a breakfast spot; at night they dim the lights and serve beer and wine, making it the perfect place for a relaxed dinner with a friend. It also got pretty busy around lunchtime, and their menú del día is a good price, at 10,60 euros for three courses and a drink. 

In short, Martina Cocina offers great service, a comfortable setting and great homemade food in one of the most up-and-coming barrios of Madrid. 

Info

• Adress: Plaza Cascorro 11 28005, Madrid
• Email: info@martinacocina.es
• Website
• Facebook

Article by Laura Blaskett

Photos by Elefteria Garos

You’ll also like these spots:

• La China Mandarina, a flashy new bistro in Plaza Cascorro
• Lamiak, Basque pintxo bar in La Latina
• Cosy Wine Bars in La Latina (with gluten-free options!)
• El Cafelito, a trendy spot for coffee lovers in Lavapiés

It was love at first sight for me with La Bicicleta. La Bicileta Café fills a void in a city filled to the brim with bars serving coffee, but sparsely populated with the type of homey workplaces that I hold dear to my heart. There is something comforting about spending hours holed up in a cafe, calmed by the stop and go of an espresso machine. I like to search out spots where I can stake out territory and sit while minutes tick into hours, my fingers hammering at a keyboard or eyes scanning over pages of a book. La Bicileta is one such spot where this is possible and encouraged and might I say, all the rage. It fosters productivity and sociality and the consumption of caffeinated and alcoholic beverages: what could be better?

La Bicileta bustles at pretty much any given hour of the day. While the sun is still out, it functions more or less just as it bills itself: a cycling workplace and café. You will see people perched in the windowsills with their laptop and coffee within equal reach. Cyclists come and go with their bikes. They barge through the front door and head downstairs to where they store or repair their rides. All of this while waiters bustle about with salads and tostas, cañas and coffees. Once the sun goes down, it becomes progressively unlikely to find anyone doing work. The place metamorphosizes into a social hub with so much traffic that the entryway is hardly ever free of spillover customers.

 Coffee drinks come in all shapes and sizes. The standards are available, but innocent intentions of ordering a cortado may be redirected upon a glance at the spunkier options on the menu like the oreo frappuccino, for example. As can happen at the Bicicleta, one may feel torn between alcohol and caffeine. Options abound on both listings. The food landscape includes sandwiches, salads, tostas, a [pricey] brunch menu on the weekends, and a display case stocked with baked goods: cookies, cakes, and the like.

As Yogi Berra once said: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” Well, not quite. There are still plenty of people at La Bicileta; but Yogi was right, it’s definitely crowded. Real estate is hard to come by despite the plethora of sofas, elongated work tables, and quaint table and chair setups available to patrons. While it attracts a determinedly international crowd who may not (probably are not) natives to Madrid, it feels like that good ol’ neighborhood joint on the corner.

Info

Just around the corner, you’ll find these amazing spots:

Mercado de San Ildefonso – Malasaña’s new food palace

Naif: King of Burgers

Greek & Shop in Malasaña

La Paca – the perfect Malasaña café

Aiò – Sardinia, pizza and bike haven in Malasaña

Growing up at my father’s coffee shop in New York — the Hungarian Pastry Shop — I remember there was a poster on the wall that featured 50 coffee shops around the world where you can think. 

Since I arrived in Madrid seven years ago, I’ve always thought that Pepe Botella should be on that poster, photographed alongside the other perfect cafés from Tel Aviv to Reykjavik.

Peer through the bay window at passersby in Plaza de Dos de Mayo in Malasaña

In my mind, cafés aren’t about who has the prettiest foam; cafés should make you feel at home. I first fell in love with Pepe Botella when I was a student. I used to bring my laptop there on Saturdays and Sundays during lunchtime when it was empty, and let the afternoon go by. Ever since, Pepe Botella has been the café I most enjoy going to with friends, family, or alone.

It just fits, whether I want to peer through the window with a coffee or a glass of wine, or disappear onto the red velvet benches in the back with a conversation or the newspaper. It’s the kind of place that invites you to stay for hours. And whenever my sister, Amanda, visits me, this is our spot. She likes to linger there as much as I do.

Pepe Botella is situated in the infamous Plaza del Dos de Mayo, named in honor of the Madrileños who rose against Napoleon on May 2nd in 1802, as well as home to Madrid’s breaking experimental movement in the eighties called La Movida Madrileña. 

The café is named after Napoleon’s brother, José I Bonaparte, who was dubbed Pepe Botella in Spain for his exorbitant drinking habits (Pepe is the Spanish nickname for Jose).

And Plaza del Dos de Mayo is nestled between the streets of Malasaña, Madrid’s trendiest neighborhood that boasts endless cafés and bars. But for me, Pepe is the best.

Also, their coffees come with delicious cookies (called pastas). Every time I ask the waiters for the chocolate ones, they give me two! And their wine comes with blue chips.

I’ve never had cocktails there, but I can say that the tables around me usually move on to the gin & tonics by 7pm.

Café Pepe Botella

• Facebook & Instagram
• Address: c/ San Andrés, 12
• Metro: Tribunal, Noviciado, Bilbao