My Favorite Cafés in Madrid (Part 3/3)

When visiting a city, a big part of my impression is formed by how authentic the specialty coffee shops are. Do the owners follow their passions or is the coffee shop no more than a business concept? Will the baristas reflect their café or could they just be any student in need of a job? Does the menu offer other unique drinks and foods or is it a copy-paste of any hipster café? Lastly: Can the specialty coffee shop please my “bobo” expectations while staying true to its country’s culture? Madrid had plentiful specialty coffee shops that answered those questions positively.

My Five Favorite Finds

I loved Toma Café, for more than their awesome avocado toasts and orange cappuccino. Hola Coffee wasn’t just good as a recovery for my red-eye bus ride from Bordeaux. Sociable friends won’t notice that La Colectiva is a hotspot for freelancers. Even though no other blog mentions it, Plántate Café is definitely worth a visit. Lastly, what might look like beef tartare from afar, is one of the reasons I’d send you to WAYCUP.  From fourteen coffee shop visits in Madrid, just a handful nailed it. These were my five favorite finds of the trip.

Toma Café

Toma was Madrid’s first third wave coffee shop when it opened way back in 2012. Back then it was only half the size, scarcely holding the coffee bar and a few spots to sit. Now they have added an aisle that leads to the back, from where you can watch their collations being prepared in the kitchen. The interior is still not big, but communal enough to allow laptop workers, next to friends meeting up and tourists dining on local cheese platters. I especially liked that they served creative other drinks (like the orange cappuccino) and had diverse choices of sweet and savory foods, without letting the coffee lose its focus.

We only tried the avocado and strawberry toasts. They were simple but every detail was right. The sourdough bread had a crunchy crust with a complementing, soft dough inside. The ripely mashed avocado was topped with the seasonal fruit (blueberries) and pimped up by squirts of lime juice and flaky salt. Lastly the goat-cheese strawberry toast was far from average with its drizzle of honey and a sharp note of parsley and pumpkin seeds on top.

I’d come back again, no matter when or how I feel. Too much on their menu still tempts me: the sourdough with dulce de leche and Maldon salt, the one with butter, black garlic and burnt lemon, or a savory type concocted with rehydrated tomato, olive oil, ricotta and tapenade. Lastly, Toma Café offers what I have been asking for from any coffee shop on my travels. Next to creative sandwiches and Mexican lunch bowls, you can snack on simple, savory nibbles like Edamame, Wakame, Kimchi or a slice of corn with butter & salt.  

The Original: Calle de la Palma 49 (Malasaña) // Mo-Fr: 8-20, Sa-Su: 10-20
Their Second: Calle Sta. Feliciana, 5 (Chamberí) // Mo-Fr: 8-20, Sa-Su: 10-20

Hola Coffee

Hola Coffee was my first café stop in Madrid. It is just a 10min walk from the Atocha central station, but feels like it’s in the midst of local neighbourhoods already. Once you enter, you’re absorbed into their simple and relaxed vibe. I tried the Kombucha and sourdough toast with beetroot hummus, capers and ricotta. Both were great. Then I found my spot and worked on my Madrid Map for two hours without being distracted. With a good overview to start exploring I left, envying the pastry creations and coffees in hand pottered cups on my way out.

So we came back, to feel their blue ceramic cups and taste one of those creative sweets. We chose the brioche bread topped with crunchy muscovado sugar, loads of cinnamon, and drizzles of melted butter. The taste still reminded our palates of childhood comfort food – only now in the fancy way.

Lastly I can’t forget to mention the Shrub by Hola Coffee. That was a first for me. Shrub is a tangy drink made of fruit soaked in sugar and vinegar. It is super refreshing, served cool and bubbly and has not left my mind since. Just like Hola itself – sweet, but unique.

Calle del Dr. Fourquet, 33 (Lavapiès) // Mo-Fr: 8-19, Sa-Su: 10-19

La Colectiva

The next spot I visited, felt more like a local café than a hyped international third wave coffee shop. La Colectiva is owned by two Argentinian friends, who have decided to invade some more plant-based foods into Madrid. I actually didn’t notice that fact till afterwards, because that’s not what they’re known for. They’re popular for being a wonderful local, unpretentious café that makes top-notch everything.

This café is where I had my most opulent avocado toast in Madrid. ‘Most opulent’, but still simple. The two slices of fluffy bread were topped with glowing avocado smash, finely cut radish, homemade cashew dukkah, cilantro, and lime. And now having checked off my avocado craze, I’m actually more curious to taste the other toasts next time. Like the one with homemade cashew butter and organic jam or the savory escabeche topped with hummus, brined eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, watercress and sprouts. Although maybe next time I dare to try La Colectiva’s tostada con tomate? Waytocoffee went into raptures about this one and its amazing olive oil.

Despite me only sipping flavourful organic matcha here, I can be sure that La Colectiva specializes in their coffee. The café is set up in such a way to only enjoy it. The small interior front room is a communal space with a handful of small tables. Working isn’t permitted here. If you want to use the wi-fi on your laptop, then enter “sinazucaresmejor” and head downstairs, to the spacious and cozily arranged working space. Here you can tarry a while. Maybe taste your way past breakfast, with soups and quiches for lunch, refreshing juices, energizing coffees and pastries (like a beetroot brownie) in the afternoon and end on good terms with a cup of wine or local craft beer. I’d say: Freelancers heaven on a hot summer day!

Calle Francisco de Rojas 9 (Chamberí) // Mo-Fr: 9-20, Sa-So: 10-20

Plántate Café

I’m not quite sure what the story behind Plántate Café is, and neither heard of this café from any of my coffee sources (see below). I spotted La Plántate on my first neighborhood walk through Lavapies. Located on a small corner, the green aisle leading to a La Marzocco, next to homemade vegan and gf pastries and a big bag of Prana Chai just smiled at me. 

Their menu is small and simple, but a short glance assured me I would come back. I finally came, one afternoon around 4pm, after hours of walking around in the conflict of wanting to work at a café but not wanting to leave the beautiful day behind by hiding inside. Plántate was the solution. My spot on the first bench was just a step away from the street: calm and cool without abandoning the fresh and warm spring air

For an hour, I stayed their only customer. They took care of my indecisiveness and found an optimal refreshing drink without alcohol, caffeine or sugar (my usual hard wishes). It was a chinese flower blossom tea, iced on spot. Next I enjoyed the toast with olive oil, and my choice of toppings.

I said avocado and egg. On the toasted slice of artisan bread by the local baker, was real good olive oil, velvety avocado slices, a jammy egg, seeds, spices and a generous dose of salt. Simple and similar to other avo-toasts, but served in an unmistakable, own style. Once I finished, Plántate too was flourishing. 5pm seems to be the time when Madrileños start hanging out in cafés. No wonder if they’re all open till 8pm. But no matter if with or without company, I would repeat this relaxing and delicious café break any day!

Calle del Mesón de Paredes 28 (Lavapiès) // Mo, Wed-Fr: 9-20, Sa-Su: 10-20

WAYCUP Specialty Coffee

Last but not least I made it to WAYCUP Specialty Coffee. This place was on my list for their cookies (thanks to waytocoffee again, for making me crave them). This hole in the wall café is unnoticeably located on a big street in the Salamanca neighborhood. 

At first it appears to barely have enough space for its coffee bar and the cookie box. But once you enter you’ll see the tiny sous-terrain in the background. Here the narrow table, surrounded by three walls and a little stair case, was fully occupied by coffee drinkers, laptop workers, and cookie devourers. There was no spot left for me, and so the baristas cleared up the small window seat for me to practice my photographing skills in the direct sunlight. (I thought it was a full success, until my computer spit out something that raised similarities to beef tartare or salami. )

It was too late for my coffee clock, and so I decided to decide between matcha tea, matcha latte or turmeric latte.  The barista said: “Close your eyes, and pick the one that comes to your mind first now.”  Matcha tea it was. Along with it I approved that red circle pictured above, the soft and chewy red-velvet cookie, while letting life go by, at their peaceful and sunny window front.

I couldn’t leave without a few more cookies, and almost would have taken along those soft matt cups too. But I trust my judgement that I’ll be back soon enough to pick them up once I have an own kitchen shelf.

Calle de Juan Bravo 27 (Salamanca) // Mo-Fr: 7:30-20, Sa-Su: 8:30-20

Leaving Madrid Behind

After the morning at WAYCUP I was off to Barcelona, ready to start the new quest of creative drinks at specialty coffee shops. It turns out, that Spain’s more famed destination didn’t strike me as much as the “hot, dry capital”. Maybe I just chose the wrong streets.

I missed Madrid’s unpretentious, local and vibrant neighborhoods. I missed the plazas, the playgrounds, the small hilly streets and the creative individual coffee shops. One day I’ll give Barcelona a second try, but only after I come back to Madrid. This city still has plenty more cafés that could become favorites on my list, and undoubtedly the number will have doubled till my path leads me here again.

Overview of my Madrid Posts:

• My First Visit to Madrid (Part 1/3) (my expectations, first impressions, and recommendation what to do on a short trip to Madrid)
•  From Orange Cappuccinos to Avocado Toast (Part 2/3) (my general impression of the cafés and what made my like them so much)
• My Favorite Cafés in Madrid (Part 3/3) (read above)

Sources I used for Specialty Coffee in Madrid:

• MAPA RUTA BARISTA: a local specialty coffee map
• “The Top Cafe” App: an app where you can leave coffee reviews and locate the next closest specialty coffee shop in Madrid
• Way To Coffee: coffee blogger from Berlin who writes specialty coffee shop reviews around the world
• European Coffee Trip: online magazine about specialty coffee in Europe
• Alexandra Müller Blog: blogger from Bordeaux who writes about vegan cafés, specialty coffee and artisan bakers (in French)
• Fräulein Anker Blog: a Hamburg based blogger who writes about specialty coffee and other local tips