The specialty coffee scene in Mexico City deserves more attention. It is not all about traditional Café de Olla, ground coffee, cooked in a clay pot with piloncillo sugar and cinnamon, anymore. Third wave coffee has been blooming in the capital. Walking through hip districts like Condesa and Roma, you will spot as many filters methods as taco stands.
The map by Cafe Collective sums them all up. Currently, it lists almost a hundred cafés y barras de especialidad in CDMX. However not all have striking features. In this guide I have curated the best ten of Mexico city’s coffee shops.
These garage-formed cafés neither double as hipster brunch spots nor as the best patisseries in town. Mexico City’s most special coffee shops are about farm-to-cup coffee. Locals who come to laptop-work slowly learn what this fruit has to offer. Coffee aficionados from abroad are confronted with an origin their palate didn’t know existed.
From Coyoacán to Tepito, champion brewers are dialling in recipes every morning and shaking craft Carajillos late into the night. As a filter or espresso, choose between a Oaxaca, maybe Chiapas, or let yourself be surprised with Cups of Excellence from Jalisco. These are what make the country’s third wave coffee scene so special. Mexico brews a local fruit.
Café Passmar
The foundation of quality coffee in Mexico City was Café Passmar. For 25 years they have consistently been roasting beans and winning national championships.
It all started with Salvador’s father, an engineer and chemist. Coming from a coffee growing state, Guerrero, he started roasting coffee in a little space in Xochimilco (in the south of Mexico City). At first he just sold his roasts to friends and colleagues. One day an acquaintance gave up his stand in Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas. Passmar took the chance and set up their roastery and coffee shop there. Find the turquoise bar amidst flower bouquets, bare chicken and towers of colourful fruits.
The name PASSMAR, it stands for the family. P for Patricia (his sister), A for Aleli, his wife, S for Salvador himself, S for his father, also named Salvador, and MAR for their mother Martha. Today the roastery and café still is a family-business. You will spy Salvador (junior) upstairs, proudly roasting on their Giesen, picking out defect beans, enjoying a strong French Press, or his signature Natilla Espresso. The latter is an “espresso-pudding”, with which Salvador became a Mexican barista champion.
If you’re searching for sour items on Salvador’s menu, you’ll have to look beyond coffee. He is just as proud of their Chilaquiles and Santos Huevos. These traditional Mexican dishes look far from hipster – cause their tortilla chips are swamped in the tangiest salsa verde I tasted in the whole country.
Today, Café Passmar doesn’t belong to Mexico City’s third wave scene. But with no doubt, Salvador’s family set the foundation of quality coffee in the country.
Mercado Lázaro Cárdenas, Del Valle // @passmaroficial
Mexico City’s Best Ten Coffee Shops
The following ten cafés have formed the coffee scene in Mexico City today. Café Avellaneda is the next legendary after Passmar, however third wave. Almanegra competes in popularity, with Cups of Excellence brewed in scientific precision. Café Buna was the first to work directly with the Mexican farmers – in coffee and in milk. However drip is the only café with an own coffee farm. To satisfy hip brunch cravings, try Casa del Fuego. Laptop working is best at a Casa Cardinal or Blend Station. Not to be overlooked are Café Memorias de un Barista and Brown Caffeine Lab. Last and the furthest from least – every visit to Mexico City should include a visit to Apolo Café.
Café Avellaneda
When asking specialty baristas in town today, most were introduced to high-quality coffee at Café Avellaneda in the southern district, Coyoacán. The cousins Carlos and Ximena de la Torre run their charming coffee bar since 2005.
In his teenage years Carlos realized how much “small changes in technique make huge changes in taste”. With enough practice he figured out which techniques resulted in the right changes. Soon visitors told him “this is specialty coffee”. He didn’t stop tweaking his techniques, soon entered championships, and now competes internationally, the level for which his cousin Ximena qualified herself as a judge.
Today, Avellaneda still feels antique. Neither freelancers nor instagrammers have managed to override their familial charm. The biggest changes since 2005 are the roastery, signature drinks, and Übers.
At Avellaneda’s roastery, named Café con Jiribilla, Carlos, his wife Yarismeth and another Carlos started using beans scoring only 85+ points. They visit their farms monthly, in harvesting season even weekly. In recent years Café con Jiribilla has also become the roastery for other coffee hotspots in the city, such as Casa Cardinal and Chiquitito Café.
Furthermore signature drinks became a key feature of Café Avellaneda. It is not unlikely that Über taxis are guided south for them, especially the Juanito. This Mexican spin on the espresso tonic, with juniper and tamarind, is everybody’s favorite. Why Übers? Because this café isn’t in hip Roma or Condesa. It’s located in Coyoacán, an own artsy town, 10km deep in the megalopolis.
Coyoacán – home to Frida Kahlo, Leon Trotsky and Café Avellaneda.
Higuera 40-A, La Concepción, Coyoacán // Facebook // @avellanedakf
Buna – Café Rico
Buna might remind of a European, sleek, coffee bar, however Lalo’s business is much closer to Mexico’s fincas than anything else. Since 2012, the main goal is to improve the coffee supply chain in Mexico.
Agriculture is not a large sector of the nation’s economy. But knowing the potential that this fruit has, Buna started supplying Mexico’s finest eateries with sustainable coffee to support the local agriculture. Thanks to Buna, the Pujol restaurants and Panaderias Rosetta now have trained baristas and serve roasts that improve the standard in town.
An show space, is just bonus. First, Buna brought attention to themselves by preparing coffees on a La Marzocco, an uncommon accessory in Mexico’s coffee shops, placed in more of a living room than a café. Magazines liked it. Next, more profitable, but less fun, was their coffee stand in Mercado Roma. Only in the third try, Buna became a real café, with sustainable breakfasts. Here however, the chilaquiles and orange juice were too popular for their taste. Coffee had to stay the mission. So Buna settled into a cooperation with a fine eatery. Now Sartoria takes care of the food such that Buna can present their core values at the espresso bar adjacent to it.
In “tea” they only infuse herbs from their own garden. Cacaos are as third wave as the coffee. The milks are the best you’ll find in the whole city, unpasteurized, they taste even farm-fresher than in Germany. Alternatively, try homemade macadamia mylk. It’s blended from nuts of trees, that shade the coffee plants on Buna’s farms. Lastly, for a signature drink with Mexican touch, sip Cafechata: cinnamon-rice mylk (Horchata) perked by Buna’s espresso.
Roma Norte isn’t the only place to find Buna. For one you could seek out their roastery on Calle dr. Erazo 172 (pictured below). Knock on the big black door, sign into the guest book, and absorb yourself in their friends’ Ambrosia or DRIFT magazine for more insight on Mexican food and coffee. Or pass the bookshelves and chat with David, if the head of Buna’s agricultural section is back from his farm visits.
Another chance to find Buna, is in July in Copenhagen. Lalo and his friends from Prolog Coffee, exchange coffee bars each a week a year.
So don’t only judge Buna as “hip” by its cover. A visit will promise the region’s best blend of coffee with milk and help improve the country’s organic agriculture.
Orizaba 42, Roma Norte // website // @bunamx
Café Memorias de un Barista
Memorias de Un Barista, was originally founded in 2007, when Eduardo Juarez started a blog, on which he reviewed the best coffee shops in town. Six years later he founded his own. This local niche is often overlooked by visitors. They apparently don’t know that Café Memorias has award-winning baristas brewing Mexico’s 1st place roast.
Eduardo and his wife, a chemist, run the roastery, Sonata Tostadores. They roast beans from all coffee-producing regions in the country and find a suiting development for each. One origin, turned into perfect harmony – like a Sonata.
Besides the usual espresso-based drinks, Café Memorias’ brews their filter roasts in a variety of drippers. Eduardo just brought back two new methods from Asia, where he placed 2nd in the roasting championships. The December Dripper has a flat-bottomed, adjustable base. Here, the barista varies the amount of holes that the water drips through, to accomplish perfect brewing time. The other method, Origami Dripper, has a zig-zag air channel cone, like origami folds. This allows for an easier pour and perfect aerated blooming.
Café Memorias de un Barista – a vintage café that might not strike you from afar, but order one of their drips and you’ll change your mind about Mexican coffee.
Frontera 83, Roma Norte // website // @memoriasdeunbarista @sonatatostadores
Casa Cardinal
In Roma and Condesa the cardinal coffee houses are two of the best places for intellectual, creative and social coffee sessions. Meet for a battle of chess, type away on your MacBook or start the night with craft coffee cocktails.
Shak, Alex and Paul founded Casa Cardinal in 2013 as a place where modern-day creatives could bloom like intellectuals did in coffee houses decades years ago. Besides fueling freelancers, the coffee shop was also one of the first in town to mix signature drinks and coffee cocktails. Voltaire, a classic “Mocha”, wasn’t common in town five years ago. This local cacao, fused with espresso reminds of the multitude of cups that Voltaire used to drink.
However Casa Cardinal’s pure coffee is just as flavorful. They offer three roasts, with a washed, honey-processed and natural coffee. This way regulars can learn about the differences between coffee’s processing methods.
Casa Cardinal also works closely with their farms. For example, when the farmers from Xochitenalco farm had to carry hundreds of kilos of coffee on their backs daily, Casa Cardinal organized a fundraising and afforded them a new donkey.
Whether you spend the evening boozing Mexican Carajillos, are thinking chess on the street side, or fuel with a laptop, any cup you sip will tell a cardinal story.
Córdoba 132, Roma Norte andCampeche, 346 Condesa (pictured) // website // @casacardinal
drip – café especial
Santiago’s coffee shop is the epitome of what makes the coffee scene in Mexico City unique. In 2014 he opened drip, and planted a few Pacamara, Caturra and Typica trees on his father’s piece of land to learn more about this fruit. Well long story short, it resulted in founding his own coffee farm.
In Puebla it is. Today they work with six indigenous families. Santiago teaches them how sustainable farming improves the outcome of coffee long-term. His co-worker Vanessa runs a social eco-project to support their daily lives. She’s teaching the families how to be self-sustaining, for example grow crops or upcycle PET-bottles with mud and clay to build sheds.
This season in 2019, is drip’s first year of own harvest. Till then Santiago roasted beans from various states in Mexico with the aim to highlight the sweetness of the fruit. Not bitter, nor acidic, just as sweet as possible.
drip is located in a business area between the Roma Norte and Condesa neighborhoods. Many suited people drop by for a drip, take a packet of Alfajores to go and soak up UV on the curb-side. For longer stays, the clean mezzanine offers undisturbed surroundings for laptop-working.
drip originally wasn’t on my curated list for specialty coffee in Mexico City. But after a two-hour chat with Santiago, drip now remains in my mind as a true especial café.
Guadalajara 36, Roma Norte // facebook // @dripcafe_especial @fincasofiadrip(farm)
ALMANEGRA
Almanegra and Avellaneda – I confused them all the time. Maybe because of the spelling, or maybe because these names fell in every conversation about specialty coffee in Mexico City. Almanegra stands out with its well-designed, mystical interior that backdrops your Cups of Excellence brewed by scientific precision.
In 2014 three friends Octavio, Matzuko and Gabriel founded this little coffee bar in their local neighborhood that lacked specialty coffee at the time – Navarte. Soon afterwards, they opened in Roma. Not that this district has a shortage of specialty coffee, but still Almanegra stands out.
Octavio works with Gasup! in Angel Villanueva to develop their onmiroasts. However he himself visits the farms and selects their beans – currently also with Finca Chelín in Oaxaca, a farm that is known by producing for Intellegista in LA or Toby Estate in Sydney. Alongside two own roasts, Almanegra always offers a guest brew. This is the one enhanced by Japanese Melodrip and served in double-walled glasses – for extra clarity.
Despite having “Hilbert Hotel” schedules – multiple jobs to keep the business’ quality at its peak – Almanegra keeps evolving. Soon you can lick their roast infused in a scoop at Helados Cometa, a cooperation with the “Jones” of Mexico City.
They also just opened a third black soul together with their pastry supplier. Just like the first, it is located in an undiscovered neighborhood, Portales and thus brings specialty coffee back to the real locals of Mexico City.
Av. Universidad 420-A, Narvarte Poniente, Tonalá 53, Roma Norte, Calle Balboa 203, Portales Norte // website // @almanegracafe
Brown Caffeine Lab
An unassuming hit in town was Brown Caffeine Lab. Located in Roma Sur, off the beaten track, drinking coffee here feels like your favorite local find.
The open garage door unveils what feels like Christian’s and Miguel’s living room – or coffee lab. A dusty shelf with Darth Vader cups, chalk board quotes and Mr. White’s roasting corner welcome you like a friend.
You will probably see them roast on sight. Not only do they work with natural or washed beans; some of their beans have undergone a special fermentation in old casks. Your resulting cup might remind of rum, wine or whisky. Currently they are experimenting in cacao bean shells as well.
This coffee room is an escape from the hip buzz, without being far from it. Work undisturbed, feel like a regular, or listen to Christian and his regulars exchanging thoughts about current roasts and new fermentation methods.
Tonalá 313, Roma Sur // facebook // @bcaffeinelab
Casa del Fuego
Most coffee tourists put Cucurucho Cafe on their list of places to visit. However seek Cucurucho’s little brother, Casa del Fuego, for specialty coffee.
Cucurucho was David’s first project. Half coffee shop – half convenience store, this place sells candy, has a cute design, and decent coffee. Its success let David invest in the type of coffee shop he actually wanted to bring to Mexico.
On the one hand, Casa del Fuego’s brew bar reminds of intimate Kissaten in Japan. A handful of customers can sit face-to-face with the baristas and observe the roast swirling through a glowing Siphon. On the other hand, large tables outside suit Casa del Fuego’s lavish brunches. French toasts or poached eggs with hummus and dukkah on pillowy brioche – every ingredient is homemade.
Back to the coffee though, Casa del Fuego’s standard is a level up than that from Cucurucho. Choose between espresso-based, siphon, drip, full-immersion or one of the signature drinks. I tried “Panel de Abeja con Espresso”. Sticky-sweet honey comb infused in a shot of espresso results in a flavor explosion my palate did not forget!
Río Nazas 50, Cuauhtémoc (closed Monday) //@casadelfuego
Blend Station
Find the two eyes on Tamaulipas, that’s Blend Station. The busiest coffee shop in town. Some come for specialty coffee, others for the variations of Mexico’s cacao, more for matcha tonic and all for an amazing co-working space.
The station was developed with young local designers, the same population that fills the districts Condesa, Roma, as well as all coffee shops. At Blend sits the epitome of this culture: freelancers designing, programming and discussing away, from 7am to 10pm.
Blend Station didn’t have a co-working space as its founding concept. Alejandro’s business started on the farms, next he started roasting, one thing came to the next and he opened Blend. Focus was high quality coffee, sourced only from Mexican farms whom he personally taught how to grow the crop.
Together with professional cooks it is also his passion to serve homemade foods, different from the kind you get on Mexico’s streets. It is açai bowls, avocado toasts and quinoa bowls that energize the creatives throughout the day. Blend in, wake up and focus like those eyes surrounding you.
Paloma It 233, Condesa and new: Puebla 237, Roma Norte // website //@blendstation_
Apolo Café
Last, in my opinion the furthest from least. Take time to read about Apolo Café. This nostalgic gem compares to no specialty coffee shop I have ever been to.
After learning about coffee at Café Avellaneda, Jorge with his girlfriend Pamela started collecting cups, invested in an espresso machine and dreamed of opening an own coffee bar. No idea when, how or where, but a dream.
One day his uncle had a free market stand, and this Mexican Kissaten was born. It’s located in Mercado de Morelos, just 10min from Tepito Market. Call this district dangerous, but Jorge thinks it is “interesting”, with “rich culture and tradition”. Between towers of fruits and colorful Mexican flags, you’ll feel cared for like at home.
The dim-lit bar sits a handful of people: close friends and family, enthusiastic “coffee groupies” and Mexican market shoppers. There is no fixed menu, the customer gets what she wants. But I recommend watching Jorge prepare a hand brew. The patience and perfection reminded me of Japan, as did the individual cups, that each tell a sentimental story.
At the other end of the bar, Pamela takes charge of the food: home-baked conchas as a desayuno, or torta chilaquil as a true Mexican almuerzo. The latter they proudly told me, “is better than the capital’s famous La Esquina de Chilaquil”, which had fuelled me that same morning.
Apolo Café is one-of-a-kind, overseen by most visitors, but an experience you will not forget.
Mercado Morelos // facebook // @apolo_cdmx
That is specialty coffee in Mexico City
Third wave coffee is expanding in every metropolis. Sometimes as a trend, other times as a rebellion, in many places as a form of art. But nowhere will you find such quintessential farm-to-cup as in Mexico City.
Great list! I agree with most of these. I go to drip quite often and make an effort to try all the high quality coffee spots in Roma and Condesa. You have to add Quentin to this list though, their coffee is excellent.
Thanks for the feedback! I actively decided against Quentin because they brew coffee from other countries and I wanted to emphasize coffee from Mexico. But I guess I should have mentioned them at least. Good point.
Mexico has been growing fastly over the years. More coffee farms with specialty coffee and also more specialty coffee roasters. My favorite coffee roaster from Mexico is ilustrecoffee.com