During my recent visit to Lisbon, I was on a mission to find the most exciting coffee places of the moment. My previous visit to the Portuguese capital dates back to 2008 and obviously, a lot has changed since then. After having breakfast at our hotel, I grabbed my friend Maxine and jumped in a Bolt to go visit Comēte Coffee Roasters. I had heard much about them and let them know via Instagram that I would swing by.

The cute café and micro roastery is on a steep road in Pena and is so inconspicuous that you might miss it. There is a large floor to ceiling window painted in dark pine green next to double doors leading inside. The interior has industial elements with poured concrete floors, a bar made of modular metal elements and partially exposed ceilings.

Founded by French immigrants Alexandra and Adrien who previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry and lived in Paris, Comēte has built a loyal following of cafés and home brewers in Lisbon and beyond. Roasting is done on site using a Stronghold S7X roaster, keeping production boutique.

Maxine and I sat down at one of two tables and ordered a kombucha and a batch brew, respectively. I am still trying hard to convince Maxine of the joys of specialty coffee but she’s a hard nut to crack. The coffee I enjoyed during this visit was a lovely natural processed Honduras from Guazpo 24. In addition to the regularly changing batch brew, they also offer hand brewed V60s and espresso drinks.

There is a small selection of home-baked pasties such as Madeleines and Brownies. Various coffee bags are on display on the counter for people to explore and take home. I am a huge fan of passion projects as Comēte Coffee Roasters. Many of my previous Coffeevine partners started like this before growing their businesses and moving production out of the city.

As we were in a bit of a rush that day trying to visit as many coffee shops as possible, I didn’t get a chance to stick around long. However, I was super happy that I got a chance to say hi to Alexandra and Adrien who were both behind the bar that morning and just so lovely. Be aware that they are only open from 10 – 13 so plan your visit accordingly.

The other week, I was wandering around Madrid looking for the best coffee in town. I was there with my parents to celebrate my mum’s birthday. She always loves to go somewhere warm even if on this occasion, Madrid was cool and rainy. This did not deter me, however, from zipping around town in search of coffee glory. The final place I visited during this particular trip was Hola Coffee’s second location in Lagasca.

I know these streets quite well. A few years ago, I was in Madrid on a regular basis. My friend Erica used to live around the corner from this lovely café that showcases Hola Coffee’s full offerings. From the outside, it looks smaller than it really is and it blends in well with its surroundings. I really liked the cube sign on the façade of the building featuring Hola Coffee’s smiling coffee cup.

As you walk in, you are immediately faced by the espresso and brew bar that sports a Modbar espresso machine. Behind is a small kitchen where they prepare various tasty dishes. Going through towards the back, you will find a bigger space that is frequently occupied by people working on their laptops or having small gatherings.

A few hours before heading to this café, I visited Hola Coffee founders Nolo Botana and Pablo Caballero at their office. It was so nice to catch up with them after so many years. Back in the day, I used to regularly pop into their Misión Café, which they have since sold. Now, they are primarily focusing on their own cafés and their expanding roasting operations.

This Hola Coffee outlet is a great place to try their different coffees and I did that by ordering a so-called ‘degustación’, i.e. a coffee flights consisting of a shot of espresso, a cortado and a mini batch brew. What really delighted me was the fact that they use Marvilla ceramics from Mexico City. I’ve been a great fan of this brand for years and only recently stocked up on some lovely cups and serving trays while in Mexico.

If you’re looking for a great coffee experience in the Spanish capital and a place to stock up on delicious coffee beans, pods and other cool gear, then this is your place to go!

Barcelona famously has a lot of great coffee roasters, excellent cafés and enviable weather almost all year round. If I didn’t live in Amsterdam, I would be living there. There’s something about the city that just makes me feel very much at home. Shamefully, my last visit was almost one year ago now and the reason I am posting this review of Öss Kaffe only now is because I was going through my pictures and noticed that I had some nice shots from when I was there.

Öss Kaffe is a cute multi-roaster café in El Raval close to Plaça Universitat. It was originally started in the garage of Argenitinean architect Fernando Iglesias Molli who opened up a coffee shop in his neighbourhood in Buenos Aires to share coffee with the local community. Though I’ve not been there myself, it was apparently a hit and inspired the opening of more locations in cities like Madrid and Barcelona and more recently as well in Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay.

Every time I’m in Barcelona I make a point of visiting new cafés. This one though was recommended to me by someone who I work with called Alberto Fraticelli who is an Argentinean business man living in Barcelona. His company, Taurus Pack, supplies many coffee roasters with their retail bags and makes the foil for my brand Freshdrip. He’s also involved in Öss Kaffe and every time I’m in town, we try to catch up for a coffee there.

Öss Kaffe is a multiroaster coffee shop that serves the likes of local heroes Nomad and Harmony but also coffee from further afield roasters like The Barn. The interior is a bit unusual in the sense that it has a square shape with seating along the wall but no tables. There’s also no terrace as the street it’s on is commercial.

Baristas prepare all manner of drinks including excellent pourovers. When I am not in a rush, I always love to order a filter coffee because it also allows me to relax more. For me, a flat white is always the drink of choice when I’m just popping in somewhere. In addition, Öss Kaffe also offers a small selection of pastries but thanks to its unique location in a relatively uncontested area, it also has a very loyal and healthy fan base of customers.

It has been a very long time since I was last in Madrid. I used to come here regularly. Sometimes two or three times a year. But I had not set foot in the Spanish capital in a very long time, until now. My mum has this thing where she always wants to go away for her birthday. As it is on the 27th of January and she hates the cold, we usually go somewhere south. For the past three years, we headed to Spain. This time, it was Madrid’s turn and I was excited to see how much the coffee scene had changed.

One of my first coffee destinations was Ambu Coffee Lab, a very fine little coffee shop in Chueca, a neighbourhood popular with the LGBTQIA+ community. The café might look unassuming from outside but it is probably one of the most ambitious in town. I was greeted by a lovely barista called Chema who took a lot of time to explain to me what Ambu is all about. I spotted various guest roasters on the shelves including KAVA from Paris, Three Marks from Barcelona and Kima Coffee from Malaga.

a few special espresso lots are prepared with freeze distilled milk

The coffee set up is great and includes equipment such as the Weber EG-1 precision grinder, four hoppers for espresso and a frozen menu. I ordered a batch brew and took a seat by the window. Places like Ambu Coffee Lab are still relatively rare in Madrid and what I noticed is that people on often complain in Google reviews about the price of coffee at venues that are offering something more refined.

Madrid, as some of my friends in the local industry told me, is still quite far behind the likes of Barcelona. It is home to surprisingly few great roasters and many of the cafés that advertise themselves as specialty coffee shops offer quality that is not on par with other cities. That’s why I think Ambu Coffee Lab is so good.

Chema went on to say that there is a workshop space upstairs where you can participate in a variety of classes including coffee brewing and cupping. What I loved the most, however, was the interior design. I really likes the handmade ceramic tiles on the walls that had imprints of different plants and the cork ceiling. This struck me as such a wonderful material to use and it looked great.

Once my batch brew had cooled, I was able to enjoy this lovely Colombian lot from KAWA. This didn’t stop Chema from suggesting I also try one of their exclusive espressos, which came courtesy of Standout Coffee in Stockholm. This was a washed Jarc 74112 lot by producer Mike Mamo but I think the recipe was not quite right. I didn’t get as many florals from this coffee as I was expecting.

Going back to the frozen menu, I should also mention that Ambu Coffee Lab has a few special espresso lots that are prepared with freeze distilled milk that is more commonly used in Barista Competitions. Again, something you don’t find very often and that offers a wonderful opportunity to try coffee in a way that would usually be reserved for judges.

Ambu Coffee Lab also has two other locations in the city but if you want to experience this high-end coffee then this is the one you should visit. There is almost no distraction as they only serve a small selection of pastries and no other food. This way you can really focus on the coffee and savour every drop of it.

I am currently catching up on a lot of café reviews that I meant to have done long ago. You know how it is. You have your to-do list that keeps on getting longer and longer and longer. And then, before you know it, you have lost oversight. On this grey and stormy morning, however, I sat down to leaf through my notes and found that I still hadn’t written my piece about Andersen & Maillard, a fine roastery and bakery in Copenhagen.

During my visit to the Danish capital last summer, I was blessed with incredible weather. I was in town to attend the World of Coffee and was lucky to have planned my stay such that I could enjoy a full day in the city exploring cafés and visiting museums. It was one of the hottest days of the year and Copenhagen was showing itself off from its sweetest side. People were swimming in the water, there were parties on terraces and a general sense of joie de vivre.

For a long time, I had been an avid follower of Andersen & Maillard on Instagram, salivating over their dangerously yummy looking pastries. Sadly, we have so far not been able to partner up for a Coffeevine feature but who knows what the future will bring? On the day of my visit, the café was not super busy and many of the pastries had already been sold. I did end up having one of their rich pain au chocolat, which almost sent me over the edge as I had already been tucking into a lot of tasty food all day.

The space, which inside a former bank branch, houses a Loring coffee roaster and a bakery. It also offers plenty of seating inside and outdoors. Nørrebro, the area that is located in, is a mixed and vibrant part of Copenhagen that has fewer pretty buildings than other neighbourhoods but more spice and flavour.

I understood from the website that the team starts its day at 3 am to get those scrumptious pastries and breads ready for when the first customers come in at 7 am. At this point, I should also mention that they have two other locations around town but the one I visited houses the roastery. Unfortunately, no one from the roasting team was around to have a chat with. Better luck next time.

When it comes to its coffees, the sourcing reflects an ambition to offer the finest single origin coffees from renowned producers like the Chelbesa station in Ethiopia, one that has been featured in Coffeevine boxes many times. I ordered a fresh pour over of Colombia, Villa Betulia Pink Bourbon, which was fresh and juicy. A perfect coffee for that day.

On the first day in Antigua Guatemala during my recent visit, I decided to walk across town from north to south to discover and experience the famed local coffee culture first hand. I had created a little list of places I wanted to check out and Artista de Café was the furthest away so it became my first destination.

Before I talk about this cute café, I just have to say how absolutely beautiful Antigua is. I was gagged honey. Being half-Mexican and having seen many colonial beauties across Latin America, I realised that Antigua is somehow on another level. It’s not just its natural surroundings with a total of three visible volcanos but the incredibly well-preserved buildings, cobbled streets and laid back atmosphere too. It stole my heart immediately.

Artista de Café is a bit outside of the core centre where it is generally a bit quieter but I was surprised that inside the café it was basically a full house. With various spaces, levels and outdoor seating to boot, Artista de Café is hugely popular with expats who live in the city. Thanks to its wide-ranging brunch menu and excellent coffee, it’s also a draw to visitors like myself.

I walked up to the bar and asked the host for a recommendation. She held up three little glass containers with their selection of beans and suggested that I go for an anaerobic processed Gesha, which was then promptly prepared for me by one of the baristas. The elegant interior is a manifestation of Artista de Café’s founder María Andreé Negreros de Durán envisioned when she created this space. It creates a strong contrast with the often bold reds, blues and greens seen on the façades of buildings all over the city.

María drew part of her inspiration from her Guatemalan roots and the close proximity of coffee producers and roasters. There are fantastic coffee farms just 10 – 15 minutes drive outside Antigua, for example. But María also spent some time with Gloria Montenegro of Parisian roastery  La Caféothèque where she was able to expand her knowledge and understanding of this unique beverage.

My coffee was sweet and floral, exactly what I expected from a Gesha. Behind the bar, I could spot the current Guatemalan Aeropress Champion Carlos Emanuel Vivar Ajuchan hard at work and the public at the time of my visit was a wild mix of locals, expats and tourists poking their heads inside.

I didn’t end up ordering any pastries or breakfast despite the fact that the food looked delicious. I’ll just have to save it for my next visit!

Well, well, well. Don’t I just love a good surprise? Yes, I do. Especially when it involves an old friend. That is why I was extra delighted when I unexpectedly ran into Lucas Hernandez the other day. Or I should say, when he greeted me at his new café ASOP Café.

Lucas has been a familiar face in the Amsterdam coffee scene for years. I first became acquainted to him when he was at Uncommon Coffee. Later, he opened his own high-end coffee omakase concept in Haarlem. I never got a chance to have the full experience but I visited him there during the day. When his Taru Coffee project ended, he focused more on coffee consulting.

“Last year, I went to Dubai countless times,” he said while preparing a gorgeous Honduran lot from Finnish roaster Frukt. When I walked into ASOP Café yesterday, I didn’t even expect to see Lucas. I had this café on my list of ‘cafés-to-visit’ for a long time but had to wait until I got back from my most recent holiday to get a chance to visit.

Somehow it completely escaped me that Lucas was behind this new joint. Nestled into a quiet street in the Jordaan, ASOP is primarily a natural wine shop but the owners also wanted to bring specialty coffee into the mix and Lucas happened to be looking for a new physical space. What they created reminded me a lot of Sey Coffee in Brooklyn. This famed café and roastery is also on a quiet street and located in what could double as a garage.

There is a large communal table and some individual tables. Wine bottles decorate the walls all around. Luckily, there are also a few non-alcoholic options. At the time of my visit, ASOP Café was serving Frukt Coffee and had some bags of Swerl Coffee left on the retail shelf. Lucas told me that he aims to change his roasting partner every quarter and maybe come summer, he will also offer an additional guest roaster.

The unassuming outside and inside hide Lucas’s great passion for coffee and his talent at brewing exceptional brews. If you are seeking a geeky experience that will lift your spirits, then ASOP Café might just be the place for you. In addition to its coffees, ASOP Café also offers some tasty snacks like a lush looking slice of sourdough bread with peanut butter, caramelized apples and cardamom.

As I stood there chatting with Lucas, one of the customers got up to leave and said she was very happy to have found this place. “Everywhere else you need to queue these days,” she lamented. Well, let’s see how long until this secret’s out in the open too.

After getting off my minibus from Antigua and dropping my luggage at the hotel, I wandered down to 12 Onzas in Zona 4. I was planning on meeting David Solano, the three-time Guatemalan Barista Champion and co-owner of 12 Onzas later that day. But I was early so I just had two Flat Whites to start my day.

The café is located in a happening part of Zona 4. This area is widely regarded to be one of the most diverse and exciting parts of Guatemala City. Everywhere you look, you can find something tasty to explore. From a local craft beer brewery to an award-winning pizza joint and from a cool food court to a popular bakery. 12 Onzas is nicely nestled somewhere in between.

I really liked the interior. It’s open, colourful and spacious. A large bar dominates the back of the café where a skilled team prepares all kinds of coffees and delicious brunch dishes. I finished my two flat whites and went off to discover Guatemala on that quiet Sunday before returning a bit later in the afternoon to meet with David.

David started 12 Onzas together with his wife Atenea Kairé and his brother Eddie. Atenea is responsible for the operations behind 12 Onzas as well as the branding while Eddie takes care of the coffee production at their own farm Finca Concepción Buena Vista, which is now in its 4th generation.

In the past, David represented Guatemala three times on the world stage including in 2018 when the World Barista Championships happened in Amsterdam. Today, he is focusing on growing the coffee business at home. With their export company, they are working towards supplying Guatemala’s finest coffees to roasters and importers from around the world.

Their café, on the other hand, is a place where they want to make Guatemalan coffees available to the local population, which for the longest time only had access to Nescafé. When I previously visited Central America, it was really hard to find any locally grown specialty coffee. This, thankfully, is changing.

Guate, as the city is also called, is often skipped by travellers. I think that is a shame. The city, while not super pretty, has a lot to offer. But I was surprised by how much was closed on Sundays! Luckily 12 Onzas is always open.

After spending two magical nights on Lake Atitilan, I headed back to Panajachel to get a haircut and grab some coffee. I heard there was a great spot in town that was by far the best in the area. And this came from a fellow barista who also owns and runs a specialty coffee shop on the lake.

The most curious thing about Café Loco, however, is not that it’s a fantastic coffee place that roasts its own beans on site. Using a Stronghold roaster no less. No, it’s that the c0-owner is Korean. His name is Diego Kim aka. DJ and he’s married to Alyssa Yamamoto, founder of Hiptipico. They met in Panajachel in 2013, just after Café Loco opened.

Café Loco is on a busy commerical street but relatively far from the lake shore. This means that many people who get dropped off by the minibus to head to one of Lake Atitlan’s smaller communities might miss it. But it also means that it attracts people in the know. The Stronghold roaster is on full display right by the entrance and there is a long bar where you can sit.

I actually went twice, once before my haircut and once after, just before I jumped on the bus to go back to Antigua. The team is completely Korean, which I found really cool. I started off with a Flat White and later had a filter. I would say my only gripe was that they use the same cup size for all milk beverages, which resulted in my Flat White being more of a Latte.

The filter I ordered later was sweet and delicious. There is not a lot of distaction here. A bit of coffee related memorabilia on the walls and some coffee beans and merch for sale. I sat at the bar overlooking the buzz outside and it was instantly clear to me that Café Loco has a very loyal following.

DJ was crowned Cup Taster Champion of South Korea in 2025 and he spends much of his time travelling to producers around Guatemala to find the tastiest coffees and sometimes to take foreign visitors to meet new potential partners. Cafe Loco also has a pretty serious set up behind the bar. There are a custom water filtration system, a three-group La Marzocco GB5, a hot water dispenser, a cold brew mini-fridge and more.

Whatever you personal preference might be, chances are, you’ll find a really outstanding cup of coffee at Café Loco.

Just off the main square in Antigua, there is a great café. It’s called El Gran Café to be precise. It was the first place I visited to get my caffeine fix while in town and it became my regular. I went four times in total. I just fell in love with it.

From outside, it looks very inconspicious and if you blink, you might miss it. I knew exactly what I was looking for though and I’m glad I found it. This coffee shop is really tiny and has almost no seating. But it’s interior is absolutely beautiful. From the gorgeous tiles on the floor to the classy branding and the well-equipped bar. It all works.

The staff was always friendly and knowledgable. I learned that El Gran Café has its own Finca just outside Antigua where much of its coffee comes from and where its coffee is roasted. Unfortunately, you cannot visit, which would have been great to do for an afternoon.

El Gran Café also works with a number of other producers from around Guatemala. Some of its coffees are Cup of Excellence participants. You can buy them to take home or have them brewed for you on site. I actually only had flatties there because El Gran Café was one of the only coffees shops I came across that knew how to prepare this drink properly. In other words, using the right cup size and coffee to milk ratio.

If you have travelled around Guatemala by road, you will have noticed the sad amount of trash everywhere. In contrast, Antigua is surprisingly clean and this is in part thanks to a volunteer project called ‘Nuestra Antigua limpia’. Volunteers can always get their morning coffee from El Gran Café as it is one of the supporters of this project, amongst other initiatives.

According to its founder Josué Morales, he always dreamed of creating a space like El Gran Café where the best specialty coffee could be showcased. I think he very much accomplished that dream. I loved having my morning coffee on the big bench opposite the bar or sitting by the window looking out. This fine little café stole my heart and it will steal yours too.