The world atlas of coffee
World's Best Coffee Shops
Find speciality coffee shops
Discover exceptional cafés and the cities around them.
Top 100
Top 100 best coffee shops in the World
Discover standout cafés, from specialty coffee bars to destination roasteries. Explore the list and find your next stop.
Top travel spots
Best places to visit
France
- Paris142 cafés
- Lyon20 cafés
- Marseille17 cafés
Spain
- Barcelona129 cafés
- Madrid101 cafés
- Valencia56 cafés
USA
- New York107 cafés
- San Francisco87 cafés
- Boston51 cafés
Turkey
- Istanbul41 cafés
- Ankara15 cafés
- Izmir6 cafés
Italy
- Napoli44 cafés
- Rome29 cafés
- Milan20 cafés
United Kingdom
- London195 cafés
- Edinburgh27 cafés
- Glasgow24 cafés
Germany
- Berlin115 cafés
- Hamburg42 cafés
- Munich41 cafés
Japan
- Kagoshima16 cafés
- Shibuya11 cafés
- Chuo City2 cafés
Greece
- Athens61 cafés
- Thessaloníki16 cafés
- Volos6 cafés
Austria
- Vienna63 cafés
- Graz23 cafés
- Salzburg9 cafés
Thailand
- Khwaeng Lumphini7 cafés
- Khwaeng Khlong Tan Nuea5 cafés
- Khwaeng Khlong Tan3 cafés
Portugal
- Lisbon80 cafés
- Porto26 cafés
- Cascais7 cafés
JOURNAL
The coffee journal
Stories, practical guides and fresh perspectives on coffee, from brewing at home to the cafés and people shaping coffee culture.
World Barista Championship: Panama 2026
The World Barista Championship lands in Panama City on 22 to 25 October 2026, the first edition in Latin America. Schedules, format, favorites and what to see.
Latest dispatches
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Caffeine's half life runs from three to seven hours, and genes, age, pregnancy and medication all move it. Why the same cup can feel completely different.
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GuidesCaffeine and Heart Health: The AHA View
The AHA's 2026 statement finds moderate plain coffee sits comfortably with a healthy heart, with the real warning aimed at high dose energy drinks and cafestol.
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GuidesDoes Coffee Make You Gain Weight?
A Finnish cohort of 2,264 people found heavier coffee drinkers carried less body fat and more muscle, with a distinct hormone profile. What it does not prove.
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GuidesMy Coffee Awards 2026: Barcelona Guide
Barcelona's My Coffee Awards runs 6 to 8 November 2026 at Nau Bostik: a festival and awards hybrid with free coffee, a barista contest and 50,000 cups served.
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GuidesCoffee Shop Simulators: Real or Fantasy?
Coffee shop simulators let you run a café with no rent, no staff and no bad suppliers. What they get right about coffee culture, and what they leave out.
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GuidesBrewing Coffee Without Gravity
Gravity does the work in every Earth bound brew. Remove it and water, vapor and aroma all behave differently, which is what made espresso in orbit so hard.
Read articleBREWING
The Brewing Atlas
Explore 31 coffee drinks and brewing traditions, from Italian espresso to Vietnamese iced coffee.
01
MexicoCafé de Olla
Café de Olla is a Mexican spiced coffee brewed in an earthenware clay pot (*olla de barro*). The preparation combines medium-to-dark roast ground coffee with water, *piloncillo* (unrefined cane sugar shaped into a cone), cinnamon sticks, and optionally cloves or star anise. The coffee and spices are simmered together — not filtered immediately — allowing the aromatic compounds and sugar to fully integrate. The result is a warm, moderately sweet, spiced coffee with an earthen note contributed by the clay vessel. It is most strongly associated with rural and traditional Mexican domestic culture, though it is served in restaurants and cafés across the country, particularly for breakfast.
02Torino, ItalyEspresso
Espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage produced by forcing hot water at roughly 9 bar of pressure through a compact bed of finely ground coffee. The result — 25–30 ml of liquid — carries a thin layer of reddish-brown crema, a colloidal emulsion of oils, gases, and proteins that defines a well-extracted shot. Originating in early-twentieth-century Turin, espresso became the technical foundation on which most modern café culture is built. It is consumed alone, sweetened, or used as the base for [[Cappuccino]], [[Cortado]], [[Macchiato]], and dozens of other preparations worldwide.
03ItalyRistretto
Ristretto is an ultra-short [[Espresso]] extraction: the same dose of finely ground coffee but only half the water — approximately 15–20 ml output rather than the standard 25–30 ml. *Ristretto* is Italian for "restricted," and the restriction applies to both volume and extraction time. Because early extraction pulls the sweetest, most soluble compounds first, a ristretto is sweeter and less bitter than a standard espresso despite being more concentrated. It is the base shot of choice in many [[Flat White]] preparations and in the most stringent Italian espresso bars.
04Long Black
Long Black is an espresso-based coffee originating in Australia and New Zealand, built by pouring one or two [[Espresso]] shots over hot water already in the cup. The defining characteristic — adding espresso to water rather than water to espresso ([[Caffè Americano]] reversal) — preserves the crema layer intact on the surface. This preserved crema is central to the Long Black philosophy: it maintains aromatic intensity that the Americano's dispersed crema cannot equal. A standard Long Black uses 120–150 ml of hot water and a double shot (or double ristretto), producing a roughly 180–200 ml drink with a stronger espresso character than a typical Americano.
05Mazagran
Mazagran is widely recognised as the world's first iced coffee. It originated in Algeria in the mid-19th century, when French Foreign Legion soldiers stationed at the fort of Mazagran (near Mostaganem) mixed cold water with their coffee rations during a period when milk and sugar supplies had run out. The combination was adopted by Parisian café culture when the regiment returned to France, appearing on menus as *café à la Mazagran* — cold sweetened coffee in a tall glass. Modern interpretations vary significantly: the Portuguese version adds a slice of lemon; some contemporary versions substitute espresso; others add rum or sparkling water. What unites them is the cold, glass-served format.
06Eiskaffee
Eiskaffee is a German iced coffee dessert: cold or room-temperature coffee poured over two or three scoops of vanilla ice cream and topped with whipped cream (*Schlagobers* or *Sahne*). It is served in a tall glass with a long spoon and often a straw, consumed as much as an afternoon indulgence as a coffee drink. The combination of bitter coffee, cold sweetened ice cream, and fatty cream produces a flavour profile closer to an ice cream sundae than to iced [[Espresso]]. Eiskaffee is a café staple throughout Germany and Austria, particularly in the warmer months.
07Café au lait
Café au lait is a French breakfast coffee prepared by combining equal parts hot brewed coffee and hot steamed or scalded milk. Unlike [[Espresso]]-based milk drinks, the base is drip or filter coffee, which produces a lighter-bodied beverage with a gentler caffeine curve. The drink is traditionally served in a wide, handleless bowl that allows the cup to be held with both hands — a functional design rooted in French domestic morning ritual. It is closely related to the German *Milchkaffee* and the [[Café au lait (New Orleans Style)]], which adds roasted chicory to the coffee base.
Explore coffee
Browse all 31 coffee pages by name, country, or tradition.
REFERENCE GUIDES
Understand your coffee
Learn about coffee beans, grinding, roasting, brewing and the choices that shape the taste in your cup.