Tijuana is undergoing an impressive cultural revival. A handful of coffee shops are leading the city’s revolution by serving up Mexico’s best-quality coffee in stylish, laid-back spaces. Here are some of the best cafés in Tijuana.
When the first thing you see are huge industrial coffee-roasting containers, you know a shop’s coffee is going to be good. Located along up-and-coming Avenida Revolucion, Container Coffee Roaster roasts and grinds locally sourced coffee beans right behind the counter. The best bit? Their artfully presented cups of goodness come with a complimentary cookie and a glass of water. A word of warning: don’t come here expecting iced lattes and hot chocolate. This place is purely about no-frills, potent Mexican coffee.
Set in a modern and spacious environment, Blue the Coffee Bar offers the perfect working spot for digital nomads. Their masterfully prepared black coffee, served to customers inside a French press, is delicious – but they also have a long list of creamy frappes (the one topped with Oreos wins first prize), creative tea infusions, and delicious hot chocolates that are well worth a try. Don’t miss their espresso-glazed brownie, either.
Electric Coffee Roasters attracts Tijuana’s coolest crowd with its minimalist, industrial look of smooth grey floors, retro light bulbs, and exposed pipes. Their potent cups of coffee, decorated with some of the best latte art in town, is locally sourced and ground on-site. During Tijuana’s intense summer heat, the guys at Electric come up with some refreshing coffee-spiked drinks, such as the Espresso Tonic (ice-cold tonic water with a shot of espresso and a slice of lime) and their ever-popular ColdBrew, a less acidic version of the traditional iced coffee.
If you’re looking for something more than just a great cup of coffee, then Luwak Café should be your next stop. Inspired by Belgian cuisine, Luwak’s coffees, ranging from Italian to Peruvian and Mexican, are specially designed to complement their delicious all-day breakfast menu. Highlights include their beautifully light crepes and waffles served with Belgian chocolate, strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream. They also offer an impressive selection of creative coffee fusions, including the refreshing “Espresso Lemonade,” the Japanese-inspired “Matcha Blueberry,” and “Golden Milk,” a vegan-friendly coffee spiced with cinnamon, pepper, and ginger.
Yet another team in Tijuana that’s passionate about promoting Mexico’s top-quality coffee, Cru Coffee Roasters & Cellars only use locally sourced beans from fair-trade farms. Not only that, they promise that each cup has been toasted and ground in-house for the best flavor. It’s a pet-friendly café, so visitors here enjoy their coffee, iced lattes, and banana bread with their dogs, cats, and other furry friends.
One of the old-time leaders in promoting Mexico’s coffee scene, Caffe Sospeso has earned worldwide recognition for its refined Veracruz, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero coffee. As expected, all coffee here is prepared on-site, and filtered at the bar as visitors order. They offer some of Mexico’s best coffee all packaged up and ready to take away, so this is also a good place to stock up before you go home.
A stylishly decorated space with long wooden tables made for sharing, Das Cortez serves up organic coffee from Mexico’s Chiapas region. They also offer delicious homemade sandwiches and pastries, making it a great place to stop for breakfast or lunch. If you’re in a rush, they also have a drive-thru where you’ll see a regular stream of traffic passing by for their coffee-on-the-go.
