Alicante has good coffee if you know where to look. A small number of specialty cafés now work across the city, run by people who care about where their coffee comes from and how it is made. This is a short guide to finding them, from what specialty actually means to what to look for when you walk through the door.

What specialty coffee means

At its simplest, specialty coffee is coffee that has been looked after at every step. It is grown and processed with care, roasted to show what makes it different, and traceable back to the farm it came from.

A good specialty café can usually tell you the country, the region, the farm and often the person who grew it. Ask, and you will normally get a story along with your coffee. If you want the longer explanation, we wrote about it in What Is Specialty Coffee.

What to look for when you walk in

You do not need to be an expert to spot a café that takes its coffee seriously. A few things give it away.

  • Origins on the menu. Farms, regions and processes. "Premium blend" on its own tells you very little.
  • A roaster they can talk about. The best cafés roast their own coffee or work with a roaster they know well and stand behind.
  • Coffee that tastes of where it came from. Lighter roasts tend to let the origin come through. Very dark, oily beans often cover it up.
  • Baristas who take their time. Weighing doses, timing shots and adjusting the grinder through the day. It is quiet work, and it shows in the cup.
  • Bags to take home. A café that sells its own coffee by the bag is confident in it.

Why the old town works so well

The Casco Antiguo was made for slow mornings. The streets are narrow and walkable, the buildings are small, and the plazas give you somewhere to sit and watch the day begin. It suits independent cafés far better than chains.

Specialty coffee rewards people who stay a while, taste and pay attention. The old town gives them every reason to.

Our corner of it

Swallow Specialty Coffee, Plaza del Carmen 13, Alicante, opened in October 2023 in an old bar that had seen better days. We wanted a calm place to relax, connect and enjoy good coffee in the heart of the city. In 2026 we were named one of Spain's 100 Best Coffee Shops, and we are proud of it and grateful to the team that earns it every day.

Our two 3.5-metre double doors stay open onto the plaza, so the room breathes with the street outside. We have a no-laptop policy, which keeps the room for conversation rather than work. Dogs are always welcome, and there are treats behind the bar. Our team speaks Spanish and English, and we are open every day from 08:30 to 16:30, Sundays included.

We choose our green coffee ourselves, roast each lot to its own profile, let it rest and taste every batch before it reaches the bar. From roastery to cup, every decision is ours.

You will find directions and opening hours in our visit section.

How we choose what we serve

Everything starts on the cupping table, before we buy anything. We look at where the coffee comes from, how it was grown and how it was processed. Then we taste. The cup has to be clear and full of character, the kind of coffee you still think about after you have finished it.

That is why our range is small and changes through the year. Some coffees go out as Flights, numbered releases of a single coffee. When a Flight is gone, it is gone.

Go and taste for yourself

The best way to explore Alicante's coffee is one cup at a time. Look for the signs above, ask the barista where the coffee comes from, and trust your own taste.

If you would like to know how Swallow started, you can read our story. If you want to take some coffee home, our current coffees are online, with delivery across Spain, Europe and the UK.