Almanegra Café

Overview

Almanegra Café — 'black soul' — opened in 2014 in Narvarte, founded by three CDMX friends including co-owner Octavio Ruiz, who picked the residential neighborhood because it was theirs and because nobody else had treated coffee as the lead character there yet. The Narvarte original was followed by a second cafe at Tonalá 53 in Roma Norte, then a roastery-cafe at Jorge Washington 127-4A in Moderna that supplies the other locations, with a planned San Miguel de Allende outpost on the way.

Known for

• 'Cult of Coffee' tasting flight: espresso, cortado and V60 (and sometimes cold brew) from a single origin, designed to teach format-driven flavor differences
• La Marzocco GS3 espresso bar with Eva Solo, Chemex and Japanese siphon manual brew options
• Coffee library at the Roma Norte location stocking Standart, Drift and Caffeine Magazine
• Multi-roaster program rotating Mexican micro-roasters alongside international guests including Bar Nine, Sweet Bloom, Verve, Dragonfly and Colombia's 575
• Roasts in-house at the Moderna location for distribution to its other Mexico City cafes

Why it matters

Almanegra is the cafe most often paired with Avellaneda when locals describe the spine of CDMX specialty: a serious, minimalist, coffee-forward operation that trades brunch-cafe ambiance for an explicit cult-of-coffee aesthetic. Its multi-roaster program and curated coffee-magazine library have made it one of the city's main on-ramps for customers progressing from third-wave cafes to home-brewing.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

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color sorting

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roaster machine

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filter equipment

Eva Solo, Chemex, Japanese siphon, V60

cupping frequency

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roastery location

Jorge Washington 127-4A, Moderna, Benito Juárez, Mexico City (roastery and cafe)

espresso equipment

La Marzocco GS3

annual volume tonnes

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Café

Av. Universidad 420-A, Narvarte Poniente (original); Calle Tonalá 53, Roma Norte; Jorge Washington 127-4A, Moderna (roastery cafe); plus Av. P.º de la Reforma 423, Cuauhtémoc

Sources

• https://sprudge.com/coffee-is-a-dark-art-at-almanegras-second-cafe-in-mexico-city-117151.html
• https://www.th3rdwave.coffee/almanegra-cafe/
• https://www.halfhalftravel.com/travel-guides/almanegra-cafe-mexico-city-cult-of-coffee.html
• https://www.corner.inc/guides/mexico-city/mexico-city/bean-there-done-that-best-specialty-coffee-shops-in-mexico-city
• https://www.yelp.com/biz/almanegra-caf%C3%A9-ciudad-de-m%C3%A9xico
• https://perfectdailygrind.com/2016/04/coffee-paradise-5-must-visit-specialty-cafes-in-mexico-city/
• https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g150800-d7613501-Reviews-Almanegra_Cafe-Mexico_City_Central_Mexico_and_Gulf_Coast.html