Café Avellaneda

Overview

Café Avellaneda is a roughly twenty-square-meter coffee bar in Coyoacán's La Concepción neighborhood, opened by Juan Carlos de la Torre and his cousin Ximena de la Torre as a rigorously specialty operation focused almost entirely on Mexican single origins. De la Torre is a multi-time Mexican Brewers Cup champion (2014, 2015) and the 2019 LA Coffee Masters winner, and trained Carlos Maqueda, the 2018 Mexican Brewers Cup champion; in 2017 he and his wife Yarismeth Barrientos launched Café con Jiribilla as the affiliated roastery brand, which now also supplies Casa Cardinal and Chiquitito Café.

Known for

• Twenty-square-meter destination cafe in Coyoacán seen as the gateway through which most CDMX baristas were introduced to specialty
• Coffees from a rotating slate of Mexican origins — particularly Zaragoza, Oaxaca — roasted in 2 kg batches with cupping on every batch
• Carlos de la Torre is multi-time Mexican Brewers Cup champion and 2019 LA Coffee Masters winner
• Signature drinks like the Juanito (espresso, tamarind, juniper, tonic) and Mexican espresso–cocktail menu
• Buys 69 kg trial lots from emerging Mexican farmers at producer-set prices before committing to larger volumes

Why it matters

Avellaneda is the foundational reference cafe for Mexico City's third-wave scene and a training ground for several of Mexico's top competitive baristas. Its small-batch roasting model — single-kilo loads on a 2 kg air roaster, up to 40 cups per day — is unusually rigorous for its size, and the café's affiliated roastery Café con Jiribilla now serves much of CDMX's specialty cafe ecosystem.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

Juan Carlos de la Torre

color sorting

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roaster machine

2 kg air roaster (run as 1 kg batches, with cupping on every batch); affiliated Café con Jiribilla roastery handles wholesale volume

filter equipment

Chemex, Hario V60, Kalita Wave, AeroPress, Clever

cupping frequency

Every batch

roastery location

Mexico City (in-cafe roasting at Coyoacán; Café con Jiribilla wholesale roastery operates separately)

espresso equipment

La Marzocco GB5 with San Remo SR70 grinder

annual volume tonnes

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Café

Higuera 40-A, La Concepción, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México

Recognitions

• Mexican Brewers Cup Champion (Juan Carlos de la Torre, multiple years)
• LA Coffee Masters Champion 2019 (Juan Carlos de la Torre)
• Trained 2018 Mexican Brewers Cup Champion Carlos Maqueda

Sources

• https://sprudge.com/mexico-city-new-horizon-cafe-avellaneda-96693.html
• https://freshcup.com/roastery-breakdown-cafe-con-jiribilla-in-mexico-city-mexico/
• https://perfectdailygrind.com/2016/04/coffee-paradise-5-must-visit-specialty-cafes-in-mexico-city/
• https://www.baristamagazine.com/10-minutes-carlos-maqueda/
• https://www.baristamagazine.com/scenes-from-the-mexican-national-coffee-championships/
• https://katrinatypes.wordpress.com/2017/10/26/a-coffee-lovers-guide-to-mexico-city/
• https://ookiedough.org/specialty-coffee-guide-to-mexico-city/