It's Half-Year Anniversary & Coffelogue No.27

Let's celebrate with Satan's Coffee: Barcelona´s original specialty coffeeshop together with RightSide Coffee Roasters

When I started my coffeeloguing journey exactly six months ago in October2022, little did I anticipate that I’d be able to post every week keeping the channel excited all the time!

I take this opportunity to Thank each one of you for your continued support, comments & feedback. I hope you enjoy this special edition from my favourite city - Barcelona!

First, the Coffee Shop:

Marcos Bartolomé started off specialty coffee revolution in Barcelona as a small coffee corner in a shop in Raval neighbourhood more than a decade ago. It has grown over the last six years into a brand with multiple locations.

The idea of setting up a cool café in a window was an invention of Marcos, a native of La Rioja. Hailing from a family of coffeemakers, he wanted to continue what he'd learnt from his childhood, but in his own way. To begin with, he set up in the Raval area, in the window of a stationer's, creating Barcelona's smallest coffee shop, and then they moved to a bike shop. Now they've settled in the Barri Gòtic, in their very own premises, which is sort of headquarters chosen by Marcos as it is a fantastic location for business expansion.

The Satanic name of his coffee shop aligns with his way of treating the freshly ground bean: 'Many customers have stopped adding sugar, as fresh milk is already quite sweet, or maybe the espresso is already sweet enough,' he says, 'but I don't want to tell them what to do. Satan Coffee serves one of the best cups of coffee you can get in Barcelona!

Satan's partnership with ‘Right Side Coffee Roasters’ – which is amongst the best in the city goes a long way. Both of them share a similar philosophy on doing things very differently and are perfect complement to each other. The coffees are in constant rotation at Satan’s, so you can always try something different.

Right Side Coffee Roasters:

Satan’s, one of pioneers of third wave culture worked closely with award winning roaster Right Side since the beginning of their coffee journeys. To this day, Satan’s and Right Side share this bonhomie. While many new roasters and cafés have popped up across the Catalonian capital, Right Side has just focused on being a pure wholesale roaster. This has enabled Joaquin Parra, its founder, and his partner in life and in business Lara San Miguel to devote a great deal of their time towards sourcing and roasting extraordinary coffees from all over the world.

What’s fascinating about Joaquin’s story is that he is one of three sons of Rafa Moral who founded Mare Terra, the largest Spanish specialty coffee importer by volume; the other two sons being Carlos Moral of Hidden Coffee Roasters and Jonathan Moral of Café de Finca.

Joaquin and his brothers were practically born with specialty coffee and despite the fact that they’re all based in & around Barcelona, they don’t see each other as competitors in the traditional sense. Instead, they keep each other on their toes, aiming to continuously raise the bar higher, and promote farmers and their finest coffees.

The Coffee: Heleanna’s Secret, Ethiopia

Aromas of green tea, cocoa and floral. In the mouth it is presented as a cocktail of flavors with apple, black tea, papaya, mango, melon and hops. Dense and round brown, with great body. Prolonged cocoa finish.

TRACEABILITY

• ORIGIN : Gerse, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

• PRODUCER: Heleanna Georgalis

• VARIETY: Ethiopian Heirloom

• PROCESS: Natural Experimental