There are people with talent and people who don’t know how to make coffee. And we’re not talking about not knowing how to pour ground coffee into an Italian moka pot, close it properly and then set it on the flame. Around coffee there is a ritual that is growing ever broader and more personal, whether you’re outside or at home. When you’re out, being selective becomes harder: paying less than five euros for an espresso is already a fantasy in the major capitals, so finding one that, in addition to standing out for its flavor, also completes you with its liturgy is almost an odyssey. Because this goes far beyond how or where it’s served, the way you’re treated, or how comfortable you are in the space you’ve chosen.
Today we even talk about coffee raves or races that culminate with blaring music and boiling caffeine… the collective imagination around coffee is taking paths that until recently wouldn’t even have crossed our minds. Within that cloud of creativity, in Madrid there are still some oases where you can sit down to drink a good cup of coffee and, by the way, complete that ‘ritual’ at our own pace: calmly… or letting ourselves be carried away.
Botánica: coffee and plants (Moratín, 23)
In the heart of the Letras district, Botánica works as a small emotional counterweight: a café and plant shop that stretches among green leaves, pots chosen with care, and the aroma of specialty coffee. What’s curious is that this project, which opened its doors in November 2023, began much earlier: precisely, at the end of a Sustainability master’s program in which two friends — Estefanía, Mexican, and María Jesús, Chilean — discovered that besides wanting to start a business, they sought to create a place where they would also feel comfortable entering as customers.
Here the plants occupy everything, and not merely as decoration: they’re all for sale. The selection is almost a statement both aesthetically and practically — easy-to-care-for species, striking foliage, plants that Madrid keeps seeking again and again — and it is complemented by a botanical catalog that invites both gift-giving and a little treat: ceramics, pots, art, bouquets, and frames of preserved flowers.
The whole is a small urban garden in the city center, sustained by cups of Puchero coffee, the Valladolid project that imports and roasts beans from different origins. That variety, says Estefanía, “allows our creative and curious baristas to develop recipes, offer very good espressos and derived drinks, as well as filtered preparations.” From Puchero also comes the cacao, which at Botánica becomes an irresistible hot chocolate and bean-to-bar bars to take away.
