When someone thinks about opening a specialty coffee shop in Spain, their instinct takes them to Madrid or Barcelona. It's understandable: they are the two cities with the largest scene, the most visibility and the strongest third-wave culture. But that is precisely why they are also where competition is fiercest and rents in prime areas hit the margin hardest.
The smart question isn't "where is there the most specialty coffee?", but "where is there enough demand and still little supply?". That gap is what defines a good entry opportunity.
Counting the absolute number of specialty cafés is misleading. What's useful is relative density: venues per 100,000 inhabitants. Through that lens, cities such as Bilbao, San Sebastián or A Coruña show densities comparable to or even higher than Barcelona, despite being far smaller markets — a sign of a mature but also competitive scene.
At the other extreme, the southern peninsula (Málaga, Seville) appears under-served in the directories: good income and strong tourism, but less visible specialty supply. That mismatch between potential demand and current supply is exactly where a new operator can win.
Valencia, Málaga, Bilbao, A Coruña or Zaragoza combine three factors that rarely coincide in Madrid or Barcelona: medium-high income, growing tourism and a specialty supply that is not yet saturated. For a brand that's starting out, competing in a second-tier market usually means a lower cost of entry and a greater share of awareness per euro invested.
Getting the city right is only the first filter. Within each city, success depends on the neighbourhood, the pavement and the time of day: foot traffic, offices, universities, tourism and the income of the immediate surroundings. A venue on the right street in a mid-sized city can outperform a poorly located one in Madrid.
Our report on the specialty coffee market in Spain includes specialty density by city (venues per 100,000 inhabitants), a location prioritisation scoring and the competitive map brand by brand — so that the choice of where to open is based on data and not intuition.