Hola Coffee

Overview

Pablo Caballero and Nolo Botana started Hola Coffee in 2015 as a specialty-coffee blog written in Spanish — at the time, almost no Spanish-language information on third-wave coffee existed. The pair had met working as trainers at a commercial coffee company and started competing on the side; Caballero won the 2016 Spanish Barista Championship and represented Spain at the World Barista Championship in Dublin. They opened the first Hola Coffee café in Madrid's Lavapiés neighbourhood in March 2017 and built their own roastery on Calle Sepúlveda by the end of 2019. Their Lagasca location ranked 12th in The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2025.

Known for

• Founded 2016 / café opened March 2017 in Lavapiés by Pablo Caballero and Nolo Botana
• Caballero — 2016 Spanish Barista Champion, competed at World Barista Championship Dublin
• Lagasca location ranked #12 in The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2025
• Three locations in Madrid: Lavapiés café (Doctor Fourquet 33), Lagasca café (Barrio de Salamanca, Calle Lagasca 42), and roastery (Calle Sepúlveda 109, Lucero)
• Originally also co-founded Misión Café in 2017; have since sold that business to focus on Hola

Why it matters

Hola is the brand that legitimised specialty coffee in Madrid — the city had been almost a third-wave dead zone before they opened, and the bilingual blog-and-podcast project was the gateway through which a generation of Spanish baristas learned the vocabulary. The Lagasca shop's #12 placement in the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops in 2025 puts them in a global top tier; the Sepúlveda roastery now supplies most of Spain's serious specialty cafés.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

Nolo Botana

color sorting

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roaster machine

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filter equipment

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cupping frequency

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roastery location

Calle Sepúlveda 109, Lucero, Madrid

espresso equipment

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annual volume tonnes

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Café

Calle del Doctor Fourquet, 33, 28012 Madrid (Lavapiés); Calle Lagasca 42 (Salamanca)

Recognitions

• World's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2025 — Lagasca location ranked #12
• Spanish Barista Champion 2016 (Pablo Caballero)
• Premio Excelencias Gourmet 2025: Barista de Excelencias (Nolo Botana)

Sources

• https://acaia.co/blogs/news/customer-feature-hola-coffee
• https://www.esmadrid.com/en/nightlife/hola-coffee-lagasca
• https://thecoffeevine.com/reviews/cafes/spain/madrid/hola-coffee-madrid-es/
• https://thecoffeevine.com/reviews/cafes/spain/madrid/hola-coffee-lagasca-in-madrid/
• https://www.thewaytocoffee.com/roasters/hola-coffee