Málaga: An Unexpected Specialty Coffee Capital

When specialty coffee enthusiasts think of Spain's coffee scene, Barcelona and Madrid tend to dominate the conversation — Nomad (#7 in the world, Blog #7) and the city's growing cluster of specialty operations in Barcelona; the capital's expanding third-wave café scene. Málaga, on the Costa del Sol, is not a name that immediately enters the specialty vocabulary. It is a beach city, a tourist destination, a sun-soaked port. And yet it is the home of one of Spain's most decorated specialty roasters: KIMA Coffee, winners of the 1st place Spain Roasters Championship in 2022.

The KIMA story is one of accumulated expertise. The roastery was born from years of experience — "like any good wine," in their own words, "it takes time to mature." The team that built KIMA brought more than 20 years of combined experience in the specialty coffee field, moving through roles in production, quality assessment, and barista competition before bringing all of that knowledge together into a focused roastery operation. The result is, as they describe it, "a bold roastery full of exceptionally trained roasters and baristas" — not a startup ethos but the confidence of people who have been in the industry long enough to know exactly what they want to achieve.

Spain Roasters Championship 2022: What It Takes

The Spain Roasters Championship evaluates competitors on their green coffee assessment, roasting proficiency, and the cup quality of their roasted output — a holistic assessment of the roasting craft rather than a single competitive dimension. Placing first in 2022 against Spain's full field of specialty roasters — a field that includes Nomad (Blog #7), SIBARIST (Blog #15), and a growing number of regional specialists — is a meaningful achievement that validates KIMA's technical capabilities at the highest national level.

Competition roasting also informs everyday commercial roasting practice: the precision of green assessment, the discipline of roast curve development, and the systematic approach to quality evaluation that champions develop through competition translates directly into better commercial lots. KIMA's 9 lots at BrewFusion — the largest catalogue after DAK's 10 — reflect this precision across a broad range of origins and profiles.

The Sourcing Philosophy: Traceability as Respect

KIMA's sourcing philosophy rests on three pillars: sustainability, authenticity, and traceability. Every lot the roastery selects is traceable to a specific farm, cooperative, or producing community — not as a marketing claim but as an operational standard that defines which coffees KIMA will and will not buy. The emphasis on environmental responsibility extends to partnerships with producers who share KIMA's values: farming practices that protect the soil, water, and biodiversity of coffee-growing ecosystems; social conditions that fairly compensate the people who do the growing and picking work.

"We know how much work and effort goes into producing specialty coffee," KIMA states directly. "That's why our vision was clear from the start: adherence to the values of sustainable coffee cultivation that respects the environment, is authentic and innovative, and values the work of the farmers and the identity of the farms." This is not abstract ethics — it is a specific commitment that manifests in which producers KIMA works with and how those relationships are structured.

"At KIMA Coffee we want to bring every bean to its full potential. We know how much work and effort goes into producing specialty coffee." — KIMA Coffee