Specialty coffee in Barcelona.

For most of the last century, coffee in Barcelona meant one thing: dark, sugar-glazed torrefacto, pulled fast at a neighbourhood bar and drunk with a sachet of sugar. The city has since become something else, a specialty market with real depth, where a family roaster from 1962 moved to modern standards, a barista champion came home from London, and an architect put single-origin coffee in a takeaway window the size of a garage.

It did not arrive quietly. The early specialty bars set rules that annoyed as many people as they delighted, the light roasts tasted sour to anyone raised on torrefacto, and the roasters kept going anyway. Now Barcelona roasters supply cafés across Spain, turn up as guest roasters in Northern Europe, and one of them sells coffee from more than forty windows around the country.

The friction never quite went away, and that is part of the charm. In summer the specialty places pour cold brew and a mazagran, espresso over ice with lemon, next to the cortados, and the argument about what coffee should taste like continues at the counter.

Four generations of business model share the city. Cafés El Magnífico carries the legacy line, roasting micro-lots on hot-air machines and still serving across the counter in El Born. Nomad is the third-wave catalyst turned B Corp exporter, roasting in Poblenou and shipping abroad. Right Side works with farmers on fermentation and drying from Castelldefels, run by a three-time Spanish roasting champion. Syra scaled the takeaway window across Spain and sells its beans through its own counters and to offices.

Around them: design-led Three Marks, which roasts in a design studio in Poblenou and hosts guest roasters; Hidden, which sorts its coffees into Funky, Exotic and Traditional and gives each an animal; slow-food SlowMov in Gràcia with its Geshas and thermal-shock lots; Morrow on the Gran Via; and Onna, which serves only Costa Rica. The catalog runs deeper than the famous names: Coffee Hackers, Abyss, Tostaderos Bon Mercat and Sensorial all roast in the city, Dalston roasts filter lots twice a week from La Garriga, and Café de Finca in Castelldefels and Cafès Bofarull in Badalona keep long lists of their own.

Salvador Sans turned his parents' shop towards single origins in 1987 and has judged Cup of Excellence competitions since. Jordi Mestre won the Spanish barista title twice, came home from London and founded Nomad, with Fran Gonzalez as his head of coffee and partner. Joaquín Parra, from the Mareterra importing family, founded Right Side and won the national roasting title three times; Lara San Miguel runs its quality work. Marcos Bartolomé gave the city Satan's Coffee Corner and its rules. Yassir Rais, an architect, built Syra's first window himself. Anahí Páez opened Onna on her family's Costa Rican coffee. And Marc Aguyé, Marco De Rebotti and Marco Paccagnella founded Three Marks.

Every part of the city does coffee its own way. The roasting machines live where the old warehouses are; the drinking happens where the people are.

A cortado or a café con leche at the bar, still, and the specialty places keep the sizes and change the coffee. The shelf tells the current story: Ethiopia, Colombia and Brazil lead Barcelona's listed origins, washed leads the processes with natural close behind, and experimental lots sit at the premium end of nearly every catalog. Filter came in with the third wave, and the current listings roasted for filter or for both methods number 30.

The top shelf is where Barcelona gets adventurous: anaerobic and thermal-shock lots, and varieties like Gesha, Sudan Rume and Chiroso from the roasters who chase them, Dalston and SlowMov among them. Hidden labels its coffees Funky, Exotic or Traditional so you know what you are getting into. Onna pours nothing but Costa Rica. Decaf is no longer an apology: sugarcane-process lots sit in the main ranges, and the live decaf count stands at 9.

There is a bag for every budget here: friendly espresso blends from the classic houses, everyday single origins, and rare lots at the top. These numbers come from every Barcelona coffee currently listed with a price, not a sample we chose. The going rate today is €63 per kilogram, which works out at about €16 for a standard bag.

The ladder reads like this: the classic houses' blends and washed Latin Americans at the everyday end around €53 per kilogram, washed East Africans and the first experimental lots from about €85 per kilogram, and the most expensive listing right now at €215 per kilogram. 78 coffees carry a price today. Most roasters ship free within mainland Spain once you have a couple of bags in the basket, and Three Marks, Dalston and SlowMov all run subscriptions.