Great Coffee in Funchal

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

Thanks to Joe for this great video on where to enjoy some good coffee in Funchal.

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Tobi Hughes

16 Responses

  1. Hi Joe. Thanks for your videos. I think it might be good to stick to the things you are an expert on. You missed the only coffee shops in Funchal that have authentic, freshly roasted specialty coffee. I have been to the places you mentioned and they sell coffee that was roasted 2 months ago and most of them have shiny but poor equipment not manufactured for specialty coffee. The old, stale coffee they serve eliminates them from being considered specialty coffees. At maximum, coffee needs to be consumed 2-3 weeks from the time it’s roasted before it becomes stale. Greenhouse Coffee Roaster and Land Food & Coffee take their coffee seriously. It is roasted fresh weekly. Equipment is also important. Their equipment is made especially for brewing specialty coffee. It costs triple, into the multi thousands of euros more than the other shops. As for the shops you mentioned that don’t sell specialty coffee, most are using a mix of 40% Arabica and 60% robusta which is some of the worst coffee that you can find in Europe. Don’t be fooled by shiny equipment or delicious snacks and great views. Although nice, they have nothing to do with specialty coffee. Have fun friend with your videos.

    1. Hi John – Thanks for the advice. I really like Greenhouse Coffee, Land Food and Local Shop. But… I did not have time to get up there and film. I didn’t want to add something in which I did not have content for, so I decided to leave them out of this video. I decided to leave them for when I am back and visit Monte to film. Incidentally, Three House use coffee from Greenhouse Roasters. I made the assumption that not everyone is looking for the perfect coffee or is interested in the details behind washed vs natural process. Light roast profile vs dark roast profile or the nuances between Ethiopia and Guatemala. The speciality coffee market is still niche, despite however deep you or I get into it. I tried to cover a good variety of places for everyone to enjoy, whether they want coffee, somewhere to sit or to enjoy something to eat with it. Shame you didn’t enjoy these recommendations, but hopefully you can find something in the others.

      Have a great morning, I need to go brew my next coffee in my v60 (no joke) 😉

      1. Hi Joe. Thanks for your reply. I tried to answer yesterday but it didn’t go through. Maybe this isn’t the best place to write back and forth, and I’d love to sit down with you sometime over a coffee or bite sometime. Some of the places you mentioned I frequent often. I buy my V60 filters at Three House – from one of their boutique shops. I can hardly walk by a Uao Cacao w/out buying a piece of chocolate.. it’s that good. Two of my most frequented places for lunch are Art Coffee Corner and Prima Caju. I go to Maia every once in a while to see if anything has changed, but when I went last week they were using coffee roasted in November. So it wasn’t the places so much, but rather “Best Coffee Funchal” while catchy, isn’t really accurate I suppose? If it said in bold letters, “My 7 favorite cafes in Funchal” okay, that’s honesst. Nothing necessary to say about wash process, light vs dark roast, nuances between Ethiopia and Guatemala (whatever that means since there is such a wide variety that even Q graders can’t always identify the country of origen) but the video title was about “best coffee”. There are great cafes and then there is great coffee. I understand that your target audience is not people who are into specialty coffee. All the best to you and continued success with your blogs/vids. BTW – do you know about XS Cafe in Prazeres and the new roastery and specialty coffee shop in Ponta do Pargo?

        1. Morning, thanks for taking the time to reply. I get your point, but I guess ‘best’ is subjective and debate about what is actually best is the “best” part about making these lists. At least, the debate is the part which I enjoy most. “My favourite Cafes” is in the title because that is what I feel it is, the hook is for the SEO, when you have a small following like me, you need to get eyes on the video, I don’t feel it misleads overall. Specifically on speciality coffee, Madeira is probably at the very beginning of the journey. When I think of places I have been to like, Tbilisi in Georgia or Chiang Mai Thailand, it is like night and day compared to Madeira. But then, it is a different environment for them to operate in. The 75 cents coffee is hard to shake if all you care about is a quick caffeine hit. I expect that now Madeira is pitching itself as a digital nomad location (one reason that I am often there and will be again shortly), will help by having people willing to pay and ‘demand’ speciality coffee. I look forward to progression along this journey, because I want it myself. But all this takes time, and the aim of this video was to offer a brief view on some nice places to visit in Funchal, for differing reasons. XS Cafe looks great and will be sure to check it out when I am over.

  2. What a rant. Most people want a coffee for chatting, admiring the people and views, enjoying their holiday. Thank you Jo and we shall enjoy looking for these coffee places when we visit in March.

    2. Quite agree Rebandted,how did these guys become such experts on coffee ,in their opinion.
      Surely as we all have taste buds we all taste things differently.

    1. Omg , I must be a coffee heathen ! In all the years I’ve lived in Madeira, I and visiting family and friends literally stop for a coffee wherever we are . Not had bad coffee anywhere .

  5. We spend 4 to 6 weeks each winter in Madeira. Not great coffee drinkers but we do enjoy a Chinesa mid-morning almost everyday. Happy to say we’ve visited six of your seven and all are places we use time and time again. Must search out “Art Food Corner” on our next trip!

  6. Gotta disagree about Prima Caju. The coffee quality sucks. Most of the others are okay. Art Corner is excellent. Niquita Coffee Shop should be on this list.

  7. In Madeira at the moment so will be trying the art corner first ( for vegetarian food and coffee
    Come to Funchal 3 times a year sowill make sure to try them all,so thank you for video and list.

  8. Was going to try these in order during our current three weeks in Madeira ( despite the expert coffee negative comments). Just a bit of info for early risers like me, Maia & Caju do not open before 8am. I drink & eat at Sesamo & Padaria Mariazinha for an early drink with locals. Kodea has also been closed when walking past last couple of days

  9. Further to my previous comment I did get a coffee in Maia. Although I am no coffee expert, I do love coffee & found it a bit disappointing. The coffee was a tad bitter which I guess is the robusta beans. Certainly knew there was a lot of caffeine in it. Caju was shut but a waiter was just putting tables & chairs outside. They open at 9. The waiter was willing to make me a coffee but the machine wasn’t really ready so I said I would come back later. Kodea is most definitely closed. A big sign across the frontage suggests they are planning something new. I’ll check in their restaurant Kampo some time this week. Art Food Corner is very close to where I am staying so will have a coffee and lunch there today. It was busy with locals yesterday afternoon.

  10. I emailed Kodea last week and he responded, they did not have a reopen date. Please update us if you find out something new. One of my favorites!

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