San Antonio is popular for its beautiful city attractions, including the third largest zoo, a big Mexican market, several parks and renowned historical sites. What isn’t popular enough in the city is its lately booming coffee culture. The city has plenty of nice little coffee joints where you can grab excellent coffee, a full breakfast, or a lazy brunch.
The coffee shop culture in San Antonio has grown to serve more than just mere combinations of water and coffee beans. You can easily walk into the nearest café and grab a simple latte or a little sophistication like a café breve’. This guide illustrates San Antonio’s bustling coffee scene by reviewing the best coffee shops that are loved by both locals and visitors. We also take a look at the coffee culture trends in the city.
The Barrio Barista is a classy rustic-chic coffee shop and westside hang out in a relaxed atmosphere. The café was once a meat market in the 1960s run by the famous Jose De Hoyos. It was transformed into a coffee shop in 2014 and has since been serving delicious and creative coffee drinks ever since. Besides the basic Americanos, lattes and cappuccinos, Barrio barista offers San Antonio’s rich and diverse flavors with the horchata latte and the Abuelitas chocolate mocha.
To complement your coffee, you can get a variety of sandwiches, toasts, cakes, muffins, and freshly baked pastries.
Location: 3735 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX 78228
The Estate Coffee Company is an attractive and trendy coffee joint with historic gardens and a river walk nearby. You can grab a latte, espresso or cappuccino with your friends at the shop anytime. The modern café is popular for its unique and flavorful in-house roasted coffee beans. The coffee shop is a top preference for many because customers can watch the coffee roasting process. The café also offers tasty bakery items to go with your delicious coffee.
Location: 1320 E Houston ST a101, San Antonio, TX 78205
The CommonWealth Coffeehouse & Bakery has two locations: in Hemisfair and Mahncke Park. You can enjoy a variety of coffee drinks from any of the coffeehouses. All the coffee drinks, from drip coffee, pour-overs, and Americanos to lattes and cappuccinos, are made with Austin-based Cuvee coffee. What’s more, both joints serve breakfast, lunch, and Saturday brunch. The cafes are famous for using fresh ingredients from their gardens or sourced from the farmers in the area.
You will love the beautiful, tranquil outdoor seating near a garden. You can relax and enjoy the scenery and the delectable pastries made by the in-house pastry chef.
Location: 118 Davis Ct, San Antonio, TX 78209
The Brown Coffee Co. is a 2400-square feet neighborhood hangout in Southtown. Its interior gives intimate vibes and is thus a perfect place to hang out with friends or have an after-dinner coffee with a loved one. The warm and cozy café serves a wide selection of coffees and a range of tasty desserts.
The café prides itself in offering top-quality coffee as the owners have traveled the world searching for the best coffee growers. They roast the high-quality coffee in-house and brew it to perfection. You can watch the roasting from the stylish coffee bar while waiting for your drink.
Location: 812 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78205
The Shotgun House Roasters started as a hobby. Its owners, Jessica Callery and Eddie Laughlin started by roasting their own coffee on a small machine on their porch and then tested it at front-yard pop-ups. Later, they converted a CrossFit gym into the serene place that Shotgun House Roasters is now. The place has ample room for roasting and a sitting area where you can meet your friends or study.
The owners claim to mostly source their beans from Central America and roast them on a San Franciscan SF-6. They also offer a fruitier Ethiopian roast. The café’s roasts are mostly light to medium, and all their syrups except the caramel are made in-house. Besides the standard drip coffee, the café is loved for its unique iced horchata and other seasonal coffee drinks like fall campfire latte.
Moreover, unlike most coffee shops, Shotgun House Roasters offers coffee subscriptions and individual coffee bags so you can brew your own cups at home.
Location: 1333 Buena Vista St., Unit 108
The Martinez family is a big wig in the coffee industry. According to the information on the Café Martinez website, the family has built an empire since their first coffee shop in the 1930s in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The San Antonio café is one of their latest gems. It was opened in 2017 and is popular for its amazing drip coffee. The drip coffee is a top favorite for students in the nearby UT health facility. It is made with locally roasted beans. During summer, the mint cold brew gets the place flocked. They also offer tasty bites, including tiramisu, German chocolate cake, and spinach with fruit.
Location: 7302 Louis Pasteur Drive, Ste.
The Halcyon in Southtown is one of the hippest coffee hangouts in San Antonio. It is located in the Blue Star Arts complex. It is a coffeehouse by day and an elegant bar and lounge by night. Halcyon means peaceful, untroubled, carefree and prosperous, and the café lives up to its name in every aspect. The café offers a range of artisanal coffees and other hot drinks during the day. At night, there are all sorts of craft beers, creative cocktails, and casual wines. The joint is open 24/7, and they have happy hour specials during the week. Besides coffee, you can enjoy breakfast and other lunch dishes in the warm and welcoming ambiance, including sandwiches, salads, tacos, and toast.
Location: 1414 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78210
Wildfire Coffee Roasters is a small, friendly coffeehouse in Northwest San Antonio near Herdberger park. Thanks to its art-adorned walls and ultra-comfortable seating, it has a warm, enticing atmosphere. The coffeehouse serves high-quality single-origin coffee. The owners, Mark and Tricia, pride themselves in sourcing coffee beans ethically from different countries worldwide.
Wildfire’s menu has more than just the regular coffee drinks like cold brews, drip coffee, and espresso. You can get signature drinks like the prominent hot butter latte and Aztec Mocha.
Besides coffee, the café has fresh juices, healthy smoothies, and imported teas.
Location: 15502 Huebner Rd # 101, San Antonio, TX 78248
Merit Coffee is a renowned local roaster with six coffee shops across town and one in Austin. Each café uses hand-sourced beans from across the world. You can enjoy your drip coffee or espresso in the warm and lively environment or choose a bag of ground roasted beans to go home with you. You can pick something tasty from the café’s bakery to go with your drink of choice in the wide coffee selection offered. Merit coffee also offers other rinks like teas and juices.
Location: 7338 Louis Pasteur Dr #204, San Antonio, TX 78229
The Indy Coffee Club is a chic coffee house near the UTSA in San Antonio. Its compelling interior design constitutes a wooden bar and counter, floating shelves made with Old Crow custom works and natural palettes, succulents and local art that reflects Southwest’s culture. The Indy coffee club serves a range of artisanal coffee drinks made with single-origin parlor coffee from Brooklyn. The coffee club also offers light bites to go with your coffee and a range of other handcrafted home goods like soaps, body oil, apparel, and accessories.
The café’s menu boasts signature drinks like cereal, milk lattes, and special cinnamon toast crunch that only get served on weekends. Other delicious snacks made by the in-house chef include strawberry and crème pancakes, avocado toast, and scratch biscuits.
Location: 7114 UTSA Boulevard #103, San Antonio, TX 78249
The PhiloÇoffee is near the San Antonio University, where the Press coffee home used to be. The coffee house is famous for its variety of espresso-based drinks and an enticing full breakfast and lunch menu. The café makes its signature coffee drinks and unique blends with French-style beans. The coffee menu has regular drip coffee, lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, pour-overs, and a double espresso. The breakfast and lunch menus have fresh bagels made from scratch, fresh salads, gourmet sandwiches, and other delectable from local bakeries like C’est La Vie.
Location: 606 W French Pl, San Antonio, TX 78212
PRESS Coffee is located on the boardwalk on Broadway and is based in a greenhouse-like structure that offers a warm and exciting spot for relaxing. The café has a couple of regular coffee drinks, including lattes, cappuccinos, espressos, pour-overs, drip coffee, and a French press made with beans from different roasters. You will also enjoy treats from local bakeries like cinnamon rolls, savory quiche, muffins, and lemon bars. The most extraordinary thing about PRESS Coffee is its pet-friendly patio.
Location: 4035 Broadway St, San Antonio, TX 78209
Sip is the perfect place to grab breakfast or have a lunch meeting downtown. The coffee shop is located on Houston Street, near the Majestic Theatre. The place is owned by a chef, Andrew Weissman, who has built a name for the place with inventive dishes and multiple options for non-coffee lovers. Some of the café’s top delectable bites include a herbal salad with tarragon, mint, and boiled egg and Madras sandwich. All the bites are incredibly affordable and filling.
Location: 160 E Houston St, San Antonio, TX 78205
Revolucion Coffee and Juice is a plant-based coffee and juice house located in the collection shopping center. The place offers artisanal coffee, a wide range of homemade nut milk and healthy food options. The coffee house has a place in Houston as well, and they both attract health and fitness freaks who buy chlorophyll water, cold-pressed juice paletas, detox kits, and energy-boosting vegetarian tacos. The signature drinks on the alternative-style café’s menu include iced coffee served in beer bottles. The signature dishes include acai and pitaya.
Location: 7959 Broadway #500, San Antonio, TX 78209
The summer moon coffee bar is a warm and welcoming coffee house with branches all over Texas, including San Antonio. The café is popular for its flavorful beans that are full of character. The beans derive their unique taste and flavor from the 19th century style wood-fired roaster which is quite involving according to the description on coffee roasting history. In addition to the wide array of house-roasted and carefully brewed craft coffee, the Summer moon coffee bar offers specialty coffee drinks and the signature moon milk. The Moon milk is made with sweet dairy cream in a half-moon or winter moon.
The café also offers bites from the Bird bakery to go with the selection of coffee drinks. Most customers seem to prefer the breakfast tacos in the mornings.
Location: 3233 N St Mary’s St Ste 102, San Antonio, TX 78212
The Koffee Kup Company is a small, chic and cozy coffee shop tucked between Screen rite and Dibble’s hobbies in a strip mall. The place is cozy enough for the community to gather over the notable coffees and specialty coffee drinks they serve. Each cup offers top value for money as all the coffees are made with beans roasted by Pulp coffee roasters. The menu includes the regular Americanos, cappuccinos, espressos, and specialty lattes like the Mexican Mocha, Café Bombon and Cuban.
Location: 1025 Donaldson Ave, San Antonio, TX 78228
The Rosella Coffee Company is a pretty recent joint on Jones Avenue. It was started by Charles Gonzalez in 2014 and has steadily made a name for itself as one of the best places to have coffee in San Antonio. The coffee shop has several locations across the city, including a modern shop in the Rand building, the San Antonio Botanical Garden, H-E-B Alon, and the Methodist hospital. The company selects coffee beans carefully before sending them to Austin Roasting Co. for roasting. After roasting, the beans are sent back to the coffee company for the creation of a range of espresso-based drinks and specialty coffees.
Besides the beverages menu, Rosella coffee company offers a menu of light fare like avocado toast and gourmet sandwiches.
Location: 203 E Jones Ave #101, San Antonio, TX 78215
Once upon a time, coffee was just a morning beverage that people needed to start the day in San Antonio. In present-day San Antonio, coffee is deeply ingrained its people’s cultures. This is pretty evident from the multiple coffee shops that have cropped up across the city over the past decade.
Getting a good cup of coffee in San Antonio is super easy, thanks to all the options available in the city, from coffee houses to trucks. Although many people have picked up the art of making perfect brews at home with their freshly roasted coffee subscriptions since the pandemic, the majority still love the sense of community at neighborhood hangout coffee joints.
Do you need a coffee roaster that is versatile and easy to use, but have no idea what to look for? Read our article on the best coffee roasters for something worthwhile within your budget. If you decide to make your own coffee at home, you may need to invest in a super-automatic espresso maker or a smart coffee maker for the best quality brews. Our articles on the best super-automatic espresso machines and best smart coffee makers have top-rated options that will give you top value for your money. You will also need high-quality coffee beans like the popular Don Francisco’s Kona Blend. It is a 100% Arabica medium roast with a delicious, balanced and mellow floral aroma.
Health and fitness-oriented coffee places also seem to be a new trend in the San Antonio coffee culture. Coffee shops that make healthy smoothies or healthier coffee options and source their ingredients from a self-grown garden seem to attract a large crowd.
Just like other Americans in other parts of the world, people in San Antonio wake up with only one thing in their minds: a good cup of coffee. According to the history of coffee, farmers, ranchers and cattlemen were some of the earliest coffee aficionados in America and that says much about the bustling coffee culture in San Antonio currently. We have provided the top-rated coffee shops loved by both the locals and visitors.
All the coffee shops on our list offer excellent value in each cup of coffee they offer. Plus, most of them have complimentary bites and specialty drinks that you can enjoy in the serene environments they are located in. All you need to do is get a good quality insulated tumbler like the CS COSDDI stainless steel vacuum one for the busy weekday mornings. On weekends you can sit in and order a freshly baked bagel or croissant.
