A quick note on language before the queue gets confused: in Amsterdam a "coffeeshop" sells cannabis, while a place that sells actual coffee is a cafe or koffiebar. With that sorted, the city has a genuinely strong specialty scene. The best coffee in Amsterdam runs from serious single-origin roasters to cosy corner cafes where the pour comes with a pastry. Here is where we send people.
We are Ruma (formerly De Beste Lekkernij), a Mediterranean bakery and coffee counter in the Nine Streets, so we drink a lot of this city's coffee and pull plenty of our own. This list is honest, and most of it is within a short walk of us.
What good coffee looks like in Amsterdam
The city went deep on specialty coffee over the last decade. Expect freshly roasted beans, baristas who know their extraction, and a real flat white rather than a sad filter. The best spots tend to be small, owner-run, and clustered in the Jordaan, the Nine Streets and De Pijp. Many open around 8 or 9am, which suits an early dessert run.
The best coffee in Amsterdam
1. Screaming Beans, in the Nine Streets
The standout right in the Nine Streets. Screaming Beans has a cosy, homey feel, friendly baristas and its own blend, which makes it the easy pick when you are strolling the 9 Straatjes. Good coffee, calm room, central.
2. Sango, top of the Jordaan
Toeing the line between specialty shop and neighbourhood cafe, Sango roasts its own beans and pulls a seriously good cup. Sitting at the top of the Jordaan, it is an easy one to fold into a day of wandering.
3. Haku Specialty Coffee, on the Rozengracht
A Japanese-inspired, family-run spot where the beans are lightly roasted to keep their character, served alongside high-grade matcha in a calm, plant-lined room. A lovely change of pace from the busier streets.
4. BRUNO's, for takeaway
Every Jordaaner's go-to for a coffee to go. On a Saturday before the Noordermarkt you will catch locals and a few savvy visitors in line. No frills, just a well-made cup from someone who cares about the machine.
5. Saint Jean, coffee and a pastry
A friendly neighbourhood cafe in the Jordaan that does some of the tastiest cruffins and pains au chocolat in the city, all plant-based. If your coffee needs a partner, this is a strong shout.
6. Ruma, coffee with the viral trilece
Our turn, and our angle is simple. We are a Mediterranean bakery first, so the coffee comes with something worth sitting down for: handmade trilece, baklava, simit, cannoli. A strong coffee cutting through cold, milky trilece is one of the better ten-minute breaks in the Nine Streets. Pair a Turkish coffee with a piece of baklava and you are sorted.
Where: Ruma, Herenstraat 24A, in the Nine Streets. Coffee plus the most-tagged treat in the city.
How to order coffee like a local
- Koffie verkeerd is the Dutch take on a cafe latte, literally "coffee wrong", half coffee half warm milk.
- Ask for a flat white at any specialty spot and you will be in safe hands.
- Coffee almost always comes with a small biscuit or, in the right places, a stroopwafel resting on the cup so the steam softens it.
- Pair a strong espresso with something sweet. Turkish coffee with baklava, or any black coffee with cold trilece, is the move.
Where to find the best coffee in Amsterdam
The richest cluster sits in the Jordaan and the Nine Streets, with De Pijp close behind. You can build a proper coffee crawl on foot: start at Screaming Beans in the Nine Streets, work up toward Haku and Sango in the Jordaan, and break for a slice at our counter on Herenstraat. For where the coffee meets dessert, see our guide to the best cafes in the Nine Streets.
A quick history of Amsterdam coffee
The Dutch and coffee go back a long way. Amsterdam was one of the great coffee-trading ports of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the city has had a serious cafe culture ever since. For decades that meant the traditional bruin cafe, the wood-panelled brown bars where a simple coffee comes with a small biscuit. The specialty wave is newer, arriving over the last fifteen years or so, bringing single-origin beans, careful roasting and the flat white to the canals. Today both worlds sit side by side, and the best coffee crawl takes in a bit of each: an old brown cafe for atmosphere, a specialty bar for the cup itself.
Where to drink coffee by neighbourhood
The Jordaan is the heart of the specialty scene, dense with small roasters and owner-run cafes. The Nine Streets, right next door, mixes coffee with shopping and dessert. South of the centre, De Pijp around the Albert Cuyp Market is lively and good value. The canal belt has the prettiest spots for a coffee with a view. You can walk between all of these in under half an hour, which makes a self-guided coffee tour very doable in an afternoon. Our things to do in the Nine Streets guide maps out the area.
Beans to take home
Many of the city's roasters, including spots like Sango that roast in-house, sell bags of beans to take with you, which makes for a better souvenir than a fridge magnet. Ask the barista what is fresh and how they would brew it. If you are pairing the coffee with something sweet to carry out, a box of baklava or a slice of trilece travels well alongside. For more on the food side, see our best bakeries in Amsterdam guide.
Come for the coffee, stay for the trilece
Find us in the Nine Streets daily for a proper coffee and the cake everyone is filming. See the full menu, plan a visit, or order across Amsterdam. Hungry too? Our best bakeries in Amsterdam guide pairs nicely with this one.