Cafeography
Specialkaffe · Stockholm

Specialty coffee in Stockholm

Light-roast filter by Mariatorget and roasters' bars from Södermalm to Östermalm.

Photo: cottonbro studio, Pexels License

Sweden drinks a lot of coffee, about 8.2 kg per person a year, and most of it is ordinary brewed coffee; Gevalia alone holds around 40 percent of the market.1 Specialkaffe (specialty coffee) is the small, deliberate exception. Roasters use the Specialty Coffee Association's 100-point scale, on which coffee scoring 80 or more qualifies, as Johan & Nyström explains on its site.2

The specialty bars are few, and Södermalm has most of them. The streets around Mariatorget are one of the district's café hotspots, with Johan & Nyström, Kaffe and Drop Coffee among the most popular coffee shops there.3

Local tip: Ask at Drop Coffee which coffee is on filter that day: the lineup changes daily, and on weekdays the bar on Wollmar Yxkullsgatan opens at 08:00.

Where these cafés are: Södermalm (3), Östermalm (1), Johanneshov, Årsta & Hammarbyhöjden (1).

At a glance

5Cafés listed
4With opening hours
07:00Earliest opening
19:00Latest closing
  • Opens earliest: Johan & Nyström, from 07:00 (Mon–Fri 07:00–19:00 · Sat 07:00–18:00 · Sun 08:00–18:00).
  • Most common features: wheelchair access (60%), card payment (40%), outdoor seating (40%).

Nothing matches those filters here. See all cafés in Stockholm.

Drop Coffee and the light roast

Drop Coffee opened in 2009 as a coffee bar near Mariatorget and began roasting a year later on a 1 kg roaster at the back of the shop; in 2018 the roastery moved to Rosersberg, north of Stockholm, where it is certified organic.4 Co-owner Joanna Alm is a three-time Swedish Coffee Roasting Champion.4

The house style is light to medium, roasted for a clean, bright cup that keeps the bean's acidity and sweetness, in batches of 8–16 kg made to order.4 At the bar on Wollmar Yxkullsgatan 10, the coffees rotate daily on espresso and brew-on-demand filter, so a Kenyan cooperative lot one day can give way to a Central American Bourbon the next.5 It opens 08:00–18:00 on weekdays and 10:00–17:00 at weekends.

Johan & Nyström on Swedenborgsgatan

Johan & Nyström's bar on Swedenborgsgatan was the company's first concept store.6 Its baristas are trained to serve both a cappuccino with latte art and a hand-brewed cup of a recent single origin.6 The bar at No. 7 opens at 07:00 Monday to Saturday, an hour before Drop, and at 08:00 on Sundays.

The beans are roasted in Länna, on roasters that run on biogas, and the company says many of its farm partnerships have lasted more than ten years; every coffee it buys scores at least 80 points.7

Roasters and bars elsewhere

Outside Södermalm the specialty addresses are single bars. Pascal Kaffebar at Sturegatan 8 in Östermalm opens at 07:30 on weekdays and 09:00 at weekends; barista champion Lakis Psomas calls Pascal a long-standing part of the city's specialty scene, with a roastery café in Hagastaden where the coffee is roasted on site.8

South of the center, Stockholm Roast is at Hallvägen 9 in Johanneshov. Back on Södermalm, Balue at Nackagatan 5 opens from Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00–18:00, takes cards and is wheelchair accessible.

Ordering at a specialty bar

To taste what a roaster is doing, order filter: at Drop it is brewed to order from whatever is on the bar that day.5 Johan & Nyström argues that specialty coffee tastes sweeter and cleaner whether it is roasted darker or lighter, and suggests a simple test: good coffee still tastes good once it has gone cold.2

Sources

  1. Fika (Sweden), Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  2. Specialkaffe, Johan & Nyström, accessed October 2026
  3. The best cafés on Södermalm (16 September 2026), Visit Stockholm, accessed October 2026
  4. About Drop Coffee, Drop Coffee Roasters, accessed October 2026
  5. Café, Drop Coffee Roasters, accessed October 2026
  6. Våra kaffebarer, Johan & Nyström, accessed October 2026
  7. Vårt manifest, Johan & Nyström, accessed October 2026
  8. Lakis Psomas: my 5 coffee experiences in Stockholm (9 March 2026), Visit Stockholm, accessed October 2026
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FAQ

Specialty coffee in Stockholm: questions

What counts as specialty coffee in Stockholm?

Stockholm roasters use the Specialty Coffee Association's 100-point scale, on which coffee scoring 80 or more qualifies as specialty. It is a small part of Swedish drinking: Swedes consume about 8.2 kg of coffee per person a year, mostly ordinary brewed coffee, and Gevalia holds around 40 percent of the market.

Where is Drop Coffee in Stockholm and how does it roast?

Drop Coffee's bar is at Wollmar Yxkullsgatan 10, near Mariatorget on Södermalm, where it opened in 2009. It roasts light to medium for a clean, bright cup, now at a certified organic roastery in Rosersberg, and the bar rotates its espresso and filter coffees daily.

Which specialty coffee bars in Stockholm open earliest?

Johan & Nyström at Swedenborgsgatan 7 on Södermalm opens at 07:00 Monday to Saturday and 08:00 on Sundays. Pascal Kaffebar at Sturegatan 8 opens at 07:30 on weekdays, and Drop Coffee on Wollmar Yxkullsgatan at 08:00.

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