Specialty coffee cafés in Edinburgh

Cafés that became roasters

Fortitude began in 2014 as a multi-roaster café run by Matt and Helen Carroll and later started roasting on a Diedrich IR-12.¹ It now has two cafés, at 66 Hamilton Place in Stockbridge and 4 Abbey Mount.⁴ Both open 08:30–16:00 on weekdays and 09:00–16:00 at weekends.

Machina began roasting its own coffee in May 2017, the same summer it opened a second café at 80 Nicolson Street.³ Robbie Lambie founded Cairngorm in 2013 with roots in the Highlands, and its name comes from the eastern Highland range.¹⁵ Cairngorm's café at 1 Melville Place opens at 07:00 Monday to Saturday and runs until 19:00.

Cult Espresso, in a converted alleyway at 104 Buccleuch Street, serves its own roasts alongside guest coffees.⁶ It has roasted since 2020, by hand in small batches on a 6 kg Giesen away from the café.¹ The café opens 07:30–18:30 every day.

Leith: Customs Wharf to Crighton Place

Williams & Johnson, run by Zack Williams and Todd Johnson, roasted for wholesale first and opened its own café about a year later, beside the Leith waterfront.¹ The Customs Wharf café is all concrete and streamlined furniture, and opens weekdays 08:00–16:00, Saturdays 09:00–17:00 and Sundays 09:00–16:00.⁶

Up Leith Walk, Crighton Place has Tepuy at number 2 and Nótt at number 13. Coffee Tepuy is a family business that Yina Suarez brought from Colombia, selling coffee from land her family has farmed for more than 105 years.⁷ Tepuy opens at 08:00 on weekdays and 09:00 at weekends, and closes at 15:00 every day. Printworks Coffee at 42 Constitution Street pours Monmouth Coffee from London.³

Mr Eion roasts and serves at 44 East Trinity Road, open Tuesday to Friday 08:00–15:00 and Saturday 10:00–15:00.

Single origins on Spittal Street and Brougham Place

The Source at 4 Spittal Street is a tiny bar built around single-origin coffees from around the world.⁶ The Broughton Spurtle calls it one of the city's very best coffee stops, and notes that Origin has taken over the former Brew Lab site on South College Street, next to Old College.² Origin opens 08:00–17:00 daily.

Beatnik at 2 Brougham Place in Tollcross rotates its roasters and pairs them with pastries; it is laptop-free.⁶ Lowdown at 40 George Street is reached down a flight of stairs from the street and has an open espresso bar and a pastry case.⁵ It opens at 07:30 on weekdays and 08:30 at weekends.

What a coffee costs in Edinburgh

A July 2026 study by Contact Coffee Co averaged five drinks (latte, cappuccino, americano, mocha and flat white) from the highest-rated cafés on Deliveroo. Edinburgh came 32nd of the UK cities studied, at £4.34 a cup, against £4.80 in London and £3.85 in Bath, the cheapest.⁸

Specialty bars keep daytime hours. Most close between 15:00 and 18:30; Uplands Roast on North Meadow Walk runs to 20:00 daily, and Cairngorm at 1 Melville Place to 19:00.