Medici Roasting belongs to Michael and Alison, who met at Metro Espresso Bar on the Drag, married in 2002 and opened their first café, as Caffé Medici, in West Lynn in September 2006. The name honours the Medici family of Florence as patrons of arts and conversation, and the company motto is theirs too: festina lente, make haste slowly. By its own account Medici is Austin’s original specialty coffee shop, and the founders of Houndstooth and Fleet both passed through it before opening their own cafés.

The roasting happens at Springdale General, a multi-use development of studios and small businesses in East Austin. The building houses a spacious café with floor-to-ceiling windows and heavy wood detailing, the roastery whose aromatics drift into the room, and a training lab that every Medici barista goes through. Flights of the single origins and local roasts can be requested there. The range is split into house blends such as Clarksville, Notte and the Breakfast Blend and single origins such as Los Naranjos, with K-Cups and subscriptions beside them.

West Lynn, in Clarksville, is a converted house that regulars call the neighbourhood’s living room. Guadalupe, open since 2008 in the former Metro space across from the University of Texas, fills with students and faculty. South Lamar opened in June 2015 in the Zilker neighbourhood with a pet-friendly patio. The Domain café is the newest, in the city’s retail district a short drive from Q2 Stadium, and there is a Medici at Gate 7 of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, operated by the hospitality company Delaware North.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Medici Roasting