Ineffable Coffee was founded in Seville in 2017 by Jose, Omar and Alejandro, three Q graders who had worked in specialty coffee in Cape Town, Istanbul and the UK. Back in Spain in 2013, they found Seville short of good coffee, and four years later they launched their own roastery. The name stands for the feeling of tasting specialty coffee for the first time, too big to put into words. In 2024 Ineffable won the competition for Spain’s best specialty coffee roaster.

The coffee is roasted at a roastery in Dos Hermanas, south of the city, which takes visits by appointment only. Its roasting is built on data, technology and consistency, without losing the craft, and Ineffable supplies dozens of cafés, mostly in Spain and also elsewhere in Europe, along with training for baristas and home brewers.

The range is seasonal and traceable, with the producer, altitude, harvest and SCA score on every coffee. Colombia carries the most experimental lots: Jhonatan Gasca’s Gesha and Pink Bourbon from Zarza Coffee in Bruselas, Huila, a thermal-shock Wush Wush from Deiro García’s Finca Lord Voldemort, and El Paseo, a Caturra from Huver Castillo in Nariño given six days of anaerobic fermentation with must. Sasaba, a washing station in Guji, sends both a washed and a natural, and Finca El Salvador, a Ruffatti family farm since 1934, supplies a 120-hour anaerobic Red Bourbon through direct trade. Everyday coffees from Nicaragua, Brazil, Guatemala and Uganda are roasted for espresso, and the decafs are a Typica Mossto Decaf from Huila and a Swiss Water coffee from Chiapas.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Ineffable Coffee