Café Altura La Vega

Café Altura started as a wooden cart and an espresso machine in the parking area of La Vega Central, and this Dávila Baeza counter is where the story began. Founder Segundo Tello and his wife Salmas Hidalgo turned a university project into one of Santiago's best loved specialty roasters, and shoppers still stop here before or after a market run for an intense espresso, a cappuccino or a filter coffee.

The beans are roasted by Café Altura itself, with Peruvian lots from Cusco and Villa Rica at the heart of the range alongside coffees from Guatemala, Colombia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, and bags of whole beans are easy to take home from the counter or the online shop.