Specialty coffee Netherlands grows beyond the big cities

Specialty coffee Netherlands was for a long time a phenomenon of three cities. Amsterdam led the way, Rotterdam followed, Utrecht grew alongside. Anyone living outside those three cities who wanted a good pourover was out of luck. That is changing fast.

Small cities, big ambitions

In Eindhoven, Groningen, Breda, Arnhem and Nijmegen, specialty coffee bars are opening in places where that would have been unthinkable five years ago. Not as offshoots of Amsterdam concepts, but as independent businesses run by local owners who wanted to give their city something it did not yet have. The coffee trend 2025 shows clearly in this: the third wave of specialty coffee is now rolling through the middle and north of the Netherlands as well.

That is not a coincidental development. Market research shows that the global specialty coffee market is growing by 7.7 percent annually until 2032. The Netherlands is following that trend, but growth is no longer concentrated in the Randstad alone.

Three factors behind the spread

The first factor is online sales. Specialty coffee roasters no longer need their customers nearby. Someone living in Enschede can order beans from a roaster in Rotterdam, try them at home, and develop a preference for single origin coffee without ever having visited a specialty coffee bar. That knowledge eventually asks for a place to experience it.

The second factor is home brewing. During the pandemic, people learned to brew coffee at home at a level they previously only knew from a bar. A pourover, an AeroPress, a good grinder. Once you do that, you want the same quality outside the home too. That creates demand in places where it did not previously exist.

The third factor is a new generation of entrepreneurs. Young baristas who learned their trade in Amsterdam or Rotterdam are now opening their own place in their hometown. They bring knowledge, networks and quality standards with them and apply them to a local context.

What this means for coffee outside Amsterdam

For consumers it is good news. Specialty coffee Netherlands is no longer reserved for those who live in a big city or are willing to travel to one. Coffee outside Amsterdam is reaching quality levels that just a few years ago were only found in the capital.

For small roasters and online shops selling single origin coffee, it means a growing audience outside the Randstad. The Dutch coffee market is becoming larger, broader and more varied. And that movement is far from finished.