An editorial publication
about Maltese coffee.
Caffeinated reviews every coffee establishment on the island, profiles the people behind the bar, and equips home baristas with expert-level knowledge — without selling either to the other.
Why this exists.
Malta has a coffee scene. It is small, fast-improving, and honestly served by maybe a dozen people who care enough to do it properly. We started Caffeinated because nobody else was writing about it the way we wanted to read about it.
The premise is straightforward: pick a place, visit at least three times, drink what's on the menu, talk to the barista, write what's true. Score it on a five-point scale broken into espresso, milk, filter, room, and value. Re-review when something changes. Don't cover anything we wouldn't send a friend a screenshot of.
The publication is built on three audiences — the curious coffee drinker who suspects there's something better, the committed home barista who already owns a grinder, and the industry professionals who quietly read everything we write. The first audience is the biggest. The third is the most useful.
Five things we hold to.
- 01
Three visits.
No establishment is reviewed on a single shot. Each is visited at least three times across at least six weeks. We pay for what we drink. Sponsored stops are flagged on every page they appear on.
- 02
No pay-for-play.
We have no paid editorial. No advertorial. No "founder picks" with a brand attached. Affiliate links — where they exist — are disclosed inline and never influence whether something gets covered or how.
- 03
Score floor 4.5 for the Hall of Fame.
The annual Caffeinated 25 only inducts establishments that hold an Arabica-tier average across the calendar year. Honey-tier venues are reviewed but never inducted.
- 04
Corrections in public.
If we get something wrong — a fact, a date, a relationship we didn't know about — the correction sits on the original review. We don't quietly edit and move on.
- 05
Editorial independence.
The editor decides what's covered. Establishments cannot pay to be featured, removed, or rescored. The list of relationships that could compromise this judgement is short, and it's published.
The editor.
Caffeinated is founded and edited by Calvin Briffa, an obsessive home barista and ex-software person. The publication is run from Malta. The Crew is a small list of contributors who help with re-reviews and the occasional long-form profile; their relationships to any establishment they cover are disclosed at the foot of every piece.
We're not a corporation. We're not VC-backed. There's no agency behind the scenes. The editorial decisions are Calvin's and the mistakes are his too.
Two useful things you can do.
Subscribe to the newsletter.
One email a week. The latest reviews, a barista story, a home espresso tip. No spam, no sponsors masquerading as editorial.
SubscribeTell us about a place.
If you know a venue we haven’t reviewed, a barista we should profile, or a correction we need to make — write to us.
Get in touch