Oxfam Intermon Leon

Why it matters: opened in 1995, this was the first shop in Leon dedicated to fair trade, and three decades on it is still run entirely by volunteers for the NGO Oxfam Intermon, with every purchase funding the organisation’s work alongside producer cooperatives in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Coffee is the star: the house Tierra Madre brand comes from Ugandan cooperatives where the women have won ownership of the land they farm. The rest of the small shop runs to chocolate, biscuits, juices, jam and pate alongside textiles, jewellery, ceramics, soaps and cosmetics, which makes it the rare souvenir stop actually worth the detour. Practical tip: it is on Calle Cervantes in the Barrio Romantico, five minutes from the cathedral, and it shuts for the long Spanish lunch, so come before 14:00 or after 17:30.