Repostería Astor Junín

Astor is one of the oldest bakeries in Medellín and a genuine piece of city history. It began in 1930 as a small tea room on Junín, opened by the Swiss pastry chef Enrique Baer and his wife Anny Gippert, with five tables and ten employees. Baer had come to Medellín a few years earlier to work as a pastry technician at a chocolate factory. In the 1950s two more Swiss masters, Emilio Leber and Alfredo Suwald, joined and widened the range, and the business is now run by Andrea Suwald. It celebrated its 95th anniversary in 2025, and the Junín shop remains its most emblematic location, in the same spot for more than half a century.

The signature sweet is the sapito, a frog-shaped biscuit covered in chocolate that has become the brand's emblem. Alongside it are moritos, soft chocolate-filled treats whose name, according to the city's tourism guide, comes from Baer's difficulty pronouncing the Spanish rolled double r when he referred to "morritos de bizcocho". Look out too for truffles and almond alfajores made to a traditional Swiss recipe, chocolate baskets, honey-coated nuts and artisan ice cream. Biscuits, alfajores, honey nuts and chocolate baskets are displayed at the entrance, which makes it easy to put together a box to take away as a gift.

Astor is not only about sweets. The menu also includes savoury dishes such as quiches, lasagne, ravioli, soups and salads, so it works for a light lunch as well as coffee and cake. The company also makes wedding cakes and pastries for events.

The business has a strong social side: according to a 2025 profile, 83 per cent of its staff are single mothers. Today Astor has eight shops around Medellín and the metropolitan area, including outlets in Envigado and at José María Córdova International Airport, with its production facility in El Poblado, but the downtown shop is where it all began.

The Junín shop suits families, budget travellers and anyone exploring the historic centre. Junín is also home to Salón Versalles, half a block from Parque de Bolívar and the Metropolitan Cathedral, so Astor makes a natural coffee stop on a downtown walk.