Our coffee guide of Germanys Hauptstadt, from the Kiez-Café to the franchises — Liquid Thoughts

In some places around the world, if you mention Berlin, that is like a magical codeword to signal specialty coffee. Somehow Berlin has turned into a place of pilgrimage for every up-and-coming barista and working in one of the renowned franchises is as much a needed station on their CV as working in a Paris fine dining restaurant is for chefs.

We do have the hindsight of knowing Berlin for a while. Of course not as much as the locals who still remember a divided city and Potsdamer Platz empty, but we have been traveling there for 20 years and dozens of times. We have seen smaller coffee shops close, the rise of the "Kiez-Cafe" and then of course the ever-present big names such as Barn, Bonanza and Five Elephant making their mark on the city.

Much like in my introductory article for bars, where the interest was woken in Berlin, a lot of my early coffee journey happened in that city. Some international mainstream franchises like Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Coffee Fellows I tried when I traveled there in early years. Going to Adlon I found my love for tonka and that almond and vanilla-like flavor, as it is an essential part of their own variation of a latte.

Portier Coffee

Let us start a little more 'out there', with a charming coffee place, that is worth the visit both for the architecture surrounding it, as well as the quality. Portier in Schöneberg is in a beautiful brick parking garage, as its name suggests.

The ‘cafe’ is actually just a window in what would have been the booth for this garage. The Flat White I had was amazingly dense and full of aroma, even though I went there after a more than successful tasting session at Rum Depot.

Copyright (left): European Coffee Trip

Garcon de Café

Train stations are usually lacking good specialty coffee places, but with this café Berlin Central Station has a comfortable alternative to Starbucks or others. Apparently the company ‘Garcon de Cafe’ had one of those common mobile coffee catering businesses and expanded to a stationary lobby café.

Located in the lobby of an office complex, it adds a bit of big city atmosphere, but it also has the added advantage of clean bathrooms and an environment that is good to work from. The coffee, while nothing extraordinary, is above average for the kind of beans (which are not named anywhere on thr website) and equipment, same as the baked goods.

Copyright: The Barn (Rosenthaler Pl.)

Copyright: The Barn (Mitte)

The Barn

The first 'big name' and one that is known far beyond Berlin's suburbs, Germany, or even Europe. One of the most well known third wave roasters, it is still most present in Berlin and massively added to the city's hype for specialized coffee in the past decade or two. Their beans can be found everywhere, and I have seen them everywhere, even in small town Czech cafés and Baltic coast seaside coffee bike stalls.

Personally, I and we as the LT team have visited three different locations and the quality can vary quite a bit depending on the day and the team there. As with any of the big franchises some roasts are mass market products, easy and approachable or trendy, while on a quiet day, with a well-trained barista, The Barn delivers a good Espresso, Flat White or Cold Brew. What made me the most curious was the fact that The Barn took over Café Kranzler, a legendary West Berlin café overlooking KuDamm with a lot of mid-century charm. I have been there a few years ago and while the coffee was just alright, it was the fact that a piece of coffee culture in Berlin and an architectural landmark was being preserved, that I really appreciated. The building still exists, the café is closed, though. The Barn states on its website that they moved to the ground floor (which, if you are looking at the pictures, has a very different aesthetic), but I have not visited the Kranzler location since then.

Copyright (left): Ignant

Bonanza

Another huge franchise with multiple locations so that you could find one near every Kiez. Sometimes if you ask the 'locals' who go there if they even knew multiple existed they are surprised to hear about them. They assume it was just one. Wide variety of roasts, from classic to funky, with an expected solid quality, that drops a bit when it is very busy at the respective location.

Aesthetically these cafes bet on light wood and metal, again, a good inoffensive choice. It is also one of those roasters you will find all around Europe in specialty coffee places, a signal to the community that they know which names are having the biggest recognition.

Copyright: European Coffee Trip

AKKURAT Café

One of my personal favorite cafés at the moment in Berlin, both in terms of design and simply the quality of espresso that is served. Maybe not a super convenient location within the city, but as the famous guide with the stars says, "worth the detour". This feels like a high-concept store for books more than a café, with very clean lines and polished materials.

It is supported by a creative company, giving it the connection to its aesthetic. The Instagram feels almost a bit misleading with sandwiches and spritzes on display, and less a focus on coffee. When I was there it was very dialed in for a great espresso macchiato , dark, yet not too Italian.

The Greens

A café that both Robin and I visited during one of our latest trips and one that I did not know about, even though it is mentioned in most guides. A somewhat authentic blend of a post-industrial space (that also hosts events) and plants (hence the name) offering not just coffee but great breakfast. Its location right next to the Museumsinsel makes it perfect for a visit before or after.

Robin had a surprisingly intense and deep flat white, one of his favourites in Berlin in fact and a more than solid homemade passion fruit cheesecake.

Father Carpenter

The Barn, Bonanza, now Father Carpenter. If you feel that slightly rustic design, ‘crafty’ names and citywide expansion are a repeating theme in Berlin, you would be correct. At Father Carpenter there is usually a little more focus on food and not just coffee, but the coffee is pretty good.

We have only been once to their café near Hakesche Höfe, where I had a worthwhile Flat White. At that size they of course have a large online shop which, just as the others, delivers on a wholesale level too and has a range of beans for every occasion and method of preparation without ever being too extra. But then again, you don't get to be a household name by not pleasing everyone equally.

Copyright: Five Elephant

Five Elephant

Another Berlin roaster that can be found all over Europe which had an, in my opinion, good approach to quality beans and serving them well. I really liked their little coffee counter (which is closed now) on "The Sixth Floor", the food court at the famous KaDeWe department store.

I have not actually been to any of their cafés (even though I had the beans in other cafés around the world). Those are still open and I recommend a visit. I really enjoyed the focus on coffee as a gourmet experience that was present at KaDeWe, something that, to my knowledge, is missing a bit at Barn or Bonanza.

Copyright (right): ThisIsPaper

ACID

A chain of bakery/specialty coffee shops that appeared on my personal map only recently. The offer looked a little too hipster-ish for my taste, and visiting confirmed at least the vibe. A lot of MacBooks and yoga mats. Apparently from Madrid (not Barcelona, or we would have been able to compare) the interiors are also designed by Madrid bases studios. The clean pictures don't really reflect the actual atmosphere well in my opinion. If you need more proof of the ‘messianic’ nature of Berlin for coffee nerds: The founders chose Berlin for their first foreign expansion because they discovered specialty coffee there.

The baked buns are nice, if overpriced, and the coffee matches that. According to another website the beans are by Hamburg roaster Tornqvist. But honestly another place where it does not really matter whether you are getting Matcha or Coffee or whether it is in Berlin, Madrid, or Brooklyn. What I did like though was the graffiti on the outside of the location we have been to.

Unkompress

A new little addition that certainly tries to be bold and covers a lot of interests. Part listening bar, part café, part wine & mezcal bar. The location is a little more quiet, but for some that might be exactly what they are looking for. For our bar nerds, there are fascinating Tequilas and Mezcals to sip (even with your coffee if you are into that, I would recommend it).

The only thing is that the size of the space itself does not make the audio feel like you'd want to stay there for a while. I had a pretty good Cold Brew, enhanced by the environment. Robin ordered a mezcal, and after some consultations with the team, the choice fell on the Don Mateo Cupreata. An interesting type of agave we never had before. It excelled on the palate with dried pineapple, sage, eukalyptus, mineral notes, some gentian and ginger. This is really the big plus here apart from the unusual menu choices: the owner is a nerd concerning his diverse interests and it shows. With the very small space you can get a type of direct and personal service (if you want, that is) you won't find in 90% of "normal" cafés.

MEIER'S - Vietnamese Specialty Coffee

During our last Berlin visit, Robin also checked out this little café just one street away from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the Scheunenviertel. A location that's home to many trendy fashion boutiques, concept stores and so on, with this also many young cafés settled here just one street corner away from each other, The Barn, the much discussed LAP Coffee and Bonanza are just some examples.

The unique selling point about MEIER'S, as you can see in their business claim above, is that it's all about Vietnamese heritage. Meaning the beans stem only from there, you get special mixed/spiced drinks with or without coffee influenced by their culture as well as some food items. Especially during events (like cultural festivals in the Southeast Asian country) you get unique cakes, sweet as well as savoury ones, just for that day. The iced cold brew Robin had with the standard blend of Vietnamese beans was good, not overly complex but perfect for summer and reminded him of typical Brazilian blends, meaning chocolate notes and some slight nuttiness, with just a slightest vegetal hint.

That's that for our German capital, although it is as much a world of its own by now and can not compare to other cities in Germany at all. Overall, the hype did not help. Too many roasters with too much ambition makes it really difficult to find spots that take the time to serve a coffee with attention to detail and even if you know a barista that is good, he or she only works 5 days a month and 4 out of those it is really busy at the café (which probably belongs to one of the big franchises) and then it doesn't really matter anyway. Now add to that the slow death of the traditional coffee houses, which do exist, but they have not caught up with any of the developments of the Third Wave (I am thinking of Berliner Kaffeerösterei for example or the Adlon Café).

Kranzler to me was such a promising concept, but who knows if that will ever return. Add to that the carefully choreographed outrage and controversy over LAP Coffee and the imitations that will cause. Of course there will always be some Kiez where an amazing roaster or a small, owner-lead café will have its charming regulars and do a great job, but I wouldn't like that to be the impression that people leave the city with.

/jf