Our new coffee programme
© Ramón Gómez
After 10 years, we’re shaking up our coffee concept.
Typically, changes like this tend to go in one direction, namely a descent into utter caffeinated nerdiness. There simply is no end to the love of detail you can bring to coffee. Are you Team Kalita or V60? 93 or 96 degrees? Should you grab your refractometer and check out the TDS just to be on the safe side? Coffee is both an art and a science, and if you want to really get into it, well – there’s no limit.
But here’s the thing: while all that precision is rewarding in and for itself, it’s not essential for a damn good cup of coffee. It already makes a huge difference if you at least stop deliberately sabotaging the process – by using, say, pre-ground beans that have been sitting in a drawer for months if not years or leaving the whole thing to a fully automatic machine. Unfortunately, all of that is the norm in German homes, offices, and worse yet, restaurants. And frankly, it’s a nightmare.
At least within our small sphere of influence, we’re taking a stand. Since we opened our doors back in 2015, we’ve been trying to educate people on small things you can do to improve your coffee. In this, we focussed mainly on preparation, giving concrete tips on what you might do at home. At the restaurant, we swear by cold brew in the summer and use the Ibrik method the rest of the year. And yes, we still stand by those methods – they’re true to the bean, bringing out its true essence.
But what we’re changing is the way we source our coffee. Which is to say: we’re going to make it more Nobelhart. For obvious reasons, the beans we use aren’t exactly hyper-local – though we’ve always bought them from the Berlin-based roastery Five Elephant. But now? We’re ready to inject the values we associate with local sourcing even more strongly into our coffee concept.
The inspiration came from our chef Magdalena Hrovat a few weeks back. Magdalena hails from a family of coffee roasters and has over a decade of experience as a barista. Her suggestion: Why don’t we treat our coffee the same way we treat our produce, dairy, meat, and everything else we care about? Why not build individual, sustainable, and meaningful relationships with coffee producers? And why not pay attention to seasonality, which is a huge focus in our kitchen, and extend that to coffee as well? After all, coffee, like Brandenburg apples and cabbage, has its own seasons – yet that often plays little to no part in consumer awareness.
Inspired by Magdalena’s brilliant idea, we’ve made some bold moves:
Together with Kris Schackman from Five Elephant, we’ve handpicked four farms to work with long-term. We’ll be roasting their beans in small batches right here in Berlin. Each farm gets its own season. Patrick Murray’s farm Finca Majahual from El Salvador and Peter Mbature of the Kamavindi Estate in Kenya will be roasted and brewed in summer and autumn, whereas in winter and spring we will shift to Colombia with coffee from Rafael Aya and his farm La Virginia and our Brazilian partners at Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza. It’s a whole new way of thinking about coffee. Either way, we’ve gone all in, and have committed to sticking with the same producers over the next few years. This means you’ll now have the opportunity to track the evolution of each farm’s coffee over time, exploring the subtle shifts between vintages, not unlike what you’re used to from wine.
We’d love it if more of our colleagues were to follow suit. Because here’s the truth: coffee is a product with its own personality, its own attitude. It reveals itself in new ways depending on the season, the conditions, the people and craft behind it. If we can help break away from the usual anonymity of coffee production, all the better. Either way, we’re looking forward to getting to know the people behind the beans!
Our new coffee programme
© Ramón Gómez
Typically, changes like this tend to go in one direction, namely a descent into utter caffeinated nerdiness. There simply is no end to the love of detail you can bring to coffee. Are you Team Kalita or V60? 93 or 96 degrees? Should you grab your refractometer and check out the TDS just to be on the safe side? Coffee is both an art and a science, and if you want to really get into it, well – there’s no limit.
But here’s the thing: while all that precision is rewarding in and for itself, it’s not essential for a damn good cup of coffee. It already makes a huge difference if you at least stop deliberately sabotaging the process – by using, say, pre-ground beans that have been sitting in a drawer for months if not years or leaving the whole thing to a fully automatic machine. Unfortunately, all of that is the norm in German homes, offices, and worse yet, restaurants. And frankly, it’s a nightmare.
At least within our small sphere of influence, we’re taking a stand. Since we opened our doors back in 2015, we’ve been trying to educate people on small things you can do to improve your coffee. In this, we focussed mainly on preparation, giving concrete tips on what you might do at home. At the restaurant, we swear by cold brew in the summer and use the Ibrik method the rest of the year. And yes, we still stand by those methods – they’re true to the bean, bringing out its true essence.
But what we’re changing is the way we source our coffee. Which is to say: we’re going to make it more Nobelhart. For obvious reasons, the beans we use aren’t exactly hyper-local – though we’ve always bought them from the Berlin-based roastery Five Elephant. But now? We’re ready to inject the values we associate with local sourcing even more strongly into our coffee concept.
The inspiration came from our chef Magdalena Hrovat a few weeks back. Magdalena hails from a family of coffee roasters and has over a decade of experience as a barista. Her suggestion: Why don’t we treat our coffee the same way we treat our produce, dairy, meat, and everything else we care about? Why not build individual, sustainable, and meaningful relationships with coffee producers? And why not pay attention to seasonality, which is a huge focus in our kitchen, and extend that to coffee as well? After all, coffee, like Brandenburg apples and cabbage, has its own seasons – yet that often plays little to no part in consumer awareness.
Inspired by Magdalena’s brilliant idea, we’ve made some bold moves:
Together with Kris Schackman from Five Elephant, we’ve handpicked four farms to work with long-term. We’ll be roasting their beans in small batches right here in Berlin. Each farm gets its own season. Patrick Murray’s farm Finca Majahual from El Salvador and Peter Mbature of the Kamavindi Estate in Kenya will be roasted and brewed in summer and autumn, whereas in winter and spring we will shift to Colombia with coffee from Rafael Aya and his farm La Virginia and our Brazilian partners at Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza. It’s a whole new way of thinking about coffee. Either way, we’ve gone all in, and have committed to sticking with the same producers over the next few years. This means you’ll now have the opportunity to track the evolution of each farm’s coffee over time, exploring the subtle shifts between vintages, not unlike what you’re used to from wine.
We’d love it if more of our colleagues were to follow suit. Because here’s the truth: coffee is a product with its own personality, its own attitude. It reveals itself in new ways depending on the season, the conditions, the people and craft behind it. If we can help break away from the usual anonymity of coffee production, all the better. Either way, we’re looking forward to getting to know the people behind the beans!