Berlin is not Germany. At least that’s what they kept telling me, and being the first city I ever visited in the country, I couldn’t really form my own opinion on that matter, but it was certainly a big transition from the warm beaches and beautiful hills of Barcelona. It’s somewhat common knowledge that Berlin is one of Europe’s biggest hubs for specialty coffee and home to some of the industry’s most renowned coffee roasters and baristas, so I made the decision to make it my home and look into the local bean scene for myself.

I didn’t know the language nor more than at most two people in the city, but that changed quickly. I started to make some really great contacts and friends who showed me the ins and outs of Berlin, and how to survive the imminent winter.

BONANZA COFFEE [JACK HARE]

As I mentioned, there are numerous amazing local cafes and roasters, but one of my first and most profound connections was with the folks at Bonanza Coffee Roasters. I met coffee manager Jack at one of their Saturday afternoon community cuppings in the Prenzlauerberg location, aka Bonanza Coffee Heroes. I shared with him about The Nomad Barista, and that I wanted to learn more about what Bonanza was all about, so we decided to make a date of it down at their roastery.

Back in 2006, two fine folks by the names of Kiduk and Yumi decided that doing the whole coffee thing would be a good idea. Originally they were roasting everything in Coffee Heroes, but by 2016, they were able to finally open this gigantic yet elegant new space in Kreuzberg for roasting and serving the finest of their coffees. They also now sell wholesale roasts all over the world.

In Coffee Heroes, they’re pulling espressos on a custom three-group Slayer machine, and serving at least two filter roasts with the Hipster Brewer from Sweden. In the roastery, they have a two-group Linea PB for espresso-based milk drinks, and the coveted one-group Slayer for really special black espresso shots [no milk allowed]. Again with the Hipster, they also have three different black filter coffees on batch brew. I found it interesting and unique that they don’t have any manual brew methods in either location – Jack explained they’ve found the Hipster to do such a great job with filter coffee already that in terms of workflow, it made the most sense.

Just because they only use the Hipster in the shop doesn’t mean they’re completely against hand brew methods, however. Every week, they host community cuppings, and one Saturday a month, they also host a brewing workshop so you can learn to make better coffees at home, both completely free! I had the opportunity to take part in a very in-depth V60 session led by one of their rockstar baristas with a small group of passionate coffee nerds. I definitely learned a few things and met some other great contacts.

Workshops and cuppings as a coffee company are such a great way to engage your local community and give back, so if you’re interested in doing it yourself but not exactly sure how to start, shoot me an email and let’s get it going!

Huge thanks again to Jack for taking the time to show me around. Watch out for Bonanza over the next little while, you might just start seeing them in your local café.

ARABIC COFFEE [QAF COFFEE @ THE BARN]

Speaking of community cuppings, there’s another café in town, of which you likely already know the name, that also hosts weekly cuppings every Sunday. This particular Sunday, we had a very special guest join us from Al Khubar, Saudi Arabia – a roaster named Abdul from Qaf Coffee, and he brought with him a nice assortment of Saudi Arabian and Central American coffees.

The regular crew came together that afternoon, guided by Barn Barista Bence Bagdi, to cup some really beautiful and unique roasts as well as taste a traditional Arabic Coffee recipe with a modern twist. Abdul brewed us all a Chemex with his own coffee, and then proceeded to mix in careful portions of Saffron, ground cloves, ground ginger, and cardamom. Accompanied by sesame-seasoned honey dates, I was literally transported to the Middle East for a brief minute and knew that it would be on my list of places to visit for an upcoming research trip.

See you soon, Abdul!

Speaking of The Barn, it was at this very café where I met one of my most influential and well-connected coffee friends in Berlin, fellow coffee writer, trainer, Berlin transplant, and rockstar barista competitor straight from Ireland, Susie Kealy… or rather she met me.

NOMADIC BREW [SUSIE KEALY]

She’s not a stalker, I swear, in fact I love when strangers approach me out of the blue, especially in a cafe and over mutual passions. I won’t say I wasn’t a bit flattered that she had recognized me from the article I had written for a recent issue of Standart Mag, but I was even more psyched to realize she had in fact written the Berlin Coffee Guide in the very same issue. Instant homies.

One cold and dismal German Sunday a few weeks later, the two of us decided to take the obligatory day trip out to Teufelsberg in Grunewald Forest to see the very Berlinesque art facility. Yes, of course, we took a Chemex to capture the making of a nomadic brew inside the biodesic dome, and yes it tasted as you might expect… delicious.