BLOG //
Jori Korhonen //
Helsinki
// 27.2.2017

Berlin Café Guide 2017

Germany isn’t well known for its coffee culture. Still Berlin is becoming the coffee capital of Europe with its huge variety of third wave cafés. The coffee scene is expanding almost every week.

Cafés in Berlin take it seriously, in a good way. I had the pleasure of visiting Berlin and its wonderful selection of coffee shops. Here are my recommendations. I stayed in Mitte so many of my recommendations are from that part of the city. I also put together a list of other interesting cafés that I wasn’t able to visit on my trip. Most of these are in the trendy & hip areas, such as Mitte, Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg.

Cafe Berlin The Barn
The Barn


The Barn

The Barn has two locations in Mitte; Roastery and Café. The Barn is all about quality which you truly taste in your cup. All of their coffees are graded above 86/100 (more information about the grading system here). That tells you something about how seriously they take coffee.
At the Barn Roastery they roast their beans and with good luck you get to follow the roasting process. The baristas are very helpful and share their expertise with good tips. Here I had Burundian filter coffee, made with Hario v60 which charmed me with its fruitiness and pleasing acidity.

Cafe Berlin The Barn
The Barn, Berlin


The Barn Café is more like a regular coffee shop with few tables and a terrace. Due to its small size it can be easily packed, especially during weekends which was the case when I visited it.

The Barn Roastery
Schönhauser Allee 8, 10119 Berlin
The Barn Café
Auguststrasse 58, 10119 Berlin
https://thebarn.de

Bonanza Coffee Heroes

Bonanza Coffee Heroes is located right next to Mauerpark so it’s a brilliant place to grab a takeaway before you head shopping second hand treasures. The place might be quite packed weekends so it might take a while before you get your mug of black gold. But the coffee will be worth the wait. I had a very smooth and fruity Ethiopian espresso which tingled my nerves perfectly.
Also, Bonanza Coffee Heroes is one of the places in Europe where you can see Slayer espresso machine in action. Be sure to have a look at that beautiful beast before you head to the market.

Bonanza Coffee Heroes
Oderberger Straße, 10435 Berlin
http://bonanzacoffee.de/

Father Carpenter Coffee Brewers

Father Carpenter is located in the center of Mitte in the middle of the shopping streets. It is a perfect place to have a break from shopping.

Cafe Berlin Father Carpenter
Father Carpenter Coffee Brewers

They serve coffee roasted by Fjord Coffee, which a joint project with them and Silo Coffee. Had a really pleasing espresso and high recommendations for the food, especially Smashed Avocado was extremely delicious! They have two sides on the café; to go and table service, so every need will be satisfied.

Father Carpenter Coffee Brewers
Münzstraße 21, 10178 Berlin
https://fathercarpenter.com/

Five Elephant

Cafe Berlin Five Elephant
Five Elephant, Berlin

Five Elephant. has opened their second café in Mitte along with their roastery in Kreuzberg. The coffee shop isn’t the biggest in the world and you will only be able to sit on the bar. But does that even matter when the coffee is so tasty and the café itself so beautiful? They also serve good looking pastries and sweet options which are not to be passed.

Five Elephant
Alte Schönhauser Straße 14, 10119 Berlin
http://www.fiveelephant.com/

Ben Rahim

Cafe Berlin Ben Rahim
Ben Rahim, Berlin

Ben Rahim is located inside the Hackesche Höfe, a renovated complex of former workshops. It now houses restaurants, shops and cafés and has eight beautiful courtyards worth visiting.
Ben Rahim is a small and charming café that serves Square Mile’s and Tim Wendelboe’s coffees which by no surprise taste great. They also serve cold brew nitro coffee which is, if you haven’t tried, delicious alternative during hot summer days.
I was recommended to try their Tunisian mint tea. It was described as tasty, charming and probably the best in Berlin – and I agree. They also have a terrace which I can imagine is a cool place to sit and relax during summer months.

Ben Rahim
Sophien Strasse 7, 10178 Berlin
http://benrahim.de/

Kreuzberg & Friedrichshain

Bonanza Coffee Roasters

Cafe Berlin Bonanza
Bonanza Coffee Rosters, Berlin

This is the most beautiful café in the world. Period. Outside an old red-brick industry building, inside a cool and modern café, it has state of the art coffee equipment and yammy coffee. If you aren’t that into coffee (like my travelling companion), try cascara mixed with soda which is sweet and refreshing. The other side of the café is reserved for laptops and people working and the other for those who just want to sit down and enjoy their coffee.

Bonanza Coffee Roasters
Adalbertstraße 70, 10999 Berlin
http://bonanzacoffee.de/

These cafés I didn’t visit myself but they certainly are worth checking out.

Cafe Berlin Bonanza
Bonanza Coffee Roasters, Berlin


Silo Coffee
Gabriel-Max-Straße 4, 10245 Berlin
http://www.silo-coffee.com/

The Visit Coffee Roastery
Adalbertstraße 9, 10999 Berlin
https://www.visit-coffee.com/

Populus Coffee
Maybachufer 20, 12045 Berlin
http://populuscoffee.de/

Café 9
Eisenbahnstraße 43, 10997 Berlin
https://www.facebook.com/Kaffee9Berlin/

Companion Coffee
Oranienstraße 24, 10997 Berlin
http://www.companioncoffee.com/

Distrik Coffee
Bergstraße 68, 10115 Berlin
http://distriktcoffee.de/

No fire no glory
Rykestraße 45, 10405 Berlin
http://gloryberlin.blogspot.fi/