elbgold
Black gold ritual from Hamburg

In Hamburg, cafés go out of their way to make you feel welcome. Candles, rugs and pillows, delicious coffee and pastries, everything is done to make you feel at home. From 2014, the demand for coffee began to grow. Today, Hamburg is experiencing its third coffee wave and the coffee scene is getting bigger and bigger. I had the chance to interview one of the best examples of a success story in Hamburg: elbgold. This specialty coffee roastery is the pioneer of this third wave of coffee. Founded in 2004, elbgold has 6 cafés all over Hamburg.

The Third Wave of Coffee is a movement to produce high quality coffee and to consider coffee as an artisanal food, like wine, rather than a commodity. As a result, the purpose of coffee shops is completely different than it was ten years ago. They are places that convey caring and ethical values and differentiate themselves through the atmosphere they create inside the shop.

It’s more than just coffee…

Friederike, the brand’s social media manager, welcomed me to elbgold’s headquarters, the café in Sternschanze where the roastery is located. She is responsible for creating content and telling the stories behind elbgold. Because elbgold has a lot of stories to tell.

You won’t notice it when you have a coffee in one of their shops, but there are more than 80 people behind the elbgold brand. In fact, elbgold is not only about sourcing, roasting and brewing coffee. It is also about being involved in the process, working with the producers, maintaining its BtoB relationships, designing all the stores and cafes, improving and building new projects for the brand.

A dazzling success

Let’s start with the story of the owners and what they went through to install the current elbgold brand in the minds of Hamburgers. Annika and Thomas met in the early 90s. They both had a very strong connection to coffee, as the coffee culture was very present in their respective families.

The couple traveled a lot together around the world. Gradually, they started roasting their own beans. The idea of opening a coffee roastery in Hamburg gradually emerged. In the mid-90s, they began to seriously consider the project.

In 2004, our coffee lovers opened their first elbgold in Winterhude. This place, still open and active, had a small roastery. The goal was to offer very good coffee to the people of Hamburg. In fact, the most popular coffee in Germany is the filter coffee from the supermarket, which has some quality problems.

In 2010, thanks to the success of their first coffee, elbgold’s roasting volume increased considerably. Annika and Thomas had to move the roastery to a bigger place. They also invested in a new roaster, the “ProBat G45”, which can roast up to 45 kg per batch. This location is now the HQ of elbgold. The customers appreciate the roasting while drinking a tasty coffee.

After that everything went fast. At the end of 2014, elbgold opened a small shop in Eppendorf. In the winter of 2017, they opened a coffee bar in a prestigious shopping mall, the Alsterhaus, and a coffee lab in the city center.

In 2018, they opened a new coffee shop in Winterhude and are currently planning to rebuild their bakery.

Sourcing the best quality

The best decision Thomas and Annika have ever made, and the one that has taken the elbgold business to the next level, is direct trade. This means that they buy the coffee directly from the farmers. There are billions of possibilities you can offer your customers when it comes to coffee: the country of origin, the variety of coffee, the processing method and the way it is roasted.

For the first two points, Annika and Thomas don’t hesitate to travel directly to the countries of origin with some members of their team. They visit the farms, make contact with the farmers, look at their coffee cherries, check the production processes. elbgold also participates in the international jury of coffee competitions, helping to find the best quality coffee.

As far as the processing method is concerned, Annika and Thomas can also have a look at the farmer’s method during their visit, because the processing method is very important. It will affect how the coffee will taste later. It influences its character, its body, its aromas… If you are curious, you can read about the three processes here.

As for the roasting, elbgold does it itself in the coffee shop in Sternschanze with its head roaster named Basti. A good roast also influences the taste of the coffee. It should not be roasted too short or too long, too hot or too cold.

Building an ethical trade

Once they have chosen their new producer, Annika and Thomas build a really strong and friendly relationship with them. They visit the coffee fields and communicate with them very often, valuing them and their history.

In fact, for our owners, what makes a good coffee is the people behind it. The whole production process and the management of the workers should be fair, sustainable, social and ethical. This is how they are able to offer a brilliant quality of coffee to their loyal customers.

Annika and Thomas currently offer a selection of more than 10 countries of origin, including direct trade from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, India, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Brazil. In fact, you can see the whole range at the Sternschanze roastery. A row of containers with the name on them shows the range of coffees. You can even pick one and take a bag of fresh beans home with you!

A new country will hopefully join the family soon: Peru. Annika and Thomas were impressed by a farm there. Now that they have found it, they have to think about the process and organization to welcome this new coffee into their home.

More than business relationships: Friendships

This transparency also applies to local partners and suppliers. Annika and Thomas support local producers, from bread and jam to cheese and milk. The goal is to valorize the know-how of the region and its tasty ingredients.

When you visit elbgold, you will taste cheese from Bavaria, jam and meat from Hamburg, and milk from the Reitbrook dairy. Speaking of the dairy, the story behind it reflects the loving relationship that Annika and Thomas have maintained with their partners over the years.

A few words about the coffee lab

Before I finished my elbgold journey, I wanted to visit the Coffee Lab, because the name made me curious.

The Coffee Lab is a place to meet and talk about coffee, but also to test new things. Since the focus is on the coffee, the design of the store is very pure, clean and minimalist to highlight the coffee. Only the equipment is an eye-catcher.

The purpose of this cafe is different from the others. In the cafes, the coffee is really present, with the roaster and the containers in Sternschanze, for example, but it is more about having a social moment while tasting a very good coffee.

In the Coffee Lab, it is all about the coffee. As a result, cuppings are organized here every week. I invite you to do it at least once in your life to understand what coffee really is.

Endless success

The elbgold success story is not over yet. The plans for the future are promising and focus on “behind the scenes”. Those hidden activities that bring even more quality to the customer’s coffee experience.

Among the ambition to improve the production processes and to create new direct trades, elbgold is focusing on two big projects:

First, a bakery is being built in Sternschanze, so that elbgold can offer even more homemade pastries in its cafés.

Then the BtoB relations have to be improved. Although elbgold coffee is sold all over Germany, especially in northern Germany, to cafés, restaurants, agencies and hotels.

elbgold is the perfect example of my vision of a company. This company helps local producers and coffee farmers to grow. elbgold helps them to face the big industries like the mastodon Starbucks. If you have not seen it, I encourage you to watch this arte documentary that shows the not so clean practices of Starbucks.

This is why we need to support a company like elbgold to fight against these wrong and immoral values.

Then, the BtoB relationships need to be improved. Even though the elbgold coffee is sold all over Germany, especially in North Germany, to cafés, restaurants, agencies, and hotels.

elbgold is the perfect illustration of my vision of a business. This company is helping local producers and coffee farmers to grow. elbgold is helping them to face the big industries, such as the mastodon Starbucks. If you did not watch it already, I encourage you to check this arte documentary that demonstrates the not-so-clean practices of Starbucks.

This is why we need to support an enterprise like elbgold, to fight against these wrong and immoral values.