
The last two months have been pretty crazy for me. I somehow managed to travel through half of Europe (at least that’s what it feels like), still manage to get some stuff done, spend quality time with family and foster my love for coffee.
When working for a client in central Berlin, I regularly found myself going back to a coffee shop that just recently opened (and which I just came across googling for places to buy a Hario V60 dripper in Berlin). The Barn is shaping up to be my new favorite coffee shop in Berlin. Of course they’re selling good sandwiches, cake and some local groceries too, but they’re really ramping up their coffee department.
They started out simple, with an espresso machine and a pretty visible collection of Hario V60 coffee drippers. Even then you could tell that coffee is an important part for them, and you could watch the owner picking up all the tricks and coffee making trade secrets from the rather young baristas. Pretty noteworthy is the fact that one of the baristas is from Vancouver, the other from New Zealand. Also, it turns out that the guy from Vancouver worked at the Elysian Room, together with Nathan, Claire’s boyfriend, the guy who pushed me over the edge into coffee geekism. Small world, eh? (see you how I snug in a Canadianism?). Needless to say the coffee is pretty great. Flat white, single drip, you name it, they’ll make it, and with all the care you’d expect from a good coffee shop.
Anyways, over the last month they’ve extended their coffee area, added more equipment to make single drip, filtered coffee, AeroPress and even woodneck coffee, an accessory that’s next on my list to buy. They’re also importing coffees from roasters around the world on a season basis. Right now they’re serving single origin Coffee Collective coffee, in September they served Stumptown beans. All the caffeine buzz in the world couldn’t keep from trying one of their light Kenya AA roasts. I have yet to try their house blend though, but turns out I’m still maxed out with beans from the coffee for prints swap.
As a nice addition, they’re also selling Hario coffee brewing equipment, high quality stuff from Japan that’s pretty hard to come by in Europe unfortunately. Speaking of equipment, I finally caved and bought a Hario V60 coffee dripper and a Hario Skerton hand mill. Great stuff, single drip really is a revelation on how easy it is to make great coffee.