Coffee cupping at The Barn in Berlin

 

If you’re passionate about your daily cup of black gold, you’re curious to find out more about specialty coffee varieties or simply looking for a creative way to spend your Sunday noon, try coffee cupping at The Barn.

This Berlin based coffee bar hosts a walk-in coffee cupping every Sunday noon at their roastery/coffee bar in Mitte. On the menu are single origin speciality coffees ; The Barn sources coffee beans from select plantations. A high quality standard and sustainable income for the farmers are key.

Coffee cupping is the process of tasting or sampling small amounts of coffee from about 8 different cups. It doesn’t involve actually drinking the beverage, unless you want to go cray cray (not recommended). The sampling process allows you to train your palate and choose what sort of flavours you prefer. Those who are advanced such as baristas or roasters can try this blindly, although it’s rare for someone to recognize every single sample (unless you won the tasting championship :)
Eight different varieties were placed in the spotlight during the cupping. It’s nearly impossible to have one favourite because every variety has such a beautiful complexity of flavours. My sweet tooth is also apparent in my coffee preference, which doesn’t come as a surprise ;)
The friendly staff members offer guidelines during the cupping and can answer your coffee questions.

These are my 3 favourite coffees :

The Dambi coffee from Ethiopia has flavours of strawberry and bergamot. I did recognize a hint of strawberry, mind you it wasn’t blind tasting as the name of each coffee and its properties was visible.
Another delectable coffee from East-Africa is Oreti (Kenya), with flavours of syrup and raspberry jam. Syrup, sweet tooth, need I say more?
El Mirador from Guatemala is a good exercise for the palate: it has milk chocolate and orange flavours. As a first-time cupper those hints are a bit challenging to find, although this makes the tasting so interesting because you really have to focus on your senses.

+ The coffee beans are roasted at The Barn itself

+ It’s possible to enjoy a good cuppa in the comfort of your own home by purchasing beans in one of the several The Barn cafés or online

The Barn Roastery – Shönhauser Allee 8 – 10119 Berlin (near U-bahn Rosa Luxemburg Platz)