Chapter 1 New Coffee Hot Spot in Berlin
Exclusive interview - First Siphon Bar in Germany!
Nora Smahelová opened in december 2011 Chapter 1 in Berlin. It's the first coffeebar in Germany where you can get a coffee prepared on the Bonmac Hikari Siphon Bar. Specialtycoffee's Maarten van der Jagt made an exclusive interview with Nora.
Why did you want to start your own espressobar?
By now I´ve been working with coffee since 13 years, mostly as a part-time barista in different shops in Berlin. In 2002 I did win the German Barista Championship and had the chance to compete at the WBC in Oslo. This was my first real contact to the amazing world of specialty coffee. Since that time I started to be more involved into judging at national barista competitions and tried to get as much information as possible about specialty coffee... Last year I finished my studies at the University ofArts and I decided to open an own coffeeplace together with my business partner Björn. We worked together in a coffeeshop and developed very fast the same idea for quality. Since last year I´m WBC certified judge 2011/2012. So I traveled a lot through the world. So the dream to create an own coffeeplace became stronger and stronger. On the other hand it became always more difficult to find a place to work where the quality matched with our visions. Another point was to have the possibility to design our own space, for me a perfect fusion of my two professions: product design and coffee. It`s comparable with a big portfolio, a platform where you present your skills.
Location is very important for a successful espressobar. What was on your shortlist of points which had to be forfilled?
Hmm, that`s a very difficult question, because you never know how it will be in real when you`re planning something. For us it was very important to find a place with a certain atmosphere given by the space, our claim was to find a place where you feel immediately good. A space which reflects the spirit of old Berlin. In addition this place must be in a nice neighborhood, where the residents have a certain appreciation of quality. I always dreamt of a place with old tiles on the floor and now we have it...
How is coffee culture in Berlin?
Fortunately growing and growing, we are very happy to have the biggest coffee community of Germany, we have the most coffeeshops which serve specialty coffee, that`s the advantage of living in a major city. Nevertheless we still have a lot of space and need for new coffeeplaces... and we still have to work very hard to inform people about specialty coffee, because over here a very dark espresso taste is still very dominant in combination with huge amounts of milk.
The coffee culture in Germany is milk based. How do you cope with this, if you want to promote or put the focus on coffee itself?
It took quite a long time to find the right compromise for this problem. As a result we serve only small drinks, the biggest drink is a Caffe Latte, as standard based on a double espresso and in total smaller than a 10oz cup. We only use milk of the highest quality, which is produced by local farmers.
Most of our customers get really snoopy when they see our brew bar, which is purposely in the centre of our counter, so they try our filter coffees. As a result we already have a lot of regulars who completely changed their coffee habits and now only drink filter coffee.
You also work with the siphon bar. How do customers react?
Our customers love the siphon bar. Most of them don`t know it, so they are impressed by the visual play. Along with it the majority is not used to get so many detail information about the way of preparation, the coffee used and the result in the cup. We have one price for all brewed coffees, although the ceremony of preparing a siphon is more spectacular than other brewing methods, it has the same status. The customers have a lower inhibition level to order it.
Which kind of coffee do you use for the siphon?
We serve all the filter coffees which in our view are showcased in taste by the preparation in a siphon. We don`t have a fixed coffee for the siphon, because we want to take our customers on a taste expedition of discovery, so they have the possibility to experience more about how coffee can taste and of course also to get an idea of the whole coffee chain, from the plant to the cup.
Do you want to share a recommendation when using the siphon bar with other baristas?
We have the luck to use the Bonmac Hikari Siphon Bar in our shop. Before I only worked with single Siphon units and with slower heat sources. The Bonmac is very easy, fast and uncomplicated in use. You can work parallel very well, because the machine has integrated timers and a very good temperature control. In addition we have a battery off six siphons and that makes the workflow also easier. I think a lot of people still think that it takes a lot of time to prepare a siphon, I have to say, that it`s faster than to brew a hario v60, woodneck or a chemex, aeropress depends on the technique you apply....
You have chosen to work on the Linea from La Marzocco. Why?
I know La Marzocco machines since the beginning of my work as a barista. Beside the usability of the La Marzocco machines I like the philosophy of the company, the corporate identity and in addition, members of the La Marzocco family are good friends of mine. As a product designer I prefer simple and ageless design, clear shapes, solid materials and durability of products. In our view this machine is a perfect combination of classical design and modern technology and it fits visually perfect in the interior of our bar.
With so much passion for top coffee, how do share this with customers who are not familiar with specialty coffee. Do you offer them free cuppings?
Our coffeeplace is still in work, we have a huge basement, where we plan public events about coffee: cuppings, lectures about coffee (history, harvest, processing, roasting, brewing) and of course trainings for professional as well as home baristas. At the moment we serve free samples of filter coffee several times a day...
Beside coffee, do you offer sandwiches and cakes?
We concentrate on coffee and have only a small offer of food in our store. We sell self made cookies baked by my mother and Franzbrötchen, a specialty from Hamburg, made by hand by a traditional pastry shop named Café Schmidt based in Hamburg Altona. In the future we plan to sell two kinds of sandwiches with ham and cheese. The bread we plan to bake the bread by ourself, the ham and cheese we take from the relatives from Björn, they have an organic farm near Osnabrück.
For us it`s really important to know where the products come from and they have to fulfill our claim of quality,
What can I find in the hoppers of your grinders this week?
We like alternation in our daily routine and in addition we want to show the diversity of coffee to our customers that means we change the coffees quite often. We always have coffee on our shelf and sometimes in the hopper roasted by a small roaster in Hamburg named Quijote Rösterei. Their concept is based on transparency, you can see all the contracts of the whole chain from seed to cup online. Beside we want to support other small roasteries in Germany and always have a guest coffee. Let me think of this week: for the filter coffees we have a brazil bob-o-link and sidamo suko quto grade 2 roasted by Quijote Kaffee and sidama dara kebado and Kenya nyeri district gatina lot roasted by jb kaffee.
On the hopper for espresso we had four different espressos all roasted by Quijote Kaffee. Today e.g. it`s a blend of Brazil Bob-o-link, Guatemala Atitlán and Ethiopia Gayo Amaro.
General info
Chapter One Coffee Berlin
Mittenwalder Straße 30
10961 Berlin
Filter: Siphon, Hario V60, Aeropress, Chemex, Woodneck
Espresso: La Marzocco Linea, K30 Vario
Coffee: Quijote Kaffee and guest coffees
When: opening times for now ( open since 18th of December, so we have to check out the habits of the surroundings J )
Monday: closed
Tuesday-Saturday: 9.00-18.00
Sunday/Holiday: 11.00-18.00
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