The Barn

Ralf Rüller opened The Barn as a Mitte café in 2010 and built it, with famously uncompromising standards, into one of Europe's largest independent specialty roasters. In the early days that purism was literal café policy — no sugar, and milk kept away from the delicate single origins — which made The Barn a lightning rod in the whole third-wave argument; today it reads as prescience. The operation now spans multiple Berlin cafés, a large roastery and wholesale partners across the continent, but the buying stays single-origin and traceable, with long-running producer relationships in Ethiopia, Kenya and Central America. Roasts are light, clean and structured for filter. The catalogue is deep, seasonal and constantly refreshed — the coffees below are the currently live slice of it.