Elbgold Coffee Roasters | Los Cedros | Peru
On a weekend away in Hamburg, I managed to drag Laura around a number of coffee shops and roasteries. Although she does also love coffee, her excitement doesn’t quite rival mine as we enter a kooky third wave cafe.
Elbgold was actually the last one we visited, on Sunday afternoon right before we set off for the airport. Located right next to the railway station it is set in a huge space, half cafe, half roastery. The atmosphere was great, very similar to the whole area of Hamburg that it lived, effortlessly cool.
All of the staff were super knowledgeable about coffee, as expected in Germany. With a rich coffee culture that has now transcended into younger generations, it’s easy to see why Germany is amongst the countries leading the way in speciality coffee.
Elbgold has a wonderful ethos about how every time anybody enters the shop it starts with a handshake. While halfway around the world the coffee farmers whom they have built special relationships with were also greeted with the same handshake. The handshake is a metaphor for how the pioneering speciality coffee shops and roasteries are sharing the stories of the producers with the end consumer and bringing the two closer together.
The menu had all sorts of enticing coffees to try but the Peruvian Los Cedros really caught as an unusual set of flavours for a South American coffee.
The coffee starts with a sweet strawberry fragrance and evolved into a flavour of marzipan and orange zest. It has a light body with a sweet beginning that grows in acidity as the brew cools. It has a sweet aftertaste that sticks around for a while.
Really enjoyable coffee with a refreshingly light body and zesty aftertaste. Worth the trip to Hamburg!