TRENDS The boom of coffee beans

COFFEE TRENDS The boom of beans

The founders of coffee Toro:
With 149 liters per capita coffee is the most consumed beverage in Germany. But the days of cheap filter coffee seem to be over, many are interested in it, with which beans, which roast or what machine they can prepare the best coffee.

The coffee beans that tilts Hans bull in his coffee are green. Only in the machine of the Berlin start-ups they are roasted coffee Toto - revolution for revolution, the beans darken and puff up. Gradually, the smell of freshly roasted coffee spread. The founder Hans Philipp Gaerte bull and sell a new coffee machine for home use, toasting the coffee before it grinds and boiled.

So that, if the trend of the time, many German and more interested in it, what with beans, which roast or what machine they can prepare the best coffee. Where to put a rather Finish solutions like Nespresso capsules and Senseo pads, it seems other users can not be consuming enough.


Favorite drink of the Germans
Coffee is the most popular drink of the Germans. Around 6.4 kilos of green coffee consumed every German on average per year. In a European comparison lies in the upper middle. While the Finns consume with 12.1 kilos per capita almost twice as much, it is in Turkey just half a kilo per person per year. 1953 amounted in Germany only the consumption to about 1.5 pounds per person. Filter coffee is, according to the German Coffee Association in Germany by far the most popular: Away from home consumed about half of the coffee drinkers (52.8 percent), traditional coffee. Both 16 percent of consumers go order coffee specialties such as cappuccino or latte macchiato.

The two founders of coffee Toro want to start with their idea of ​​the most versatile machine in the coffee market. With around 149 liters per capita coffee is the most consumed beverage in Germany - before bottled water. Coffee was even in times of crisis, good business, says Regina Schmidt, an expert on consumer goods at the Munich Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. "Coffee is a luxury item for the Germans, on the one reluctant to dispense. The coffee prices rise, in part because the beans are more expensive on the world market. Nevertheless, the consumption of coffee has not changed. "There is a trend towards more expensive products. For good quality and comfortable handling, people gladly paid more, says Schmidt.

Many young companies try in the business with the beans: The Berlin of Mykona.de sell on its website from small coffee-growing regions such as Sumatra or from Nepal. This varietal coffee costs 36 to 43 euros per kilo. The Passau Black Pirate Coffee Crew or the Munster of Sonntagmorgen.com go with similar concepts at the start.

Even Moritz Waldstein, founder of Coffee Circle suspects, in the coffee shop with his chance. The Berlin founded more than a year together with Robert Rudnick and Martin Elwert an online shop for fair trade organic coffee specialties. "There is a huge movement of people who are tired of capsules because they produce so much waste and this coffee is not very good," said Wallenstein. He and his colleagues go back every year, even after Ethiopia, and selecting the best coffees in the season of their business. It was like with the wine, says Waldstein. "It taste good and not all equal to Bordeaux." The green beans are in containers shipped across the Atlantic, roasted directly in the warehouse district in Hamburg roastery, packed and sold online.

Per kilo sold donate one Euro to the founders of social projects. Whether the money should be used to build a school or a solar system, the customer can select a mouse click even. At Coffee Circle costs about 24 euros a kilo of coffee. Waldstein knows he chooses this price to the mass market. "Not everyone can spend so much money for it," he says. The clientele for his coffee but is still present. "There are people who worry about their CO2 emissions and for a cup of coffee do not want to just press a button."

Expensive labels

Unlike Coffee Circle wants coffee Toro conquer the mass market - they sell each kilo of coffee for 14 euros. Therefore the price to manufacturers such as Dallmayr Prodomo or Tchibo is competitive. "We want the coffee kitchens of authorities and companies, there is a lot of coffee drinking," says Hans bull. The start-up has won the coffee importer Karlheinz Rieser as shareholders. Rieser has worked for 20 years as a buyer for Tchibo. He buys the coffee from farms in Costa Rica, India, Brazil and Ethiopia. The direct contact with the coffee farmers to ensure that the quality is right. On a seal of approval such as Fairtrade or organic, the founders have waived: Because that one has to pay a fee to the organization. In the Fairtrade eleven cents for a pound of coffee would. "It was too expensive for us," says Bull, "we will rather give the money directly to the coffee farmers."

Your machine Toro-founders can be developed in South Korea. They roast the beans between seven and ten minutes at 180 degrees. The consumer can choose how dark the beans are roasted and how fine the coffee should be ground. Who wants to have such a machine at home, I pay 150 euros, the repairs are included.

Although manufacturers such as Kraft Foods, Tchibo and Aldi sell for years most coffee admit there is room for innovative ideas, says Regina Schmidt, Roland Berger. With small volumes could be written with high quality a good deal.

Coffee Circle shows in videos on its website, such as the coffee is ground in Ethiopia or the tricks of the infusion through a filter still tastes better. Coffee Toro wants to pass the knowledge on coffee tastings. "The Germans are still more concerned about how many layers will have their toilet paper, instead of about what coffee they drink," said Stier. The change he wants. He himself does not come without two liters of coffee a day to make ends meet.