Our roasters
19grams
A Berlin specialty coffee roaster with roots in Friedrichshain and more than two decades of curiosity about coffee.
- Based in
- Berlin, Germany
- Founded
- 2002
- Selection
- 5 coffees at Terroir
The roastery
Meet 19grams
19grams began in Berlin in 2002 under the name Tres Cabezas. The founders, including Sascha Spittel, were surfers who had discovered specialty coffee while travelling in Costa Rica and wanted to bring it home. They opened a roastery and café in Friedrichshain at a time when specialty coffee was still largely unknown in Germany.
In 2018 the company took the name 19grams, after the amount of coffee used for a double espresso. Today 19grams operates several cafés in Berlin, a café with roastery and training centre at Alexanderplatz, as well as an online shop and wholesale business. It is led by Sascha together with partner Gerrit Peters.
Visit official website ↗Selected by Terroir
Coffees from 19grams
01
Their Approach to Coffee
Direct trade has been central to 19grams from the start. The company first imported coffee from Costa Rican farms it knew personally, and Sascha once owned a coffee farm there. One of those early relationships is with Don Martin Ureña of the La Chumeca farm in Tarrazú: 19grams bought the first sack of coffee he ever sold, and coffee from Costa Rica remains part of the range today.
Since then, 19grams has added producers in Colombia, Panama, Brazil, Peru, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Indonesia and China. The roasting principle is to bring out each coffee’s natural flavour, with an emphasis on fullness, clarity and sweetness.
02
What to Expect in the Cup
19grams offers a broad range. Its filter roasts are light and clear, while its espressos lean toward balance and body. 19grams also believes specialty coffee should work well in fully automatic machines, not only in hand brewers, and designs part of its range with that in mind. The selection includes easy entry points for people new to specialty coffee as well as single-farm lots for more experienced drinkers.
03
Why 19grams Is at TERROIR
We chose 19grams for its history and for the continuity of its relationships. It has been roasting specialty coffee in Berlin since 2002, and some of the Costa Rican farms it worked with in its early years are still part of its range today. We value that long-term view of direct trade, and it gives our collection a German roaster with more than two decades of experience.
04
A Closer Look: Two Decades of Costa Rica
Costa Rica was the first country 19grams traded with directly, and it remains closely connected to the company. Sascha has supported reforestation in Costa Rica since the Tres Cabezas years, and the Roast for the Roar espresso, from smallholder farms in Tarrazú, donates part of each sale to Humedales Lancaster, an organisation working to protect Costa Rica’s nature.
Profile
At a glance
- Based in
- Berlin, Germany
- Founded
- 2002 (as Tres Cabezas)
- Roasting in
- Berlin
- Website
- 19grams.coffee ↗