The Barn: How one of Europe’s most decorated leading specialty roasters thinks about cold coffee
Cold Coffee Success Stories is a series that focuses on pioneering companies in the cold coffee space and their unique journeys. Today, we feature The Barn, a three-time award-winning specialty roaster and one of the leading coffee industry voices.
Since 2010, The Barn, a specialty coffee roaster founded by Ralf Rüller, has been invigorating, transforming, and pushing the boundaries of European coffee culture. If there is something afoot in the specialty coffee world, chances are The Barn is close to the action.
Europeans are a traditional bunch – their coffee preferences are a strong indication of just that. Italians never drink cappuccinos after 11 am; the French pair espresso with a morning croissant, and the Spanish serve a cortado in a small glass. That’s just what’s done.
However, if there is one European city known for its avant-garde, alternative, against-the-grain approach to pomp and circumstance, it’s Berlin, the home of The Barn. Berliners are unique and independent trendsetters in whichever passion they choose to pursue – for the Barn, that’s specialty coffee.
We spoke to Ralf, the founder and CEO of The Barn, to learn more about the company’s origins and how it approaches cold coffee and cold brew. The company always keeps a keen eye on the most exciting corners of the coffee world.
From a single Berlin cafè to a continental superstar
“I started in 2010 with a single café in Berlin, aiming to deliver what specialty coffee stands for in its intended sense: serving the best possible coffee and sharing my knowledge about it to grow awareness and appreciation for outstanding terroir,” remembers Ralf.
“I started roasting because there was no local roaster matching my needs in terms of bean quality, sourcing, or roast consistency. It quickly established a need to work at the farm level in a way that would allow coffee growers to elevate their products and build trusted relationships with us.
“Along the way, I had some press because I believe that the only way to create real sustainability in coffee is to focus on quality. That does not mean sweetened coffee milkshakes or cold milk in hand-brewed coffee.”
At The Barn’s inception, coffee’s Third Wave – a commitment to craft and origin – was gaining increasing traction. This was in direct contrast to the foci of the previous two waves, caffeination and brand, respectively.
In Germany, prior to the explosion of specialty coffee in the last fifteen years or so, the coffee space was dominated by larger national and multinational commercial coffee roasters – think Tchibo, Dallmayr, and Melitta.
Ralf and specialty coffee professionals like him struck out to bring a greater appreciation and attention for and to the finest coffees in the world and their inherent nuances and characteristics.
“I also believe that the only way to create a distinct concept is to offer less and to stay truthful to the presentation of coffee in the best possible way instead of focusing on café or bag design or analysing consumer trends to remain fashionable. If I had taken this approach, I would not be able to say that I am a specialist.
“Fast forward to now, we have eleven cafés in Berlin and international locations in Dubai, South Korea, and Spain. We recently opened in Munich and plan to open in London in 2025.
“The roastery produces single origin coffees only, and we do not buy anything that scores less than 86 on the SCA scale. Our trusted café B2B partners are mostly international and spread over 40+ countries. On the B2C side, we’ve seen that our global subscription service is the key product.”
The Barn’s commitment to unwavering quality standards has placed the roastery among the foremost specialty coffee companies. Its savvy approach to both craft and business has seen the company scale domestically and internationally.
How does a specialty coffee roaster approach cold coffee?
For most of the duration of the Third Wave, specialty coffee was hot. Very few companies were experimenting with cold options, particularly in the earlier years. Consumers at this point had a long tradition of hot coffee consumption, save for a few warmer climate markets.
However, in the early 2010s, several specialty coffee companies began to experiment with cold brew and ready-to-drink options. Stumptown, a Portland-based specialty trailblazer in its own right, leveraged a cultural appreciation of cold, convenient beverages to great effect.
We asked Ralf how The Barn approaches this growing trend across the pond, where consumers are less familiar with cold coffee.
“We have been brewing cold coffee in different ways over the years, starting with both cold drip and cold brew,” he says.
“The cold brew we served on the bar, but we also bottled it by hand in our café. In the summer months, we now mainly serve nitro cold brew in our cafés, with cold brew that we make ourselves on-site. The cold brew is in a constant rotation of single origin coffees that we feature.”
Here, Ralf touches on a key growth factor behind cold brew’s development, especially in the last decade: its compatibility with both ready-to-drink packaging formats and specialty coffee, two other key growth areas in the coffee world.
As modern consumers seek both higher quality and more varied coffee options, cold brew is well positioned to satisfy both demands, all while helping coffee terroir shine through, thanks to the unique brewing style.
“Of course, specialty coffee and cold coffee work together,” Ralf says. We keep rotating terroir and keep our cold brews fresh so that we can present a variety of different flavours to our customers on a regular basis.”
What does the future look like for cold coffee
Cold brew is on a steep upward trajectory. Since 2019, the number of people choosing it has increased by 79%, and forecasts predict a sustained 22.6% year-on-year growth to at least 2032, if not beyond.
Some markets, like the USA and Japan, have a healthy history of cold coffee consumption and are closer to maturity. In contrast, others – Germany included – come from a lower base but are growing nonetheless. As younger generations represent more spending power, their preference for innovative, alternative, and cold coffee options will push trends beyond season barriers and traditional habits.
“Iced coffee and cold coffee drinks are not as popular in Germany as they are in other regions, for example, Greece or South Korea,” says Ralf.
“We have no empirical data to give a clear indication of the German market for now; we can only judge based on our customers in our twelve cafés. We really see good demand from May to September, and our summers are mild, only really peaking above 35 degrees for three or four weeks per year.”
“In those periods, iced milk coffee drinks, like iced flat whites and lattes, are the most popular, but we love nitro cold brew, which is also a popular choice.”
We asked Ralf, given the seasonal consumption norms for now, whether the Barn is planning to enter the RTD cold brew space in the future as demand increases.
“We are considering putting cold brew into cans and are looking for the best option for next season. For the moment, we brought back the cold brew bottle that we filled in-house this past summer.”
On the point of innovation and the future of cold brew and RTD, Ralf adds a final point.
“My personal favourite way of enjoying cold brew is mixed with homemade lemonade, and we also created a drink called the Kafi Luz, a traditional Swiss drink that combines a plum liqueur with filter coffee. We’ve bottled this in partnership with a Swiss plum distillery combined with our cold brew. It was delicious!”
While European coffee culture may still be dictated by tradition and seasonal barriers, there are clear signs of innovation and changing preferences. If the Barn is experimenting with cold brew and cold coffee beverages, we’d all be wise to take note.
After all, Ralf and the team have been clearing the path forward for the last fifteen years.
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The Barn
