Only 2km from the busy city center you’ll find a quiet residential area called Nordend. It feels miles away from the hustle and bustle of Frankfurt’s main shopping drag, the Zeil, not only because of the lack of people but also because of the lack of coffee chains. Nordend is home to the city’s only specialty coffee roastery, a business that we know quite well (we featured Hoppenworth & Ploch’s Akmeni, Tanzania in our ‘1 year anniversary’ June ’15 tasting box) and one that we’ve been dying to visit.
Matthias Hoppenworth and Julian Ploch layed the groundwork for what Hoppenworth & Ploch is today back in 2008 after graduating from university. The old study mates shared a great passion for coffee and played with the idea of opening a good coffee bar on campus but they didn’t know where. During their last year as students a new college building was being finished and in its huge foyer there was a small ‘kitchen corner’ that no one really wanted to do anything with, except Julian and Matthias. Shortly after their first espresso bar was born.
Seven years later and they’re now operating a huge outlet in that same college building offering 80 seats inside and 100 seats outside and as Julian said to me during my visit: “That’s where we earn our daily bread. The roastery is more of a playground and an office space for us.”
Indeed the roastery feels relaxed and more akin to someone’s living room than a busy coffee HQ. Julian and his colleague Viktor do the roasting here once a week on an antique 12kg Probat and have recently started dabling with directly purchasing coffee from a co-operative in Tanzania. Their Akmeni was probably one of the best coffees we’ve ever had in one of our tasting boxes.
But, Julian also said that Frankfurt is not an easy place to conquer. Despite the international character of the city, locals are still too used to drinking milky coffees with breakfast, popping into one of the big chains that dot the city’s center and are generally taking their time to come to appreciate specialty coffee. “We’re glad to see more and more younger people ordering filter coffees for instance,” Julian said. “But the largest majority still go for espresso-based drinks.”
Public cuppings, late opening hours and a liquor license offer different opportunities for people to pop in and get acquainted with their coffees and have a relaxed after work drink. Julian even revealed that they’re currently working on their own brand of coffee infused Gin. “We recently took part in this open air event where we served the first batches of our coffee Gin and it was a massive hit and I don’t even drink that much booze haha,” Julian laughed. Let’s wish them all the best in getting Frankfurters to learn to love great coffee.
