Berlin · Germany

Five Elephant

Five Elephant is one of 5 Berlin roasters tracked on day9, in Berlin.

Since 2010 · Kris Schackman, Sophie Schackman

Overview

Five Elephant was founded in summer 2010 in Kreuzberg, Berlin by Kris Schackman, an American ex-film-industry coffee enthusiast first inspired by Scott Rao's Amherst, Massachusetts roastery in 1995, and Sophie Weigensamer (now Schackman), an Austrian-born baker who was already supplying cheesecakes to Berlin cafes when the two met in fall 2008. They built the original Reichenberger Straße shop themselves with a saw and an electric screwdriver; Kris's only formal coffee training was three days one-on-one in Idaho with roaster manufacturer Stephan Diedrich before the IR-5 was shipped to Berlin.

Known for

Approximately 100 tonnes of coffee roasted per year as of 2021
First client of Norwegian green-importer Nordic Approach
Signature Philadelphia cheesecake, baked by co-founder Sophie Schackman, that became as identified with the brand as the coffee
Diedrich IR-5 roaster, with founder Kris Schackman trained directly by Stephan Diedrich in Idaho
HQ Roastery on Glogauer Straße sits roughly 100 metres from the original Reichenberger cafe
Four Berlin locations as of 2021, including a Mitte branch on Alte Schönhauser Straße (December 2016)

Why it matters

Five Elephant is one of the German-language third-wave specialty roasters — alongside The Barn and Bonanza in Berlin — that established Berlin as a serious European specialty coffee city in the early 2010s. The combination of a couple-led, hands-built cafe with an in-house bakery setting the bar for the cake, and a roasting program rigorous enough to land them as Nordic Approach's first customer, gave the brand a distinctive identity that bridged the cafe and the roastery in a way few European specialty operations have matched.

Production

head roaster: Kris Schackman
roaster machine: Diedrich IR-5
roastery location: Glogauer Straße 5, Kreuzberg, Berlin
espresso equipment: 3-group La Marzocco Strada with custom wooden accents; Mazzer Robur-E grinders
annual volume tonnes: 100

Café

Reichenberger Straße 101, 10999 Berlin (Kreuzberg flagship); Alte Schönhauser Straße (Mitte, since December 2016); plus two additional Berlin locations

Sources

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