GAME CHANGER

elbgold is Hamburg's pioneering specialty coffee roastery, founded in 2004 by Annika Taschinski and Thomas Kliefoth — a couple whose love for coffee literally started with a birthday espresso maker. Today they run six beautifully designed cafés across Hamburg, a dedicated roastery in the Schanzenviertel processing around 110 tonnes of green coffee annually on a Probat G45, and a separate import business called PLOT Coffee. Direct trade is at the core of everything they do — most of their farmer partnerships span over a decade, and pricing is based on quality rather than volatile market rates. Their in-house patisserie, run by award-winning pastry chefs, rounds out an experience that has helped define Hamburg's third-wave coffee culture from day one.