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Updated on Dec 03, 2025
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Beyond Fair Trade: Inside Coffee Circle’s Approach to Specialty Coffee
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Among Berlin’s constellation of third-wave roasters, Coffee Circle occupies unique territory. Walk into their Wedding roastery and the first thing that hits you is the smell – chocolate, stone fruit, sometimes a hint of caramel from beans tumbling in their drum roasters. It all started with three management consultants who, to be fair, had no business being in coffee. Martin Elwert, Moritz Waldstein-Wartenberg, and Robert Rudnick went to Ethiopia in 2009 to do charity work. They came back with a wild idea about fixing the entire coffee supply chain. Somehow, fifteen years later, they’ve actually pulled off something remarkable.
Their model flips conventional coffee trading on its head. Farmers get paid 88% above world market prices – not charity, but real income for exceptional beans. Every kilo sold kicks €1 into community projects. And you can trace your coffee back to the exact cooperative. We’re talking about real places with real names. like Koke Cooperative in Ethiopia or Rungeto Cooperative in Kenia.
Head roaster Hannes Fendrich runs the daily operations with the kind of obsessive attention you want from someone handling your morning coffee. Ethiopian heirlooms from 2,200 meters elevation, Colombian beans from Sierra Nevada, micro-lots from Congo where farmers are literally fleeing conflict zones – each gets its own specific temperature curve, its own timing. Hannes genuinely loves what he does, and you can taste it.
They’ve got five cafés scattered across Berlin now, plus an online operation that ships to most of Europe. But what’s interesting is how they built slowly – online first, then physical spaces. The numbers tell a great story: €2.5 million invested through coffee sales alone, another €2 million from funding and partnerships with organizations like Welthungerhilfe. Over one million people have benefited from these projects through clean water systems, schools, or processing equipment.
The Accidental Coffee Revolution
Martin Elwert never set out to become a coffee guy. As a Roland Berger consultant dealing with automotive restructuring, coffee was just fuel, nothing more. Then in 2009, his colleague Moritz invited him along to Ethiopia to help set up a vocational school for orphaned children. Being there, seeing firsthand, that after decades of charity work not much had fundamentally changed, made him think. Secondly they observed that Ethiopia’s most important export, the whole coffee value chain, was stuck in colonial-era structures that hadn’t budged in decades.
The final straw was their first proper cupping session. A friend brought the usual suspects, Dallmayr, Tchibo, Lavazza, and set them against some high-quality Ethiopian samples. “When you taste them side by side, properly brewed,” Elwert remembers, “the difference is so fundamentally significant we couldn’t understand why this quality didn’t exist in Germany.” That cupping session connected all the dots. Here was world-class coffee from farmers earning poverty wages, trapped in a system nobody had dared to reimagine. The friends saw an opening. Not for another charity, but for a business that could prove dignity comes from earning fair prices for exceptional products. From there it didn’t take them long to import their first container of Ethiopian beans.
Sourcing and Roasting
Coffee Circle’s sourcing model operates through strict criteria that go beyond conventional certifications. Every package displays complete farm-to-cooperative traceability. Team members visit producer partners annually. Payment structures guarantee premiums averaging 88% above world market prices, higher than Fairtrade minimums. Direct Trade is a principle, not an afterthought.
Their roasting philosophy challenges specialty coffee orthodoxy. While the industry often celebrates exclusivity, light roasts, single origins, precise brewing parameters, Coffee Circle deliberately embraces accessibility. They’ve discovered that inclusivity serves both commercial and social missions. “We realized that specialty roasters buying tiny volumes are essentially cherry-picking,” Elwert observes. “A cooperative produces five containers, and specialty buyers take maybe 10% of the highest grades. That’s not impact, that’s insignificant volume.”
Their B-Corporation certification since 2016 (scoring 106.8 versus 50.9 industry median) provides third-party validation of their social and environmental commitments. The 2022 SCA Sustainability Award for their Ethiopian biodiversity project represents peer recognition at specialty coffee’s highest level.
Bean Picks: From Forest Gardens to Your Cup
Coffee Circle’s range demonstrates how thoughtful sourcing and roasting of coffee can serve diverse taste preferences while maintaining strong ethical standards.
Why Coffee Circle Resonates Today
Coffee’s trading at historic highs. Climate change is wrecking traditional growing regions. Supply chains are a mess. In this context, Coffee Circle offers more than quality coffee: they’re showing what resilient, equitable trade actually looks like.
Their transparency goes beyond the usual marketing nonsense. Each package shows the specific cooperative, elevation, processing method, harvest date. QR codes link to actual project reports showing exactly where that €1 per kilo goes. Buy Limu? You’re funding water infrastructure in Southwest Ethiopia. Choose Lake Kivu? You’re supporting farmers literally facing conflict in Eastern Congo right now.
But quality remains the foundation. As Elwert puts it: “Paying high prices because someone is poor, that’s not motivating for farmers. But paying premiums for exceptional quality? That creates dignity.” This philosophy runs through everything. Daily roasting for peak freshness. Climate-neutral shipping through DHL GoGreen. Educational resources so you get the best out of your brew.
If you’re in Berlin, you can try-taste their coffee in one of their five cafés around the city. The Wedding flagship connects directly to their roastery. Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz serves Mitte’s creative community. The Kreuzberg kiosk on Bergmannstraße captures neighborhood coffee culture at its most casual.
Online operations remain primary, with free shipping over €42 reaching 30 European countries. Their subscription program offers genuine value: 10% discount from the second delivery, complete flexibility, no minimum commitment. Pause for vacation, adjust frequency from biweekly to quarterly, modify selections anytime.
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