Coffee Circle

Overview

Coffee Circle was founded in Berlin in 2010 by Munich management consultants Martin Elwert, Robert Rudnick and Moritz Waldstein-Wartenberg after a 2009 trip to Addis Ababa to help open a school for orphaned girls turned into a fully different idea about how Ethiopian coffee should be paid for. The company opened its own Wedding roastery in 2016, became B Corp Certified the same year, opened its first Berlin cafe in 2019, and now operates five Berlin cafes while paying producers premiums averaging 88% above world-market price and donating €1 per kilo to community projects in origin.

Known for

• Founded 2010 in Berlin by ex-management consultants Martin Elwert, Robert Rudnick and Moritz Waldstein-Wartenberg after a 2009 charity trip to Addis Ababa
• Opened its own Wedding roastery 2016; first Berlin cafe 2019; now five Berlin cafes
• B Corp Certified since 2016
• Pays producers approximately 88% above world-market price — higher than Fairtrade minimums — and donates €1 per kilo of coffee sold to origin community projects
• More than €5 million invested across 19 origin projects since 2010, including water/sanitation, schools and an African Breeders Hub with World Coffee Research

Why it matters

Direct trade in German specialty was a Berlin third-wave talking point until Coffee Circle wired it into the unit economics — the €1-per-kilo origin investment is integrated into the price tag, not a charity add-on, and the company has spent fifteen years showing it scales. The model has now funded Welthungerhilfe partnerships, a solar-powered medical centre in Ethiopia and the WCR Annual African Breeders Hub in Rwanda, all on coffee-bag margin.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

Hannes Fendrich

color sorting

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roaster machine

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filter equipment

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cupping frequency

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roastery location

Berlin-Wedding (since 2016)

espresso equipment

Kees van der Westen Slim Jim 2-group (Wedding cafe), with Mazzer and Mahlkönig grinders

annual volume tonnes

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Café

Berlin-Wedding flagship roastery cafe

Recognitions

• B Corp Certified (2016)
• €5M+ invested across 19 origin community projects (since 2010)

Sources

• https://www.coffeecircle.com/en/e/about-us
• https://www.thewaytocoffee.com/roaster-stories/coffee-circle/
• https://perfectdailygrind.com/2025/02/coffee-direct-trade-more-than-good-business/
• https://sprudge.com/in-berlin-coffee-circle-goes-from-online-to-brick-mortar-156001.html
• http://www.thefrankstory.com/coffee-circle.html