Let’s take a quick break from the Finland posts — the next one will be on running in Helsinki — and spend some time in Bremen, shall we?

In August, on one of the hottest days of the year, I took a tour of the Lloyd Caffee Roastery in Bremen.  But before I share that with you, let me tell you a little bit about my own personal history with coffee.

Coffee + me

Despite being a native Seattle-ite, I didn’t really start drinking coffee until university, and even then I wasn’t very sophisticated about it — downing mug after mug of drip coffee from the college cafeteria in a huge plastic mug.  Then I moved to Uganda, where there wasn’t a coffee culture at all — except among the expats — and it was too hot to be drinking lots of coffee anyway.  So I mostly made do with Nescafe coffee crystals. They tasted terrible, but like most things in life,  you get used to it. A year later, I easily transitioned back to life in Latte Land,  passionately supporting my local independent coffee shops, drinking mochas and lattes every single day.  These days I prefer a cappuccino or espresso. In any case, you’d think after all these years, I would know more about beans, roasting, and coffee preparation than I actually do.  So receiving a coffee roastery tour as a birthday gift couldn’t have been more perfect!

The history of coffee in Bremen

Lloyd Caffee is one of the oldest coffee roasteries in Bremen (since 1930) and is tucked away among the warehouses and old factories in the old Holzhafen.  The tour, or rather, “coffee seminar” starts with a long history of coffee roasting in Bremen and Germany, and the history of the company itself.  If you’re a Bremen history fan and love the terrible jokes that German tour guides have a propensity to tell, you’ll be in your element.  Quite honestly, I was more absorbed in taking photographs of all the coffee memorabilia than in paying attention to this part of the seminar.

Coffee and coffee roasting

My favorite part of the visit, however, was learning about how coffee is grown, harvested, and roasted.  We also were able to watch the process of green coffee beans being roasted right before our eyes in one of the Lloyd Caffee roasting machines.  The longer the beans are roasted, the darker the beans become, and the milder the coffee will be.  Espresso beans, for example, are roasted the longest, which surprisingly makes espresso much easier to drink for those with sensitive stomachs!  And did you know that a shot of espresso has less caffeine than a typical cup of filter coffee?

Coffee taste testing

We were also given the opportunity to put our new coffee knowledge to the test with some taste testing.  Delicious!  The tasting and watching the roasting definitely made up for the less interesting beginning.

Wrapping up

If you’re a coffee buff and/or love photography, and don’t mind a good-natured (but sometimes long-winded) lecture sprinkled with bad jokes (auf deutsch) — a tour of the Lloyd Caffee roastery might just be your thing!  Aside from having fun playing with my camera the whole time, the coffee was delish and I was fascinated watching the roasting process.  All in all, a great afternoon! The coffee seminar lasts anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes, costs 10 Euros, and includes lots of coffee and biscuits.  More details are on the Lloyd Caffe website.

Are you a connoisseur of coffee?  What your favorite drink?  Have you been to a roastery before?

P.S. Check out this sentimental, photographic tribute by my sister to Bauhaus Coffee in Seattle: So Long Bauhaus