In Hamburg you’ll find good specialty coffee mainly in the Altstadt, the Schanze and Ottensen, usually at roasteries with their own café.Eight cafés with addresses and opening hours, a route through the Altstadt and coffee history since 1677.
The German Coffee Association, large roasters and traders are still based in the Speicherstadt warehouse district today. Cross the Zollkanal from there into Deichstraße and you’ll be standing in front of a small roaster in a shop window. Only a few hundred metres separate the two worlds.
More than half of the coffee Germany imports comes in through the port of Hamburg. The specialty scene, by contrast, is young: the oldest address in this selection dates from 2004. Berlin has more roasteries than Hamburg, by the way, and you can find our guide to specialty coffee in Berlin here.
All eight cafés are named by specialist sources such as European Coffee Trip or by Hamburg Tourismus. According to their own website or a directory, they were open in October 2026. The order follows the districts and is not a ranking, and there are no paid placements. How to recognise a good café is explained in our guide to spotting a good specialty coffee shop.
Altstadt: specialty coffee opposite the Speicherstadt
Roaster in the shop window
Nord Coast Coffee Roastery
Nord Coast is on Deichstraße in the Altstadt, looking out over the canal and across to the Speicherstadt. The café was founded by Paula Mendes and Jörn Gorzolla. In 2016 a hospitality magazine described the roaster standing in the front window and drawing in curious passers-by. Gorzolla is said to have taught himself to roast back then, without temperature control and purely by feel. There are now further cafés in Eimsbüttel and Eppendorf.
- Address
- Deichstraße 9, 20459 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Sun 9am to 5pmaccording to European Coffee Trip, 5 October 2026
Opens early, closes early
Marshall Street
Marshall Street is on Schopenstehl, also in the Altstadt. It is around 700 metres from Nord Coast as the crow flies (our calculation from the coordinates). The directory entry lists its own brand, Marshall Street Coffee, as the roaster, but does not say where the roasting is done. There is a second café in Eimsbüttel. Plan your visit for the morning, as it closes at 4pm.
- Address
- Schopenstehl 30, 20095 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Fri 8am to 4pmSat and Sun 9am to 4pmaccording to European Coffee Trip, 5 October 2026
Neustadt and St. Pauli: two roasteries with their own counter
Roasted in the Neustadt
Public Coffee Roasters
Public opened the café on Wexstraße on 14 April 2014. The company describes itself as a young Hamburg roastery, and its website says ‘Handgeröstet in Hamburg’ (hand-roasted in Hamburg). It says the beans come from selected farms. A second café is on Lappenbergsallee in Eimsbüttel, where it opens at 9.30am at weekends. The bar serves espresso and filter coffee.
- Address
- Wexstraße 28, 20355 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Fri 8.30am to 6pmSat and Sun 10am to 5.30pmaccording to website and European Coffee Trip, 9 October 2026
Second café: Lappenbergsallee 43, Mon to Fri 8.30am to 6pm, Sat and Sun 9.30am to 6pm.
Roastery from the neighbourhood
Playground Coffee
On its website, Playground calls itself a coffee roastery from St. Pauli and sells freshly roasted coffee there. According to Hamburg Tourismus, the founders wanted to turn coffee from a mass product back into a quality product. The café on Detlev-Bremer-Straße is open every day. It says it currently serves takeaway coffee only, and the website gives no end date.
- Address
- Detlev-Bremer-Straße 21, 20359 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Fri 9am to 5pmSat and Sun 10am to 5pmcurrently takeaway onlyaccording to website, October 2026
Schanze and Eimsbüttel: the 2004 original and 100 coffees to choose from
Since 2004
elbgold Rösterei
Elbgold has been around since 2004, which makes it the oldest address in this selection. The flagship is the café in the Schanzenhöfe on Lagerstraße, where hamburg.de says the beans are refined by hand. Elbgold describes its sourcing as direct trade, with fair prices and long partnerships. The company runs five cafés, one of them on Schauenburgerstraße near the town hall. All open at 7.30am on weekdays, just as early as CODOS in Ottensen.
- Address
- Lagerstraße 34c, 20357 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Fri 7.30am to 6pmSat 9am to 6pmSun 10am to 6pmaccording to website and European Coffee Trip, 5 October 2026
City café, Schauenburgerstraße 50: Mon to Fri 7.30am to 6pm, Sat 9.30am to 6pm, closed on Sundays. Further cafés: Mühlenkamp 59, Ottenser Hauptstraße 35, Eppendorfer Baum 26.
Maps: Lagerstraße 34cMaps: Schauenburgerstraße 50Visit website
Over 100 coffees
Studio Gusto
Studio Gusto does not roast itself, but says it stocks more than 100 specialty coffees from 18 roasteries. From Hamburg there are Black Delight and Hermetic, plus roasteries from Berlin, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. A coffee of the week changes regularly. The calendar includes workshops on latte art, filter coffee, sensory skills and coffee from the cezve, the Turkish coffee pot. It is closed on Mondays.
- Address
- Methfesselstraße 62, 20257 Hamburg
- Open
- Tue to Thu 8.30am to 6pmFri 8.30am to 7pmSat 9.30am to 7pmSun 9.30am to 5pmMon closedaccording to European Coffee Trip, 5 October 2026
Ottensen: two roasteries within sight of each other
In the west, CODOS and Black Delight are only a few steps apart. You can buy beans to take home at both, and how to keep them fresh afterwards is explained in How to store coffee beans.
Roastery with a kitchen
CODOS Roastery
Özlem and Cihan Sögüt opened their first CODOS café in the Sternschanze in 2014. A hospitality magazine reported at the time that they had been roasting on their own roaster since early 2021. According to hamburg.de, roasting also takes place at the Roastery on Bahrenfelder Straße. Cakes and pastries come from the same founders’ bakery. Open until 7pm every day, CODOS is the address for the late afternoon.
- Address
- Bahrenfelder Straße 137 to 139, 22765 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Fri 7.30am to 7pmSat and Sun 8.30am to 7pmaccording to European Coffee Trip, 5 October 2026
An idea from New York
Black Delight Kaffeebar
The idea for Black Delight came about in 2006 on a trip to New York. The team roasted its first filter coffee in a cellar on a small 1.5 kilogram roaster. Today the company has its own roasting plant in Altona and develops a separate roast profile for each bean. The coffee bar on Friedensallee is around 230 metres from CODOS as the crow flies (our calculation).
- Address
- Friedensallee 32, 22765 Hamburg
- Open
- Mon to Fri 9am to 5pmSat 10am to 4pmSun closedaccording to European Coffee Trip, 5 October 2026
The map: all eight addresses at a glance
The map with all addresses is loading.
Opening hours and route: start early, mind the closing days
In Hamburg, too, specialty cafés are daytime businesses. Elbgold and CODOS open as early as 7.30am on weekdays, while Marshall Street closes at 4pm. CODOS in Ottensen stays open longest, until 7pm every day. Studio Gusto is closed on Mondays, and Black Delight and elbgold City on Sundays.
| Café | Weekdays | Weekend | Closing day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nord Coast Coffee Roastery | 9am to 5pm | 9am to 5pm | none |
| Marshall Street | 8am to 4pm | 9am to 4pm | none |
| Public Coffee Roasters, Wexstraße | 8.30am to 6pm | 10am to 5.30pm | none |
| Playground Coffee | 9am to 5pm | 10am to 5pm | none |
| elbgold Rösterei, Lagerstraße | 7.30am to 6pm | Sat 9am to 6pm, Sun 10am to 6pm | none |
| elbgold City | 7.30am to 6pm | Sat 9.30am to 6pm | Sunday |
| Studio Gusto | Tue to Thu 8.30am to 6pm, Fri until 7pm | Sat 9.30am to 7pm, Sun 9.30am to 5pm | Monday |
| CODOS Roastery | 7.30am to 7pm | 8.30am to 7pm | none |
| Black Delight Kaffeebar | 9am to 5pm | Sat 10am to 4pm | Sunday |
How to turn the Altstadt into a coffee morning:
- Start at 7.30am on a weekday at elbgold on Schauenburgerstraße, which is closed on Sundays.
- Walk on to Marshall Street on Schopenstehl, open from 8am until 4pm.
- From 9am you can watch the roaster in the window at Nord Coast on Deichstraße.
- On Sundays, swap elbgold City for the flagship on Lagerstraße, which opens at 10am.
- Don’t plan Studio Gusto for a Monday or Black Delight for a Sunday.
Coffee history: from the exchange in 1677 to the roaster in the window
In October 1677 a Hamburg chronicler noted that an Englishman was serving tea and coffee for money near the exchange. A Dutchman and an Armenian soon followed. The early coffee houses were almost all around the exchange, the public weigh house and the town hall, and the city granted licences for them. A report from around 1710, however, claimed that only about one in ten citizens went to coffee houses, compared with almost everyone in Amsterdam.
Hamburg became a global trading hub for coffee at the end of the 19th century. In 1886 the traders founded a joint association, and in 1887 the coffee futures exchange opened on Sandtorkai. In the first 18 months, 24 million jute sacks changed hands there. Bombs destroyed the exchange in the Second World War, but the Speicherstadt remained the centre of the trade.
Today around 700,000 tonnes of coffee pass through the port every year. There is no current official figure for coffee alone, so the volume should be read as an order of magnitude. According to Hamburg Tourismus, more than 50 companies make up the city’s coffee industry.
Green coffee is still traded in the Speicherstadt, and today it is also roasted by small businesses just across the water. With eight addresses in six districts, Hamburg easily fills a coffee day.
Last updated: 25 October 2026. Opening hours from European Coffee Trip (5 October 2026, Public 9 October 2026) and the websites of elbgold, Public, Playground and Studio Gusto. Hours often differ on public holidays, so please check before you visit.
Sources
- Gabrielle Robilliard, Urban History 51(1): Novel, popular, fashionable and partisan: making coffeehouses ‘burgherly’ spaces in early modern Hamburg, online 2022.
- Hamburg Tourismus: Hamburgs Kaffeegeschichte (in German), undated, accessed 25 October 2026.
- about-drinks: Die Kaffeewelt zu Gast in Hamburg (50 Jahre Deutscher Kaffeeverband) (in German), 11 July 2019.
- Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde / wissenschaft.de: Ballungszentren der braunen Bohnen (in German), 15 February 2024.
- Hamburg Tourismus: Richtig guter Kaffee: echte Kaffeeröstereien in Hamburg (in German), undated, accessed 25 October 2026.
- hamburg.de: Kaffeeröstereien in Hamburg (in German), © 2026, accessed 25 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Best Cafés in Hamburg, accessed 25 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Nord Coast Coffee Roastery, as of 5 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Marshall Street, as of 5 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Public Coffee Roasters Wexstrasse, as of 9 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Playground Coffee, accessed 25 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Elbgold Roastery, as of 5 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Studio Gusto, as of 5 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: CODOS Roastery, as of 5 October 2026.
- European Coffee Trip: Black Delight, as of 5 October 2026.
- Meininger / fizzz: Nord Coast Coffee Roastery, Hamburg (in German), 10 March 2016.
- Meininger Verlag: Expansion: Fünf Neueröffnungen für Codos Coffee (in German), 18 May 2021.
- Mapstr: Playground Coffee St. Pauli (coordinates), accessed 25 October 2026.
- elbgold: Locations and opening hours, © 2026, accessed 25 October 2026 (company information).
- Public Coffee Roasters: Unsere Cafés (in German), as of 17 June 2026 (company information).
- Playground Coffee: Café, © 2026, accessed 25 October 2026 (company information).
- Studio Gusto: Home page, © 2026, accessed 25 October 2026 (company information).
- Black Delight: Über uns (in German), 18 March 2020, accessed 25 October 2026 (company information).
