Five Elephant

Five Elephant opened its doors in December 2010 on a quiet dead-end street in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, founded by Kris Schackman, an American originally from Massachusetts, and his Austrian wife Sophie. Kris had spent years in London's film and advertising industry before the two relocated to Berlin and pivoted to specialty coffee. Sophie's baking background became part of the operation's identity from the start. The roastery arrived at an early moment in Berlin's third-wave scene — when, as the founders later described it, words like direct trade and transparency had barely entered the local vocabulary.

Growth came faster than anticipated, partly through circumstance. A 2012 German work-study visa program allowed baristas under 30 from Australia and New Zealand to work in Berlin for a year. Combined with a wave of Californians drawn to the city's tech sector, Five Elephant found itself with a customer base already fluent in specialty coffee culture. Lacking established European sourcing infrastructure, Kris leaned into direct trade relationships out of necessity — a model he recognized from the United States. According to MTPak Coffee, this approach helped the roastery scale from a single Kreuzberg café to an internationally distributed brand.

Five Elephant's current lineup is built around single-origin lots across Ethiopia, Colombia, Brazil, and Kenya, with most offerings released in both filter and espresso profiles. The Ethiopia Queen of Sheba (Sidama Bensa) and Colombia Santa Fe represent the range of their sourcing. A separate Meridian collection sits alongside the core catalog. Kris has cited Scott Rao's work as foundational to their roasting methodology. Sourcing language emphasizes environmental regeneration and long-term producer relationships, with active direct trade partnerships in Brazil, El Salvador, Kenya, and Colombia.