Planet Berlin: Oslo Kaffebar — Third wave coffee at the Nordic Embassies

“You can never make the same coffee in two different places,” says Kristian Moldskret, proprietor of the Oslo Kaffebar at Felleshus — the imposing architectural gem in which Berlin’s Nordic embassies are housed. This, his third local branch, offers visitors superlative third wave coffee — from beans roasted in-house — with a cool backdrop of concrete walls and light maple.

Felleshus is Danish for ‘community house.’ This imposing structure near Berlin’s Tiergarten park, designed by architects Berger and Parkkinen, features a sweeping turquoise copper facade and serves as the pan-Nordic embassy to the countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. The building hosts a range of events, exhibitions, and a canteen featuring a lively lunch menu — and guests are always welcome.

The Felleshus is also home to the Oslo Kaffeebar run by Norwegian proprietor Kristian Moldskret. The bright bar designed by the Felleshus architects and the pastel bar stools contributed by designer Sigurd Larsen perfectly complement the aesthetic concept of the building, with its raw concrete walls and light maple wood. Following its debut as a pop-up store in 2014, Moldskred’s Kaffebar has since become a permanent feature.

According to Kristian Moldskret, good coffee is the product of many factors, one of which is the quality of the water. “You can never make the same coffee in two different places. Norwegian spring water is totally different to the tap water in Berlin. After all, a filter coffee is 98 percent water,” he says. But the star ingredient is the coffee beans, which Kristian Moldskred purchases from sustainable coffee farms in Africa.

He uses one kind for filter coffee and another for espresso. Moldskred and his team roast the green beans themselves, transforming them into delicious coffee specialties. Kristian Moldskred, who comes from a small village on Norway’s west coast, first visited Berlin in 2000. Before moving to the German capital in 2009, he had taken up residence in Bergen, Oslo, Barcelona, Brussels, and attended entrepreneurial school in Boston.

In 2010, he got his break with his first independent business, a café in Prenzlauer Berg. “That venture was one of the first ‘third wave coffee shops’ in Berlin,” explains Kristian Moldskred – a café that distinguishes itself from the major ‘second wave’ coffee franchises through careful preparation and high-quality ingredients. Two years later, he opened the main branch of the Oslo Kaffebar near Nordbahnhof in Berlin Mitte with his business partners Steve Morris and Benjamin Mosse – and it was that concept that won the heart of the Nordic Embassies.