Marco Around The World: Introducing The Coffee Shops Where You’ll Find Us

The speciality beverages industry is seeing strong growth, with high-quality roasteries and cafés in nearly every major city around the globe. But with such a demanding market, excellent equipment can set a coffee shop apart.

At Marco, we have been supporting the food, beverage, and hospitality industries for more than 30 years, through our commitment to offering innovative hot water and brewing systems.

Many shops around the world have trusted us. Discover some of them and what makes them so special below.

The Barn, Berlin, Germany

A speciality coffee roastery and café in Berlin, The Barn first opened shop in 2010. Since then, they have worked with sustainable and traceable single-origin coffees that cup 86 points or more out of 100.

Today, The Barn boasts five locations across the German capital, yet its neighbourhood feel remains an important part of its appeal. Owner Ralf Rüller describes it as “a hub in the neighbourhood where people can meet other people”. He stresses, “We are a democratic space where gender, age, religion or status are not important.”

From their work with coffee farmers to their excellent customer service, The Barn constantly aims for authenticity and quality. This is particularly evident in their roastery, where they have a six-metre brew bar so that they can offer customers great coffee with a personal touch.

“Marco has been an integral part of our brew bars from the early days,” Ralf says. They use Marco boilers and brewing equipment at all of their locations. “The whole Marco team has always been extremely helpful and we feel that our brands match very well,” he adds.

Groundstate Coffee, Dublin, Ireland

This airy, Dublin-based café full of natural light and potted plants is more than just a spot with great beverages. Since its opening in 2018, Groundstate Coffee doubles as yoga studio during the evenings.

Andy Joyce, Cofounder of Groundstate, tells us, “People say that coffee is their daily ritual, and we want to make that daily ritual special.”

To do this, not only do they work to create a relaxing space, but they also offer “wholesome” vegetarian and vegan food along with great coffee. They stock beans from a range of roasters, including Gardelli Coffee in Italy and Colonna Coffee in England. For their filter coffees, they use a Marco F60 batch brewer along with a Mazzer ZM grinder.

“We get fantastic results with this setup for our filter coffee,” Andy says. “The equipment is fast, efficient, and easy to maintain and to calibrate.”

Origin Coffee, Cornwall/London, UK

Origin Coffee started life as a coffee roastery in 2004 and today has multiple locations across London and Cornwall. Yet while the two settings – bustling London and sleepy, romantic Cornwall – might seem worlds apart, all their coffee shops aim to create a quiet, relaxing and intimate atmosphere.

“Origin is shaped by the desire to empower and enthuse people at every stage of the coffee journey,” Antonio Orria, General Manager of Origin Coffee’s British Library location, says. They source their coffee by trading directly with the farmers, a practice that “allows them to support their farm and mill partners directly, giving drinkers full traceability on the coffee in their cup.” It allows customers to know the story behind their drink, whether it was sourced from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, or Brazil.

Antonio also tells us that they use Marco’s UC4 Ecoboiler and a MIX UC3. “The undercounter boilers allow for quick access to hot filtered water while leaving the counter space clear for setting up brewing apparatus for pour overs, easing our interaction with customers,” he adds.

Rosslyn Coffee, London, UK

James Hennebry and Mat Russell met working at the same roastery. Together, they opened Rosslyn Coffee in 2018, a warm and welcoming spot on London’s Queen Victoria Street.

Quality beverages and customer service are the highest priorities at Rosslyn Coffee. James tells me, “At Rosslyn, we believe that an exceptional product and service doesn’t need to be exclusive, or worse, snooty or elitist… We want to be the kind of shop that anyone will feel comfortable coming into.”

They offer coffees from roasters including La Cabra, Five Senses and Round Hill. “Our name has become synonymous with offering some of the best coffees from the leading roasters in the world, many of which are not accessible anywhere else in London,” James says.

These excellent coffees are served as espresso or with a Marco SP9 Brewer, which James tells us helps them in terms of accuracy, speed and consistency.

Finally, James and Mat work hard to create a positive environment for their staff. “We are also very proud of how we conduct our business,” James tells me. “We are one of only two certified London Living Wage employers in the City of London… while we also provide our team with free classes at a local gym.”

Nightjar Coffee, Dubai, UAE

In 2016, Nightjar Coffee launched as a green coffee supplier, before then becoming a boutique roastery with an industrial-chic vibe. Located in Dubai’s creative hub of Alserkal Avenue Arts & Culture District, customers can enjoy coffees sourced directly from countries like Colombia, Burundi and Rwanda.

Nightjar Coffee also offers a range of dishes and cold brew coffee. Antony Papandreou, Head of Coffee, tells us about their signature drink: the Grooves Lick. He describes it as “a cascara concentrate (made in house) with a twist of lime, and a dribble of honey, if you’d like it sweetened”.

“We also have a full range of flavoured cold brews and ice teas on tap… maple, cherry or orange-flavoured nitro served in mini pint glasses,” he adds.

They use two Marcos SP9s and a MIX PB3 boiler for their coffee and tea. “It frees up the baristas,” Antony says. “It enables a level of consistency that is imperative.”

Black & White Coffee Roasters, North Carolina, United States

Black & White Coffee Roasters is the brainchild of Lem Butler and Kyle Ramage, the 2016 and 2017 US Barista Champions respectively. It’s located in Wake Forest, North Carolina and Kyle tells us that the design blends southern US style with a Scandinavian aesthetic. “we want to make it comfortable and open… comfortable for the baristas and comfortable for the customers as well,” he explains.

With two World Barista Champions running the café, there is no shortage of excellent coffees and unique signature beverages. Yet Black & White Coffee Roasters is not just for the informed coffee connoisseur.

“We try to be very approachable,” Kyle stresses. Not only do they offer rotating “high-end coffees” that were roasted in-house, but they also have three distinct coffee labels all year round that customers have grown to recognise and love: the “classic”, the “natural”, and the “original”.

Kyle also tells us that the Black & White model is built around automatic pour overs. “Our preferred method of that is the SP9s,” he says. “It’s part of the service mentality… getting coffees that are incredibly consistent and a cup of coffee that is delicious and well-extracted.”

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