Having read dozen of positive reports on Zweibar on a German community for coffee-enthusiasts, I really believed this place could not disappoint. The truth is far, far from that. This place, although packed with people, failed to even meet the basic principles of making espresso. After we were lucky to find the only two remaining seats, by chance right at the counter, we ordered an espresso and a cappuccino, and I couldn’t help but notice the time it took to make a single espresso.

A few coffees later, I decided to time the espressos being made. The first one I measured took 15 seconds, the second took only twelve. So, not only did they fail to consistently pour espressos, they didn’t meet the 25-second standard at all. Surprisingly, this short extraction time did not result in an extremely sour espresso. Instead, it tasted, as my girlfriend described it, like burnt rubber. Without a clue as to how that actually tastes, it’s probably not far off from describing the flavors. I can’t even remember how long ago it was since I’ve had this much trouble getting an espresso down. No need to say, we didn’t order another drink but quickly left.

Before doing so, we couldn’t help but notice several other things. The portafilter did not get properly cleaned in between espressos and beans weren’t ground as needed but instead by a whole lot at a time. Staff was clearly unable to handle the amount of orders that came in and were yelling from one side of the store to the other to communicate. Coming in at 40 milliliters for a double espresso, not only brewing time is short, but total volume is somewhat short as well. My only advice on this place is to avoid it all costs, and my hope for the people of the city of Essen is that this place is not in fact the best in espresso culture it has to offer. Essen may have been cultural capital of Europe, the coffee culture is apparently far from fully developed.
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