Specialty coffee in Cologne.

Cologne never quite lost the craft. Josef Schamong put a Probat drum roaster on Venloer Straße in Ehrenfeld in September 1949 and his grandchildren are still running it, which gives the city something most German cities do not have: a line from post-war handcraft straight into the specialty era. The modern scene started in 2010 on both sides of that inheritance, with Van Dyck roasting organic coffee in a former hair salon a few streets away and Heilandt buying direct from farms in the Belgian Quarter.

Since then the city has done coffee the way it does everything, by neighbourhood. Cologne's Veedel are loyal places; people buy their beans and their morning cortado within a few streets of home, so the roasters opened branches rather than flagships, Heilandt in five quarters, Ernst in the Südstadt and Sülz, Zwoo through a takeaway window in Ehrenfeld and a converted kiosk by Ebertplatz. The machines themselves went across the Rhine to Mülheim or out to Frechen and Pulheim where there is room.

The cup splits two ways. Much of the city wants chocolate and nut for the bean-to-cup machine at home; a keen minority wants Nordic-light single origins from Ernst's slow bar or Benson's competition roaster. Both are well served, and organic certification carries weight here.

Schamong is the elder: vintage and modern Probats, low-temperature drum roasts, blends called Coloniese and Fiorentino, and now specialty sourcing under the third generation. Van Dyck roasts only certified organic and fair-trade coffee in its Mülheim factory, blends called Adorno and Ehrenfelder, and was early to put a single-origin washed Ugandan Robusta on the shelf on purpose. Heilandt buys direct, pre-finances harvests, sets a cupping floor for everything it roasts, and pours in five neighbourhoods with a coffee school on the side. Ernst roasts light in Pulheim for its slow bar in the Südstadt and a second bar in Sülz, with a Rwandan from Shyira and an Ethiopian from Bedecho on the list.

Benson Badass Coffee is a world roasting medallist's micro-bar on Eichendorffstraße with coffees called Hell Yeah and Köllefornia. Zwoo sorts its range by animal, rhino to unicorn, and sells it through a window, a kiosk and a bar. Holm is organic through and through, roasting in Frechen and pouring in Lindenthal. Kaffeesaurus roasts in view of a very large brunch. Around them, Kaffeeprinzen, JACKSON, Wiewaldi and Meramanis on the Hansaring keep the shelves varied, omo roasts in the Rheinauhafen, and Tim & Sebastian's in Frechen roasts organic coffee for other people's labels.

Josef Schamong started it, and Heribert and Mirko Schamong made a 1949 roastery a specialty one. Monika Linden, the restaurateur behind Café Sehnsucht, and Martin Keß founded Van Dyck. Moritz Eylandt built Heilandt's direct trade and its school. Maren Ernst brought the light roast and the slow bar. Benjamin Pozgai won the German roasting title twice and a world bronze. Tilman and Frederik Baumann put specialty coffee in a Büdchen. Nils and Philipp founded Holm. And Rafet Aydogdu took Kaffeesaurus to Bonn.

Cologne's coffee runs along two axes on the left bank, crosses the river to roast, and spills into the suburbs for space.

Cappuccino, flat white and cortado carry the daytime, with oat milk at no surcharge in the keener bars, but Cologne kept its filter habit better than most: batch brew in the busy places, V60 and syphon at Ernst. On the shelf, Colombia, Ethiopia and Peru lead Cologne's listed origins, washed leads the processes with natural behind it.

The roast is a two-party system. Medium-to-dark blends, Van Dyck's Adorno, Schamong's Coloniese, Heilandt's Espresso 1, serve the bean-to-cup machines in the city's kitchens; light single origins from Ernst, Benson and Zwoo serve the enthusiasts. Organic certification carries weight. Decaf is single-origin and water-processed at Holm, Heilandt and Tim & Sebastian's. The live count stands at 14 decaf and 50 filter-friendly listings.

Cologne's ladder runs from Schamong's everyday blends to the single-origin micro-lots. These numbers come from every Cologne coffee currently listed with a price, not a sample we chose. The going rate today is €42 per kilogram, about €11 for a standard bag.

The ladder reads like this: espresso blends and washed Latin Americans around €36 per kilogram, washed East Africans and the first micro-lots from about €48 per kilogram, and the most expensive listing right now at €115 per kilogram. 131 coffees carry a price today. Most roasters sell online with subscriptions and deliver across North Rhine-Westphalia.