Ben Rahim

Nestled away in a courtyard inside the Hackesche Höfe, Ben Rahim, named after the Tunisian-born founder, is a specialty café that features coffee with an arabic influence. Inside, the shop looks quite different from Mitte’s typical minimalistic café décor, with Persian rugs covering the floor and Islamic tiles on the wall, emphasising its ethnic identity and arabic flavour.

I ordered a caffè latte and J had a handbrew, and we were both super happy. With its slightly dark flavour and smoked fragrance, I think it was one of the best caffè lattes I have had throughout my trips around Europe, and J thought the handbrew was equally good. If you intend to find an equivalent place in Oslo, I can only compare Ben Rahim to Tim Wendelboe. When it comes to the caffè latte, I think Ben Rahim is a clear cut above Supreme Roastworks. Mind you, the latte cost 6 euros while the handbrew 9 euros for half a liter. It was on the pricy side, but we both thought it was worth the money.

I posted this picture in the same way as the one with La Maison on Instagram half as a joke, half as a compliment and expected to get the same cold shoulder. Surprisingly, even before we stepped out of the shop, their official account not only liked the picture but also shared it in their Instagram story. All in all, Ben Rahim strikes me as a place with good coffee and a sense of humour.

Update (Oct 31, 2024)

Six months after our first visit, in September 2024, we found ourselves sitting in the Tunisian café again. Stopping by Ben Rahim has become somewhat of a routine whenever we are in Berlin. We immediately noticed that they have upgraded the bar with a Modbar Espresso-system to clear away big equipment. The counter area now looked cleaner and more open.

We started with a Kenyan handbrew and a Capucin (Tunisian macchiato), or to be more specific, J ordered a Kenyan handbrew and I had a Capucin. The Kenyan handbrew maintained Ben Rahim’s usual high standard and struck a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity, while the Capucin, stronger than the macchiato I usually drink, turned out to be an extremely satisfying cup as well.

After finishing our first round of drinks, J started to get curious about the “cezwe” Turkish coffee they serve here. Cezwe originally refers specifically to a small long-handled copper pot with which one brews coffee. Ben Rahim made their own line of handmade cezwe pots together a studio in Tunisia. The coffee is prepared by boiling finely ground coffee in the cezwe pot over direct heat and poured over into a small coffee cup without filtering the grounds. With sediments at the bottom, the end result is a cup intense in flavor and rich in texture. Such a strong cup is usually served together with a candied date.

When it comes to the beans for the cezwe coffee, there are usually three or four options at Ben Rahim. J set his eyes on the “Yemenia” beans, which is a species of Coffea Arabica exclusively grown in Yemen. Thanks to its rarity, it costs a staggering 20 euros a cup. J really enjoyed this cup and could not stop praising its “earthier natural taste”, whereas I still secretly clung to my belief that “any coffee exceeding 15 euros for such a small cup is on the verge of a scam”.

If you are a hardcore coffee enthusiast as J and interested in different coffees and preparation methods, we recommend the cezwe experience at Ben Rahim for at least once. One of the main reasons is that cezwe seems to have been forgotten in the modern third-wave coffee movement. However, if you are not particularly obsessed with coffee and place more focus on value for money such as me, we recommend just going for their hand brews which are of high quality as well as more reasonably priced.

Originally posted 2024-06-19