Why it belongs in ORBIS
Started in 1999 with a 5kg drum roaster, this Dresden roastery won Roaster of the Year in 2011 and was named Saxony's best by Der Feinschmecker three times since. It runs barista courses, roastery tours, and a mobile coffee truck called DONKEY.
Dresdner Kaffee und Kakao Rösterei began in 1999 with a small 5-kilogram drum roaster and what the company describes as more curiosity than equipment. Growth since has scaled the machinery considerably — the roastery now runs a Giesen W45A drum roaster — while keeping the same trommelröstung method it started with. Its site on Meschwitzstraße sits near Melitta-Bentz-Strasse, a street named for the Dresden inventor of the paper coffee filter, a proximity the roastery treats as a point of local pride rather than coincidence.
The roastery was named Röster des Jahres (Roaster of the Year) in 2011, and Der Feinschmecker magazine has separately named it Saxony's best coffee roastery three times — in 2018, 2022 and 2025 — recognition spread across more than a decade rather than a single early peak. Its range covers house blends and single origins across both Arabica and Robusta, at multiple roast levels.
Beyond the roasted bag, the company runs barista courses, roastery tours, event hosting and catering, and operates a mobile coffee truck nicknamed 'DONKEY' for off-site service. That mix — a 1999 hobbyist start, a name-checked street connection to coffee-filter history, and a repeat regional award record stretching to 2025 — makes the roastery as much a fixture of Dresden's coffee identity as a single product line.