This is an article I wrote in 2009 for the New Zealand cafe magazine.

“You can tell when you have crossed the frontier into Germany because of the badness of the coffee.

– Edward VII (1841-1910).

Ah. East Germany. the home of the oppressed Communist citizen, the Trabant, the grey apartment blocks? A place of no-fun.

Well that was my first train of thought when asked to visit an old acquaintance who has lived there for several years. My second thought was, ‘Free accommodation .. yep I’m in’. And East Germany nowadays is merely another adjunct of the European Union, re-unified with West Germany in 1989 and easily accessible. The 20th anniversary of reunification was a good excuse to visit the place, enjoy some local hospitality and hunt down the best cafes and coffees.

Searching for a flight via Ryan Air on the interweb was a cinch. I secured a return ticket from London for a mere 79p! Okay, with taxes it came eventually to about 51 pounds, but even in these recessionary times that seemed liked a bargain to me.

The only thing about budget travel is that you end up in remote ex-WWIl airfields, miles from any city. This was no exception.

Hands up anyone who has heard of Altenburg? Thought not. And the guard with the machine gun at the check-in hadn’t heard of me. It took much scrutiny of my passport before they let me through. After that slightly harrowing ordeal I then buggered up my train journey from Altenburg to Erfurt, arriving at a place called Zwikau.

The saving grace of this dreary side trip is that I can now say I have visited the place where they built the Trabant, a car so bad and cheaply constructed (out of cardboard amongst other materials) that if left in a farm paddock, the cows would eventually eat it.

I arrived – eventually – in Erfurt, a bustling city of 250,000 and home to ex-pat New Zealander Bruce Holdaway who hails from Blenheim. He has lived in Erfurt for years, has represented Germany in touch rugby, and with his German wife has produced 1.5 Kiwi-German offspring. Bruce was at a loss when asked where to find the best coffee and cafes but proved remarkably knowledgeable about the local pubs and beer.

Oh well! When in Rome and all that!

Over the next few days I had a good look at the local Efrurtian culture and also visited Weimar and Leipzig. The locals are friendly and if you talk to anyone under 30 they all speak English well. Weimar is of course the home of the Weimar republic and also the artistic heart of Germany. Goethe (described as the German Shakespeare), Bach and Handel, were all based there and it was the birthplace of the Bauhaus arts and crafts movement.

Like the rest of the modern world, food outlets mostly have a coffee machine and are plentiful but getting a great coffee proved elusive. Both Erfurt and Weimar have some great bakeries (or ‘Backs’ as they are called).

Unfortunately coffee is not the strong point of these establishments. Mostly served in Swiss or German ‘bean to cup’ espresso machines the coffee was usually too hot and laced with poorly frothed milk. Prices aren’t too bad, about 1 euro per cup, but after the first cup you don’t go back for a second.

Thankfully there are one or two reasonable coffee venues but vou need to hunt them out. In Erfurt I stumbled across a Serious Coffee house with in-store roaster and coffee paraphernalia galore. The Kaffitere Erfurter overlooks the beautiful Erfurt Cathedral, a Gothic masterpiece, and a was great place to relax with a fine espresso. I then found a cate called Barista as well, great!

Well no, it featured the ubiquitous automatic coffee machine in serve-yourself format, nary a barista in sight. Taking a photo of the place invited a suspicious shout and I scuttled away down the road. Perhaps they thought I was the Stasi copper.

A feature of this part of Germany is the bratwurst. Thuringer (the area I was in) is the home of the bratwurst sausage and it can be purchased on man street corners in a fresh bread roll for about 1.5 euro each. It leaves the great New Zealand fundraising-sausage-in-stale-bread for dead.

Leipzig was a nice surprise … a beautiful city featuring one of the biggest railway stations in Europe. In fact so big it has a three story shopping mall built into it. Like much of East Germany since re-unification, huge sums have been spent in beautifying the city.

Medieval buildings abound and statues of famous Germans dot the numerous parks. I had a mission in Leipzig : to find the famous “Cafe Richter” mentioned in my Lonely Planet guide. It was said to have the best coffee and service in town but I couldn’t find it. With map in hand I found the correct address, double-checked and sought clarification from the Bratwurst vendor on the site. His poor English directed me to another address but that too, did not show any sign of the famous cafe. Given that my guide book was eight years old I eventually decided that the cafe, sadly, did not exist anymore.

I cheered myself up by visiting the Stasi Museum. The Stasi, or secret police, were housed in a multi-storeyed building that is now home to the museum. Though the Secret police were no laughing matter in the days that they terrorised the populace, nonetheless I found the place amusing in part. Old bakelite phones, various ‘spy’ implements and ancient black and white TVs reminded me more of Get Smart’ than a place of horror. Remember this was only 1989, not the 1950s.

The museum also features a huge mound of pulp. This was the result of the Stasi files of the subversive elements being shredded and water poured on to eliminate their records. One can take home a handful of Stasi pulped records if you want. It’d sit nicely next to your piece of the Berlin Wall.

I carried on with my coffee search of some lovely old cafes, redolent with atmosphere, more moderns ‘Backs’ and even the railway station kiosks, all serving uniform over-hot, press-button coffee. I was thus eventually defeated in my efforts to find a cup of coffee anywhere near the standard that we take for granted, the Kaffitere Erfurter being the exception. Perhaps Edward VII was right?

However I’m sure even he would have conceded that modern East Germany is a great destination and worth a visit, for the bratwurst alone.

Rod de Lisle is Business Development

Manager for Robert Harris cafes