On January 2, 1901, over a cup of coffee, Felix H. List and Eduard Heineken decided to start what was then, List & Heineken. After having finished his commercial apprenticeship in Leipzig, working for several years in London and Le Havre, and having acquired extensive coffee knowledge, Felix decided to apply it to his own company. In 1908, Eduard leaves the company, thus allowing Felix to act as the sole general manager. By then, the company had already gained quite a solid reputation in the domestic market as well as traction abroad.

Back in the days, it was common practice to judge the quality of green coffee only by smell and looks. It was during that time that Felix decided to also start cupping his coffees. In fact, one of the first sample roasters ever made was part of the List & Heineken quality control lab. Not surprisingly, Felix developed very sensitive sensory skills resulting in him only selling the finest coffees. This led to List & Heineken to gain recognition due to its high quality standards from a very early stage.

In September 1979 List & Heineken changed its name to List & Beisler GmbH. Managed by Dieter Mallasch, Wolfgang Dehner and Günther List, who was also son of the founder and had already been working with the company since the 1930s. Günther List died in 1992, Diester Mallasch and Wolfgang Dehner retired in the early 2000s. Today, List & Beisler is run by Robert Heuveldop, Jan Walter and Philip von der Goltz.

After a century full of changes, one constant has alwys remained: our love of Hamburg's historic Speicherstadt and a drive to find the best possible green coffee qualities. Simply put, Premium Coffee Culture since 1901!