I took eating sausage very seriously in Berlin. It was as if it was my mission to eat as many sausages as possible during our visit. And I don’t think it was necessarily a bad mission to have. This meant that whenever I could, I ordered a sausage. From restaurants to food trucks, to grocery stores to food markets, I made sure to try them all. In all of my consumption and enjoyment, I can say I found the best sausage in Berlin.
We first tried Tannenwälder Würste while wandering through our local farmers market on a cold Saturday morning in Prenzlauer Berg. We walked past the small unassuming food truck with a man cooking up fresh sausages, giving off the most delicious smell. There was a long line of locals waiting for their sausage for a Saturday morning, but I wasn’t going to judge, in fact, I joined them.
As we waited in line, we looked over the menu. The options were written in chalk on a board out front, listing the sausage options and sides. We watched the locals, smiles landing on their faces once they received their sausages. My mouth salivated in anticipation. We each ordered a Thüringer sausage. It came piping hot in a small bun, just big enough to fit in your hand. The star of the show was clearly the sausage, but the bun was delicious as well.
Lined up along the food truck were 15 varieties of mustard. They ranged from sweet to savory, fruity to spicy. Over the course of the month, I made sure to try them all. I was surprised by the apricot mustard, ginger mustard, but I always went back for the classic beer mustard. There’s something about good beer mustard on a delicious sausage that just tastes right.
Like the locals, a smile instantly landed on my face once I had my sausage in hand. With my first bite, I understood why the long line, it was perfection. It was simple but in the kind of way that allows the meat to shine. The ingredients are organic and free of additives with the meat coming from an organic and humane farm.
Each bite proved that Tannenwälder Würste was the best. I craved it and looked forward to seeing the truck each weekend. We also found it stationed in the biergarten at the flea market in Mauerpark, which helped cure my craving for another day. Since we frequented the truck each weekend, we got to know the man behind the grill, proving to be kind and welcoming. It was the kind of hospitality and warmth we weren’t originally expecting from Germany. But happily, we found warmth and the best sausage!