Specialty coffee in Denmark

Specialty coffee in Denmark is closely tied to Coffee Collective, founded in Copenhagen in 2008 by 2006 World Barista Champion Klaus Thomsen and partners. Coffee Collective set the tone for Danish specialty roasting: light roasts, a B Corp certification and coffee now sold in around 20 countries. Co-founder Casper Engel Rasmussen won the World Cup Tasters Championship soon after the roastery opened. Other roasters have since built international reputations: April Coffee from Copenhagen opened in Seoul in 2022, and La Cabra from Aarhus opened a New York shop in 2021. Holy Bean Coffee Roasters on Funen has roasted light since 2014.

Copenhagen holds most of the country's cafés and an unusually high number of roasters, with Frederiksberg effectively part of the same scene. Aarhus is the second hub, and roasting reaches well beyond the big cities: Odense, Helsingør, Esbjerg, Holbæk, Roskilde and Charlottenlund each have one.

Roasters that shape Danish taste include Coffee Collective, April Coffee, Andersen & Maillard, Copenhagen Coffee Lab, Impact Roasters and Holy Bean. Expect light, clean coffees, filter as a standard order and roasteries that double as bars.