Specialty coffee in Norway
Specialty coffee in Norway is often credited as the home of the light Nordic roast, and Robert Thoresen won the first World Barista Championship in 2000. Norway's coffee reputation rests on a few long-standing figures. Tim Wendelboe has run his roastery-café in Grünerløkka for nearly two decades, and his light, transparent roasting has become a reference point far beyond Norway. Solberg & Hansen traces its roots to a grocery store in 1879 and helped reshape how Norwegians buy coffee. Supreme Roastworks, co-founded by 2015 World Brewers Cup Champion Odd-Steinar Tøllefsen, has roasted since 2013, and Fuglen has taken its Oslo café style to Tokyo and Seoul.
Oslo holds the largest group of cafés and a remarkable number of roasters for its size. Bergen is the second city, with its own roaster, and Kristiansand, Tromsø, Stavanger and Trondheim each have a few specialty cafés; Ålesund also has a roaster, and specialty bars reach as far north as Bodø and Mo i Rana.
Roasters that shape the Norwegian cup include Solberg & Hansen, Fuglen Coffee Roasters, Supreme Roastworks, Kaffa, Jacu Coffee Roastery, Bergen Coffee Roastery and LIPPE. Expect very light roasts, filter coffee as the natural order and a strong emphasis on clarity over roast flavour.
