The world-famous coffee scene of Copenhagen needs no introduction. Roasters like April, La Cabra, Prolog, and Coffee Collective have become synonymous with the growing Scandinavian-style trend. With a focus on sustainable sourcing, fair pricing, and a delicate roasting approach, they are the mile marker for a lot of newer roasters. Throughout the years Sprudge has featured articles on all of the above numerous times—most recently in this seminal 2024 guide to the city through the lens of Coffee Collective founder Klaus Thomsen.
But away from these heavy hitters lies a serious, smaller-scale roasting scene that is worthy of closer inspection. Sourcing independently, and often roasting in-house, these coffee conjurers have the chance to pinpoint their own style and test it on the discerning locals. For those that roast larger quantities but lack the means to buy their own machines, the workaround is co-roasting spaces, offering time slots where you can rock up with your green beans and leave with weighed and packaged bags.
As you would expect from Scandinavia, much of the profile here is lightly roasted washed coffee. However, there are movements in the mantle, and a few purveyors of funky naturals have begun to infiltrate the airwaves. In a city that can tread a little safe, the newcomers are a welcome addition, offering something different. Spending a week doing a coffee crawl here, one can truly appreciate how varied and accomplished the scene is.
Norange
Norange is the roaster most coffee professionals in town tip their hats to. With a deep reverence for clean washed coffee, roasting it just enough to bring out the natural sweetness and terroir, Alex Nerantzis runs with an old school philosophy. The 2022 Greek Roasting Champion traded in a life on Corfu—via Germany—to settle in the Danish capital. Nerantzis’s approach is one of meticulous manual reaction, staring intently at the roast curves and using no programs or “Auto-follow”. For a man using a high-tech Loring, this may sound excessive, but curves matter. Always.
At the time of writing, all roasting takes place at The Coffee Roasting Company, a communal space in Reffen. Running a variety of beans, predominantly from Kenya and Ethiopia, there are also house favorites like the Honduran Caballeros—sourced from Nordic Approach—that plays beautifully as espresso or filter. Nerantzis roasts his coffee for both profiles, steering away from the Omni trend, and focusing on highlighting the elements that make each preparation special. Norange coffee is available at their coffee shop, and also at a few cafes in town that rotate their favorite beans. Rumor has it their retail website will be up and running soon, opening the door to international orders.
Sensei/Hip Hop 2.0
Local fans mourned the closure of the previous HipHop store, operating next to the Frederiksberg Metro station. The halcyon days of sipping a long-drawn espresso, or enjoying a coffee out front were on pause for a time. The fall of 2025 saw HipHop 2.0 opening in Nørrebro, a sleek operation with batch-brew, espresso, homebaked treats and a great playlist. Owner Luke Allen roasts under the Sensei moniker, and runs the retail store in the trendy Nordhavn neighborhood. The name Sensei is not a humble brag, it’s more a dedicated mission to learn something new from the coffee each time it’s roasted.
“There is such a thing as optimal development. And if you find it—it will taste great on any method.”
Sensei follows the path of light roast religion, but the philosophy here is on developing the beans further without extending the roast time. A balance of wanting to edge out the highlights of the chosen green coffee, but not to the detriment of an overly roasty flavor profile. Sensei treads this line with aplomb. The coffee is complex without being confusing, light and bright minus the unpleasant sour acidity, and perfect for both batch brew and espresso. If you want to browse bags of coffee, then our suggestion is to hit the Nordhavn showroom. Should you want to try Sensei in a cafe setting, then pop by HipHop and don’t forget to try their pastries and cookies.
HipHop is also one of the more child-friendly coffee shops in town, so if you’re traveling with kids then you’ll be right as rain here.
Saftig
Saftig fills the gap for those seeking more experimental coffees. With feet firmly planted in sustainable practices, sourcing direct and working with farmers who run pilot programs with different processing methods, the journey from bean to bag is fully curated. Being a nano-roaster the choice was made to favor an “Omni” approach, making coffee that drinks suitably for both filter and espresso. With a deep respect for the farmers and producers, the roasting is the final step in bringing the cup to the customer.
“You’re subtractive when you roast. You’re never adding to it. It’s all the potential that was in the bean already. So I’m just coaxing that through, coaxing that out.”
Currently running a single Aillio Bullet, roaster Jonas Uglvig Feddersen has chosen to limit opening hours to handle the workload. Being both a coffee shop and roaster in one creates a sort of excitement knowing that you cannot just pop in anytime you like, but you make a date out of it. Batch coffees are brewed on an Orea dripper, and espresso on a magnificent lever machine. A large communal table displays snacks and bags of beans, and there are a few stools and benches around the perimeter.
For the coffee lovers who are looking for more funk in their morning sips, check the opening hours on Instagram and head down.
Noma Kaffe
No stranger to global accolades—and more recently, a sprawling controversy—the restaurant NOMA expanded their coffee program in 2025 via a subscription service. Opening the door for people around the world to try their coffee, Carolyne Lane (head of coffee) drew on her experience working closely with Tim Wendelboe. Onboarding head roaster Alastair Hesp, operations went up a notch with the opening of a coffee shop in the Noma Projects greenhouse during the fall of 2025. People from around the world can now pop by for a cup of coffee, albeit it in the greenhouse and not the actual restaurant.
Lane’s blueprint was one of bringing microlots and lesser known farmers to attention by brewing their coffee as purely as possible, and offering customers an immersion into forgotten stories. The hard work begins at origin, with trips to Mexico, Ethiopia, Colombia, etc. to source beans that contribute to Lane’s vision. From there, they are shipped to Denmark and roasted on a 15kg Loring, barely a 10-minute walk from NOMA. The coffee tells tales in its clarity and texture, and sits comfortably on the shelf of other great roasters in this highly competitive city.
Pontes
A bridge between California and Copenhagen, Pontes set out to soften the blow for naturally processed coffees in a washed-coffee haven. Decidedly dry of options until recently, Pontes (and Saftig) are bringing their ethos of well sourced green coffee, and roasting it with a vision to express the funkier, more expressive side. For purists they always have an option or two, but this is a place to come for fermented fruit flavors, punchy acid and viscosity attributed to natural coffees.
The wonder of affordable equipment is that it doesn’t gatekeep a craft from the big roasters. Anyone with access to green coffee, a lesson or two in roasting, and a lot of disposable income, can begin a journey and not quite know where it ends. Using the Aillio Bullet (which was actually designed in Denmark, but built in China), roaster Brian Christie and co-owner Andreas May have set out to carve a new path in the Valby neighborhoods coffee culture. Though the ethos is to deeply understand the entire journey from farm to cafe, the roasting style is lightly conjuring those elements, and preparing the coffee cleanly and intensely.
POMA
POMA operates both as a roaster, researcher, and coffee cultivator, and are on the forefront of this movement. With backgrounds in some of Denmark’s leading coffee companies, they have a wealth of knowledge to fall back on. They grow coffee in a greenhouse on the island of Fyn, where plants are treated with a plethora of nutrients and conditions to coax forth the best of the beans. Using this knowledge they liaise with farms they work closely with abroad, where the bulk of the harvest is grown.
Roasting the green coffee in Copenhagen, and paying particular attention to the purity and clarity of different varieties, this is truly a coffee for coffee lovers. You’ll find their distinctive boxes at a few cafes in town (Lokal is one), where you can get a deliciously crisp and floral Gesha prepared as a pour-over, or a wonderfully complex Sudan Rume. This truly is the crossroads of science and celebration, and one coffee roaster to keep an eye on in the future.
Benjamin Sand is a freelance journalist and the creator of The Mouth. Read more Benjamin Sand for Sprudge.
