After months of planning and preparations, our new coffee programme is now up and running. It was a change that we had started discussing at noma midway through last year. To put it simply, after working with the same people and brewing methods for nine years, we wanted to try something new.

How could we offer a coffee serving that was both delicious and interesting and could also work within our hectic daily restaurant routine? This was the question that we needed to answer.

For me, it seemed obvious to work with an old friend, Tim Wendelboe, one of the leading roasters and coffee personalities in Europe. We had met and worked together in Norway and it was indeed he that sparked my initial interest in coffee.

Besides being a world champion barista, Tim also has great hands-on connections with farmers both in Kenya and Central-America, working hard for farmer’s rights and to improve the quality of picking and drying – both elements very important to us.

After several tests and discussions, we decided on brewing V60, a newly developed re-invention of drip brewing designed by a Japanese company. This method, together with Tim´s lightly roasted coffee, makes us able to play with the light, fresh and acidic flavors that you find familiar throughout a noma experience.

We also found that this coffee both tasted and looked amazing when cupped, resembling a deep red wine and smelling of red berries. Therefore, we were very happy when we contacted Nina Nørgaard, a local Danish glass blower, who, after a few early morning sessions together, designed our new cups and pots.

As we approached the start of our new coffee programme, we also began planning training sessions with all our front of house staff, which today numbers more than twenty people. In December we held a full day of lectures and brewing sessions with Tim. And on 04 March, we had our final session with him before starting to serve his coffee the following day.

We are very proud to say that it has been a success from the very first service. Feedback from guests has been very good and staff are enjoying working with the new coffee.

At the moment we are serving coffee from Mount Elgon, from a cooperative named Kapsokisio located in the western part of Kenya. Only fully ripened cherries go into this blend of varieties sl28 and sl34.

We are seriously looking forward to continuing to experiment and play with the coffee brewing and different bean varieties together with Tim.