One of the world’s best restaurants is launching its own coffee delivered to your door

Chef René Redzepi of famed restaurant Noma in Copenhagen and his flavor laboratory Noma Projects are launching a new coffee membership, available to be delivered around the world, starting today.

Redzepi’s mission to distill elements of his surrounding landscape onto a plate has also been the backbone of the restaurant’s beverage selections. The goal with Noma Kaffe is to nurture relationships with farmers, sourcing coffees that support local communities, food systems and regenerative agriculture.

“Coffee and chocolate are two things that I can’t live without,” says Redzepi. “Obviously, in reality, you can live without most things, but if I had to choose a last meal, it could be a fantastic cup of coffee with a piece of truly high-quality chocolate.”

Among the first coffees that Noma Kaffe is shipping are beans from the Itzín family in Mexico, grown by the Indigenous community of Tenejapa.

(Noma Kaffe)

Noma Kaffe will send to subscribers each month two 250-gram packages of exclusive whole beans that offer a window into Redzepi’s coffee obsession, featuring selections from small farms and a light Nordic roasting profile.

For March, the first coffee was chosen in a blind tasting of beans from Mexico: a Garnica from Tenejapa in Chiapas grown by the Iztín family. This coffee variety was originally introduced at Noma during its 2017 pop-up in Tulum. The second coffee, a natural Ethiopian Landrace (a blend of indigenous varieties), was grown at about 7,000 feet above sea level, the high elevation yielding balanced acidity with notes of tropical fruit and spice.

The subscription is sold through Noma Projects for $65 a month.

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Coffee service has been an integral pursuit at Noma — which now focuses on a new ingredient each season; it’s currently “ocean season.” The restaurant partnered with World Barista Champion Tim Wendelboe of Oslo in 2013 to source beans and create the coffee service for its tasting menus. Now it has established its own department under Noma Kaffe, to source and roast beans in-house.

“We wanted to have as good of coffee as in the best coffee bars,” says Redzepi. “It was an obvious choice back then to work with Tim Wendelboe. He is an extraordinary individual. And he has taught us so much over the years.”

“Tim often asked us, ‘Why don’t you do it yourselves?’ says Redzepi of roasting coffee at Noma. “I was always intrigued by the idea.”

Redzepi wanted to ensure that someone would develop a coffee sourcing and roasting program that defines the Noma Kaffe flavor profile, featuring his affinity for Nordic profiles with light roasts, bright acidity and floral notes.

Carolyne Lane helped direct the beverage service at Noma restaurant and now helms Noma Kaffe.

Carolyne Lane had started at Noma in 2018 as a host and server while curating the tea selection, making herb infusions, spending time in the test kitchen to craft juice pairings and learning all aspects of the restaurant’s coffee service.

Now Lane helms the coffee division of Noma Projects, which Redzepi founded in 2022 to showcase and sell ingredients from the restaurant’s workshop, such as corn yuzu hot sauce, cep oil and aged pumpkin vinegar.

Supported by Noma head sommelier Ava Mees List and general manager Simon Kofoed Bursche Hansen, Lane works with head roaster Alastair Hesp and head barista Tsubasa Maehiro to develop roast profiles and manage quality control. Redzepi “is coffee obsessed and very engaged in the project,” says Lane.

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Lane recently spent time on the road in Colombia with Tyler Youngblood of Azahar, a green coffee sourcing company, researching regenerative coffee agriculture in the regions where they sourced beans for later this spring.

The second and third subscription drops will focus on beans from three farmers in Huila, a top coffee-growing region in southwestern Colombia known for award-winningbeans that are sweet and fragrant. “They all represent very different expressions of the region,” says Lane. “From the ambitious and meticulous farmer with super crisp flavor profiles, to the one who extends the fermentation of his washed coffees to cope with a shockingly steep terrain. ... Those coffees are big, bold and juicy, and super floral.” Hints of aromatic flowers from jasmine and rose to hibiscus and honeysuckle are especially desirable for lightly roasted Nordic coffee profiles.

Currently Lane is traveling in Chiapas, Mexico, with coffee expert Jesús Salazar of Cafeología, a coffee education and sourcing company. “He is explorative and curious by nature, and has spent many years coordinating the native Mayan farmers around San Cristobal de las Casas,” says Lane. “Frankly it’s a miracle that some of these coffees have made it to a consumer, seeing as these farms are so incredibly tiny.”

During Noma’s residency at the Ace Hotel in Kyoto last October through December, Lane and Redzepi also found inspiration in Japanese cafe culture. Weekenders Coffee owner Masahiro Kaneko shared his roastery space with Lane during Noma’s months in Japan, while the subscription plans were taking shape.

“Coffee feels like something that everyone can connect to,” Lane says. “It makes me feel part of the wider world. It’s about a respect for nature. It’s about a respect for culture and communities, and collaboration.”

Wendelboe and the Noma beverage team created an optimal process to brew coffee during the Kyoto residency: an Americano hybrid prepared by pulling a shot of espresso through an Aeropress filter, pouring the espresso through a V60 filter, then adding a precise amount of hot water to emulate a filter coffee. This method enabled them to brew three cups of coffee from one shot of espresso, with efficiency and consistency as the finale for the dining experience.

Redzepi hints at more plans to expand Noma Kaffe. “I want to have a unique high-quality, best-in-class coffee bar that can be equally as good as all the best coffee bars in the Nordics,” he says. “Perhaps where Noma is today. And we will focus on that.”