Solberg & Hansen goes back to 1879, when Carl Solberg and Fritjof Hansen founded it in a grocer’s shop in Oslo, then Christiania. Carl Solberg had come from Østre Toten to work for the merchant Bernt J. Olsen, where he met Hansen. Today it is, by its own account, Norway’s largest and oldest specialty coffee roastery, supplying coffee, tea and equipment to coffee bars, restaurants, bakeries, specialist shops and offices across Norway and abroad.
Since 1965 Solberg & Hansen has roasted at Ryen in Oslo, at first on the third floor of a new building shared with Nicolaisens Elektriske Kaffebrænderi; it now fills the whole building. Each coffee gets its own roast profile developed there, and the roasted coffee goes through quality control every day. It buys coffee directly from farmers around the world, and its tea range runs to more than 100 teas.
Its record in the coffee trade is long. It took part in the first Cup of Excellence auctions and won several, among them Brazil in 1999. With the SCAE it started the World Barista Championship, and the first championship, in Monte Carlo, was won by the Norwegian Robert W. Thoresen, later the founder of KAFFA, with Solberg & Hansen’s Half & Half espresso blend. It also started Nordic Roaster, a competition for the light Nordic roasting style, which ran until 2019 and which Solberg & Hansen won in 2012.
The concept shop in Mathallen Oslo opened on 12 October 2012 with only straight espresso and hand-brewed coffee on the menu. It still specialises in hand brewing, now alongside a full espresso menu with milk, and its shelves carry freshly roasted seasonal coffee from Ryen. The shop doubles as a place to learn, with coffee and tea courses and tastings led by its baristas.
Coffee on the shelf
Photograph: Solberg & Hansen