Solberg & Hansen in our December Guest Roaster Subscription Box

How else should you supplement the holiday season, a time of tradition, values, compassion and joy? Well, we at Bean Bros are featuring a roaster with a long history and high values of giving back as well as promoting quality and injecting some joy into the branding.

Solberg and Hansen, since 1879! Wow, that’s a lot of coffee! Enjoy your coffee, your friends, family and if you can spread a little kindness to those less fortunate.
Thank you for supporting Bean Bros this year, we hope you have enjoyed the variety this year and we promise to continue bringing the best of new and old roasters to your table!

Tell us a bit about Solberg & Hansen, background and values

Established in 1879 and with a clear initiative on sourcing specialty coffee; quality before everything else - and a willingness to pay for it.

We promote long-term relationships with producers knowing that investment in time, good payments, and ongoing development will serve the best coffee.

Solberg & Hansen have a strong belief in specialty coffee; the high quality, the great taste, the influence on local development when trading with dedicated farmers, the concern and care baristas and consumers have for the commodities they use. The drive and passion is there to communicate this with even more people.

You have a lot of different ranges available, how do these work?

We have five coffee categories:
1. Espresso: Single estate and blends.
2. Sans: Focus is on region, variety and the taste that you would expect to find in the specific area.
3. Spor: Focus is on the unique stories about the people behind the coffee, farmers and farm.
4. Blends: You will find well-known and traditional product names from our old history as a coffee roaster.
5. Seasonal: Coffees that are chosen (and roasted) to fit the season.
Whitin the categories we also have a quality range from our well known Classics, to Micro lots. In other words: A lot to choose from 😉 We usually have around 40 different coffees available for sale at all times.

How do you get involved in global coffee communities, other than the close work you do with producers and farmers?

We support the World Coffee research https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/ who are working for uniting the global coffee industry to drive science-based agricultural solutions to urgently secure a diverse and sustainable supply of quality coffee today and for generations to come.

Tell us a bit about the coffee featured this month

El Obraje (Colombia)
We support El Obraje by paying a sustainable price for Pablo Guerreros coffees. The El Obraje is a classic Caturra grown on 2000 meters altitude close to Pasto in Nariño. We are very proud to have this solid Caturra in our selection.
Pablo, the farmer is working on local water-sources and reforestation. In this area, there are almost no native trees left, and much of the land in the surrounding area is abandoned. He is removing all Eucalyptus trees on the farm to stop erosion.

La Bolsa (Guatemala)
Regarding our Christmas Coffee, we have a long-time relationship with the farm La Bolsa. The farm also has a kindergarden for children of the working force and pickers in the area surrounding. We support the kindergarden and also school nearby. The coffee is caturra and bourbon and have an altitude up to 1750 meters. It is sweet and rounded and perfect as an introduction to the best coffees you can buy.

Rukira (Kenya)
When buying coffee from Kenya we work close to the marketers and always ask for samples from the same washing stations. Solberg & Hansen are visiting both farmers and washing stations we purchase coffee from.
The coffee grown on and in the area around Rukira grows in red, volcanic soil with good nutrition. This soil is characteristic with its rust-red color and has helped give Kenyan specialty coffee its good reputation. The bean types are the traditional SL28 and SL34, but also the newer and somewhat more resistant types ruiru 11 and batian.
Over the years we have bought beans from Rukira, we have experienced that the coffee is of very good quality, with the lovely flavors of blackcurrants and red berries for which Kenyan specialty coffee is known for and loved. We are happy to have established a good relationship with this washing station.