Hagen has been delighting Londoners with its Danish-inspired approach to craft, design and hospitality since 2017. Now trading across 17 venues in the UK capital and recently unveiling its first international site in Amsterdam, Hagen continues to place gourmet coffee at the heart of customer experience. Founder Tim Schroeder spoke to World Coffee Portal about the boutique brand’s ambitious sustainability agenda, the importance of its Danish roots and why the time is right for European expansion
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Hagen’s new branding on display at its Mayfair espresso bar in London | Photo credit: Susheel Schroeder
What elements of Danish hospitality do you draw from and why are these so important to your brand DNA?
The idea of Hagen being something of a conversation room is very Danish. We’ve designed our espresso bars in a very uncommercial and minimalist way to ensure this is a core part of the experience. In practice, this has included deliberately limiting seating, while maximising space at the bar for conversations and coffee making. This is to encourage a communal atmosphere centred on the performance of our skilled baristas in a similar vein to high-end sushi and cocktail bars.
How has your coffee sourcing programme evolved since 2017, and can you tell us more about your direct trade project in Nepal?
At Hagen we find the best single origin coffees from around the world to bring to our bars, but our most important supplier is the Himalayan Speciality Coffee Project. These guys import sustainable coffee from Eastern Nepal, supporting a community of 1,000 coffee farmers in the Taplejung district through direct trade.
Sustainability is a key part of Hagen’s ethos. Can you tell us what this means in practice at a store level and across the wider business?
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, and our biggest challenge is to create a premium brand without losing sight of this. Sustainability means every part of the supply chain, so for us this extends to the practices of our suppliers across the world, through to being one of the first brands to adopt the first-of-its-kind Bellwether system, which is the world’s lowest carbon coffee roaster.
We’ve roasted over 500kg of coffee on our Bellwether roasters to date, including coffee for our cold brew, capsules, home brew and guest espresso. The calculation (which includes packaging and transport) is at an average of 1.78kg of carbon saved per 1kg of coffee roasted.
At the end of 2024, we strengthened our commitment to sustainability further by becoming the first UK coffee brand to work with Atomo, a US beanless coffee supplier making the most sustainable coffee on the planet.
What have been some of the success stories of The Hagen Kaffe Klub and how has your loyalty scheme encouraged customers to support the communities you serve?
Giving back to the communities we are part of is an essential component of who we are. In 2023, we launched the Hagen Kaffe Klub. Rather than rewarding customer loyalty, the club rewards members for doing good in the local community, through initiatives such as fixing fences, painting walls, and clearing gardens at local schools.
Since launching, Hagen Kaffe Klub has raised thousands of pounds for schools, and last helped to brighten the lives of over 400 children through Christmas gifting in the community.
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Hagen’s Mayfair espresso bar opened in December 2024 | Photo credit: Tobias Pearce/World Coffee Portal
What inspired the design of your next-generation espresso bar in Mayfair?
Our next-generation espresso bar draws inspiration from Denmark’s famous Tivoli amusement park, blending the vibrant red, green, and terracotta hues of Tivoli’s roof tiles into a warm and inviting Danish mid-century atmosphere. The design itself we plan to use uniquely for this bar, however this is our first bar to be decked out in our new branding, which we hope to roll out to our other bars this year.
Will a shift towards coffee as a gourmet experience define London’s coffee market evolution going forward?
We believe we are seeing a trend in coffee, and even in broader consumer behaviour, that is becoming less price driven, marking a real shift towards demand for higher-quality experiences. This is where we see Hagen, making consumers’ everyday experience special.
Can we expect further expansion beyond London in the future?
We launched our first espresso bar in Continental Europe in March 2025 in Amsterdam and will open second site in the Dutch capital in May. This Autumn we will open our first Hagen in Barcelona, Spain.