About the roaster: Coffee Collective

Coffee Collective was founded in Copenhagen in 2007 by Klaus Thomsen, Peter Dupont, and Casper Engel Rasmussen, and opened its first coffee bar on Jægersborggade the following year. Thomsen won the World Barista Championship in 2006 and Rasmussen the World Cup Tasters Championship in 2008, but the company’s reputation rests less on competition results than on how it buys green coffee.

They buy directly from farms and publish what they pay for every single lot, a practice they helped define and now hold as a trademark on the term Direct Trade. The prices are consistently far above both the commodity market and Fair Trade minimums. The roastery sits at Godthåbsvej in Frederiksberg behind a glass wall you can watch through, the company is a certified B Corp, and it remains owned by its founders.

Takesi and Mariana Iturralde

Takesi sits on an old Inca route in the Yanacachi area of Bolivia, at an altitude that puts it among the highest coffee farms anywhere. Cool temperatures at that elevation slow the ripening of the cherry, which is the main reason coffees from the farm tend to show the clarity and floral character they are known for.

The farm is led by Mariana Iturralde and grows Gesha alongside Java and Maragogype. Processing here is washed and deliberately controlled, with long fermentations and careful drying rather than the shortcuts that volume production usually demands. Takesi also works with smaller producers in the Caranavi region, and Coffee Collective supports that work as part of the partnership.

Ten years of direct trade

Coffee Collective has bought directly from Mariana for a decade, and this harvest marks the ten-year mark. They paid 198 USD per kilo of green coffee for this lot, which is many times the commodity market price and well above what most specialty coffees fetch. Their transparency report lists every purchase if you want to see how that number compares across their range.

What to expect in the cup

Gesha is a variety with a reputation for jasmine and bergamot aromatics, and washed processing keeps that character clean rather than layering fruit on top of it. Coffee Collective describe this lot as full-bodied, sweet, and elegant, with melon, bergamot, and peach. It suits filter brewing, where the aromatics have room to come through. Grinding to order matters more than usual with a coffee at this price, and 120 g is roughly eight to ten filter brews at a 15 g dose.

Specifications