Benjamin's Story
Benjamin has been in the business for a long time, but not always as a roaster. He began his professional coffee career in Copenhagen nearly two decades ago, including 5 years spent visiting cafés and farms around the world while working with the well-respected Coffee Collective.
He had always supported the Danish coffee scene and various competitions as a volunteer, but he graced the stage as a competitor for the first time in 2019, ultimately winning the Danish Cup Tasters Championship.
The Village Nano-Roastery
After moving away from the city in 2019 to the remote island of Bornholm, Denmark, the buzz of Copenhagen's city life vanished, and he suddenly had time to focus on his own project, “Bean Buddy."
He began his journey into coffee roasting shortly after. He bought his first Bullet simply to have a little fun roasting very high quality green beans in his back yard. But the rumor quickly spread in the small village, and it wasn't long before he was roasting for family, friends, neighbors, and even random tourists just passing by.
The Bullet was a perfect fit for him at the time. He had learned a lot about coffee over the years, but he really just needed something to help him experiment and deep dive into flavor.
From the Island to the Ministry
Upon popular demand from the local chef school, he started doing both barista courses and teaching sensory science, eventually leading up to writing educational material for the Danish Ministry of Education - where he now teaches as an external educator.
"In many ways, the Bullet has given me that perfect platform to start small and experiment (with very good data collection), grow more confident with roasting (through countless cuppings), and use that knowledge actively to teach sensory science and provide training for baristas."
Within a period of 3 years the small roasting business grew and he eventually bought another Bullet. By now him and the Bullet were close friends, and there was close to zero learning curve scaling up with an extra roaster. That led to a third Bullet, cranking the volume up to 12kg/hour and selling beans to local cafés, hotels and even a Michelin restaurant.
Calibrating the Future
He continued to compete every second year, and in 2024 he won the Danish Cup Tasters championship for a second time, with a fifth place finish on the world stage, an accomplishment he is very proud of.
At the turn of 2026 he bought a larger 7kg gas roaster to accommodate demand and roast production roasts, but still roasts many of the microlots and more expensive coffees on the Bullet, because it excels in that role.