ZOÉGAS COFFEE SHOP
A DAMN FINE CUP OF COFFEE IN HELSINGBORG, SWEDEN
I visit the Swedish city of Helsingborg about twenty times a year. Why? Because I live relatively closer to Helsingborg now than when I lived in Copenhagen, and I genuinely enjoy the city. It’s a quick and convenient way to experience another country.
The Danish city of Helsingør is located approximately 40 km north of Copenhagen. From there, ferries to Sweden depart every 20 minutes. The 4 km crossing takes just 20 minutes, and the fare is around 69 DKK (€9 or $11) if you’re on foot or biking. For those traveling by car, the cost is approximately 300 DKK.
In 2021, I moved back to Copenhagen, but I still make the trip to Helsingborg about ten times a year.
The distance between the Danish city of Helsingør and the Swedish city of Helsingborg is only 4 km.
Helsingborg is a small city with around 110,000 residents. It’s the 8th largest city in Sweden. However, I never get the sense that I’m visiting a small city when I’m there—Helsingborg feels bigger than it actually is.
“I love going to coffee shops, just sitting and listening.”
Julia Roberts
The other day, on my way back to Denmark, I was drawn to a small coffee shop at 30 Drottninggatan. I had heard the name Zoégas mentioned before in connection with Helsingborg and coffee. And since I love coffee, I decided to take a moment for a quick visit. The waitress kindly allowed me to take some photos of the historic shop, which dates back to 1903.
I enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee and a lemon cupcake. I have to admit, the coffee was much better than the cupcake. The cupcake wasn't anything special. The coffee, however, was excellent: smooth and without any bitterness, just a rich and rounded coffee flavor. It was one of the best cups I've had for a long time. The prices were very reasonable, too—only about 40 SEK for a coffee and a cupcake (40 SEK = 29 DKK = €4 = $4.50).
While enjoying my coffee on the sidewalk outside the shop, I read about the story behind what has now become the coffee empire, Zoégas.
As early as 1881, Carlos Zoéga opened a coffee shop in Landskrona after living in Brazil and several other countries. In 1886, he moved the business to a store at Kullagatan 27 in Helsingborg, where the family lived and ran their coffee shop, then called Helsingborgs Patent-Kaffe-Ångbränneri. After Carlos Zoéga died in 1888, his wife Maria took over the shop. Around the turn of the century, she relocated to new premises at 30 Drottninggatan—the shop I visited that still operates today.
“He was my cream, and I was his coffee.
And when you poured us together, it was something.”
Josephine Baker
A few years after Carlos' death, Maria Zoéga remarried Johan Svensson, a wholesaler, and together they had a son, Rudolf. The whole family kept the surname Zoéga. Rudolf Zoéga began his career in the business in 1913 and took over after his father died in 1923. It was Rudolf who expanded the business into an industrial-scale operation. In 1952, the company moved to newly built premises on Ängelholmsvägen, which housed one of the most modern coffee roasteries in the world at the time. These buildings are still home to Zoégas operations today. The company became a public limited company in 1958, and in 1986, it was acquired by what was then Finnus, now owned by Nestlé.
I can’t say I was thrilled to learn that Zoégas is now owned by the world’s largest food company. Nestlé has been involved in numerous controversial cases over the years. However, when you visit the company’s website, it appears they are making an effort to take responsibility and improve their image: Nestlé Stories.
They have a wide range of projects underway, and numerous goals for the future aimed at ensuring greater sustainability. Whether Nestlé is doing this to improve its image, because they believe there’s more profit in a socially responsible profile, or if they genuinely have good intentions, may not be the most important point.
The coffee grinders are spinning at Zoégas in Helsingborg.
According to Nestlé, the company invested approximately SEK 3.7 billion between 2010 and 2020 in promoting more sustainable coffee cultivation. This investment has specifically gone towards training coffee farmers in responsible and productive farming methods, as well as distributing new, more climate-resistant coffee plants. Since 2010, a total of 376,500 coffee farmers have been trained. Additionally, during the 2010-2020 period, Nestlé claims to have distributed 220 million coffee plants to coffee farmers worldwide. These plants are donated as part of an educational program to ensure they are cultivated in the best possible way.
The coffee plants are planted on existing farms, and the farmers decide who they want to sell their coffee to. These plants have been specially developed through natural breeding processes to better resist climate change and disease.
“I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens,
and into the houses of presidents. And much more.
But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee,
and that made me mad.”
Josephine Baker
“Coffee by Women” is a project initiated by Zoégas in Kenya and Rwanda, where experts trained around 50,000 coffee farmers, with at least 30% of the participants being women. The goal was to increase productivity by at least 30%, meeting Zoégas' quality requirements for coffee production. A total of 100,000 young, healthy coffee plants were distributed among the farmers.
Together with Zoégas, blogger Paula Uribe visited Kenya to meet female coffee growers and learn more about the Coffee By Women sustainability project. In the documentary, Paula and Hugo meet coffee growers Mary Wanja Njagi, Purity Muthoni, and Hellen Kathugu Machere.
Together with Zoégas, blogger Paula Uribe visited Kenya to meet female coffee growers and learn more about the Coffee by Women sustainability project. In the documentary, Paula and Hugo meet coffee producers Mary Wanja Njagi, Purity Muthoni, and Hellen Kathugu Machere. Video by Zoégas.
In 2009, Zoégas held a 20% share of Sweden’s overall coffee market and more than 60% of the dark coffee segment.
“Should I kill myself
or have a cup of coffee”
Albert Camus
