Original Coffee

House-roasted coffee on the Illum rooftop

Original Coffee roasts its own beans, and this branch pours them four floors up, on the rooftop level of the Illum department store beside Muji. That combination, a Danish roaster’s coffee and one of Copenhagen’s largest roof terraces, is what separates the Illum bar from the company’s street-corner shops. It is a department-store café that behaves like a destination.

The company started in 2010 as Rolling Coffee, a mobile café run by friends, and grew into a roastery and a citywide network of coffee bars, with a webshop, brew guides, courses and a roasting operation behind it. The rooftop branch is the most scenic expression of that, but it works on the same beans as the rest.

The counter and the terrace

The bar sits on the 4th-floor rooftop level, reached up through the store, and opens onto a bright space with a teak terrace. Reaching it means going up through the store, which filters out passing trade and leaves the terrace to people who came for it. Soft cushions and colourful benches make it a visual pause as much as a caffeine stop, and coffee and food arrive on Stilleben tableware, which is a very Copenhagen detail.

The view does most of the work. It is a rooftop to sit on rather than a counter to pass through, and the calm surroundings suit a longer stay than the brand’s street branches usually invite. The service model is the same, though: order at the counter, carry it to a bench, stay as long as the weather allows.

Order the cappuccino, then look at filter

Cappuccino is the clearest first order, prepared by baristas with latte art in the foam, and it shows the house roast against milk. Espresso, ristretto and Americano keep things compact if the stop is short, and each is pulled on the same house beans.

Batch brew, pour over and filter-style coffee show the roaster side more clearly, and they are the drinks that connect the rooftop to sourcing from Brazil, Ethiopia, Colombia, Peru, Kenya and other growing regions. Beyond the cup, the shop sells beans, drip bags, biodegradable capsules, flavour packs, machines and brewing equipment, backed by brew guides and courses, so the visit can end with a bag to take home and a method to go with it.