Populus, the Specialty Coffee Roaster Based in Berlin with a Nordic Soul

Populus is the Latin word for People, and this is what the German coffee roaster stands for: Each and every one of the people involved in the company.

Populus Coffee is a proudly independent family-owned specialty coffee roaster based in Berlin, but with roots deeply connected with the northern countries. The two founders, Sari and Henrik Haavisto, come from Finland and their story is quite unusual. Henrik, with a background as a journalist, started working on a book about the origins of coffee around a decade ago. It was that first trip to the countries of origin that changed everything – for good – and it’s easy to see why. Just try to imagine: Guatemala, harvest time, smiling and sweating faces. The sudden realisation of the amazing world that lies behind a single coffee bean, the sudden discovery that perhaps it’s possible to trade coffee in the right way, with transparency and sustainability.

And then, back home: a few months spent learning how to roast at Kaffa and the impellent desire to open – together with his wife Sari – something of his own. But where? Back then, in 2015, Helsinki still seemed too conservative to open another specialty coffee roaster… So why not move to Berlin, which already had a vibrant coffee community at that time? 

And this is how Populus was born, and it is in the company’s name (Latin for people) that there’s the key to understand what Populus stands for, what Henrik has learned during his first trip to Guatemala (and in all the others that followed, all around the coffee world).

Because behind a “simple” cup of coffee there is a lot, in terms of people involved: from the producers to the roaster, from the barista that brews that coffee to - obviously - the final consumer who enjoys it. And every single one of these people is – and should be treated as – important, indispensable. The right price should be paid to producers, the right working conditions should be ensured to the whole staff and the best possible service should be guaranteed to every final customer.

But there is something more at the core of Populus, and it is the search for true sustainability, achieved through the creation of a coffee supply chain that helps build values for all the people involved along the way.