Coffee grown in Denmark. Yes, really.

Coffee doesn't grow in Denmark. The climate is wrong, the light is wrong, the seasons are wrong. Coffee needs heat, altitude, and the particular combination of conditions found in a narrow band around the equator. Denmark has none of that.

And yet, in a climate-controlled greenhouse on the island of Fyn, POMA Coffee is growing coffee. Not as a novelty. Not as a marketing exercise. As serious agricultural research, carried out by a team of fruit cultivation scientists and specialty coffee specialists who believe that what happens before the harvest matters as much as anything that happens after it.

Their Cold Washed H1, grown entirely in that Danish greenhouse, is now available exclusively on xBloom. It is one of the most unusual coffees we have ever offered, and the story behind it is worth knowing before you brew it.

Who is POMA Coffee, and what are they actually doing?

POMA was founded by Rasmus Madsen, a researcher in fruit cultivation, and Kapo Chiu, a veteran of the specialty coffee industry with over a decade running The Cupping Room in Hong Kong and a second-place finish at the 2014 World Barista Championship. The combination of those two backgrounds is what makes POMA unusual: agricultural science meeting specialty coffee expertise, applied to a crop that the research world has barely touched compared to other perennial crops like apples or pears.

The observation that drove POMA's founding is a simple one. Coffee as a crop is dramatically under-researched compared to what it could be. The science of how coffee plants respond to farming practices, microclimate, nutrition, pruning, and stress has barely been touched in a systematic way. POMA exists to do that work, and to make the findings accessible to coffee farmers worldwide, not just to keep them proprietary.

Based in Copenhagen, POMA operates on two parallel tracks. Their agricultural advisory arm works directly with coffee farms around the world, including renowned estates like Volcán Azul in Costa Rica, implementing and scaling up research findings in real production environments. And their Coffee Research Station in Fyn, Denmark, is where the foundational experiments happen.

The greenhouse in Fyn: a coffee farm in Scandinavia

The POMA Coffee Research Station was established in Fyn, Denmark, and has been running for six years. It is a climate-controlled greenhouse where environmental conditions are managed by algorithm, mimicking the conditions of coffee-growing regions at various elevations and latitudes. Temperature, humidity, light, and airflow are all controlled and varied as part of the experimental design. The trees do not know they are in Scandinavia.

The varieties grown there include Bourbon, Typica, Pacamara, Caturra, Catuaí, SL28, Ethiopian Landraces, Gesha, and others. The H1 hybrid, which is the variety in the coffee now available on xBloom, is one of POMA's key research subjects, a productive, vigorous hybrid between the rust-resistant T5296 and Rume Sudan, responding well to the controlled conditions of the greenhouse.

The fruit is hand-pollinated. The cherries are selected at peak ripeness. The research team analyses both fruit and seeds for organic acids, sugars, and aroma compounds at every stage, giving them a level of data on each lot that no commercial farm could feasibly collect. The result is that POMA knows more about what is inside each cherry before it is processed than almost anyone else in the specialty coffee world.

All of POMA's research findings are published and made available to coffee growers globally. The goal is not a proprietary advantage. It is to advance the whole industry. From the start of an experiment to the implementation of a technique at farm scale typically takes between 8 and 12 years. POMA is playing a long game.

The Cold Washed Process: what it is and why it matters

（Credit：POMA COFFEE）

Most coffee processing involves some degree of fermentation. Natural coffees dry with the fruit still on, allowing the sugars and microbial activity to build flavour over weeks. Washed coffees ferment briefly after pulping to help remove the mucilage. Even "clean" washed coffees go through a fermentation window that affects the final cup, sometimes in ways that are desirable, sometimes in ways that are not.

POMA developed the Cold Washed Process for a different reason altogether. They needed a way to process coffee that would not interfere with the inherent qualities of the seed, so they could evaluate the impact of their agricultural experiments without any processing-introduced variables clouding the results. If they changed something in the field and wanted to taste the difference, they needed a processing method that preserved what the plant produced rather than adding or subtracting from it.

What they developed is genuinely novel. The process works in three stages.

Stage one: cold storage. Immediately after harvest, the whole coffee cherries are placed in cold storage at 8°C for 48 hours. This temperature forces both the yeast naturally present on the cherry and the seed itself into dormancy, preventing fermentation from beginning. It also begins to intensify the aromatic compounds already present in the fruit.

Stage two: depulping and washing. The cherries are then depulped and the mucilage is thoroughly washed away, in the same manner as a conventional washed coffee. But because fermentation has been suppressed from the start, none of the inherent aroma compounds in the seed have been metabolized or altered by microbial activity.

Stage three: low-temperature drying. The washed seeds are dried at temperatures below 10°C in a pressurized, rotating tumble dryer. The low temperature keeps the yeast and the seed in dormancy throughout drying, preventing any late-stage germination or fermentation. The result is a coffee that arrives at the roaster in as close to its pure, genetically inherent state as any processing method has ever achieved.

POMA has verified the effects of this process through GC-MS analysis, a scientific method for measuring volatile aromatic compounds in green coffee. Their data shows that cold washed coffees retain over 90% of their unique aroma compounds, compared to 84% for a standard washed coffee and 67% for a naturally processed coffee. They also show an average increase in the intensity of variety-specific aromas of 60 to 70% compared to the same coffee processed using the regular washed method.

In plain terms: what you taste in a cold washed coffee is more purely what the plant produced, at higher intensity, with less interference. The variety's genetic character comes through with a clarity that other processing methods simply do not achieve.

There are no additives. No introduced yeast or bacteria. No active fermentation. Just coffee, cold, and time.

The H1 variety: what makes it different

H1 is a hybrid variety, a cross between T5296 and Rume Sudan. It was developed for productivity and disease resistance, particularly resistance to coffee leaf rust, the fungal pathogen that has devastated coffee farms across Central America and elsewhere. At a commercial level, H1 is valued for its vigour and yield. In POMA's hands, it becomes something else as well: a research subject for understanding how biostimulants, microclimate management, and precision farming practices affect cup quality in a variety that is widely grown but not often celebrated for its flavour complexity.

The characteristic of H1 that POMA has consistently documented is its mellow sweetness. Where Gesha or Pacamara bring dramatic florality or wild acidity, H1 produces a cup that is balanced, dense with natural sugar, and clean in a way that allows its subtler characteristics to express clearly. It is not a coffee that shouts. It rewards attention.

When processed using the Cold Washed method, that sweetness is preserved and intensified. The esters that contribute fruity, sweet aromas and the terpenes that contribute floral sweetness are retained at levels that standard processing reduces or loses. The resulting cup has the clean transparency of a washed coffee with a sweetness density that is unusual and immediately noticeable.

The Cold Washed H1 from xbloom: what is in the cup

Roaster: POMA Coffee, Copenhagen, Denmark
Variety: H1 (T5296 x Rume Sudan hybrid)
Origin: POMA Coffee Research Station, Fyn, Denmark
Process: Cold Washed
Roast: Light
Tasting notes: Apricot, cascara, autumn honey
Price: $31

This is a coffee with dense sweetness, complexity, and an unusual kind of intensity. The apricot note is not a fleeting suggestion. It sits at the centre of the cup throughout the brew. The cascara note, the dried coffee cherry husk character, is appropriately sweet and tangy, which makes sense for a cold washed H1: the aroma compounds associated with the fruit are preserved at higher concentration than in any other processing method. The autumn honey finish is long and clean, carrying through long after the cup is empty.

The balance between fruity and floral sweetness is the defining quality of this coffee. It is not bright in the way an Ethiopian natural is bright, and it is not austere in the way a high-altitude washed Kenyan can be. It occupies its own register: warm, sweet, layered, and transparently clean. This is what the H1 variety tastes like when nothing gets in the way.

This lot is currently available exclusively on xBloom. It is a limited release, direct from POMA's research station.

Brewing the Cold Washed H1 on xBloom

A coffee that is this precise in its processing rewards equally precise brewing. The Cold Washed H1 is a light roast designed for filter extraction, and the variables that matter most, water temperature, grind size, and pour pattern, have a pronounced effect on what ends up in the cup.

The xBloom Studio is particularly suited to a coffee like this. Because the Cold Washed H1 is an exclusive release available as a bag rather than an xPod, you will brew it using the Omni Dripper 2 in Free Solo or Copilot mode, which gives you full control over the recipe parameters. Here is what we recommend:

Recipe for the Cold Washed H1 on xbloom

Dose: 15g coffee
Water: 225ml
Ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 92°C (197°F)
Grind setting: Medium-coarse (Grind size 62 at 80 RPM)
Target brew time: 2:45 to 3:15 minutes

Method: Rinse the paper filter with hot water and discard before brewing. This removes any papery flavour that would compete with the H1's delicate floral notes. Add your ground coffee. Begin the pour with a 56ml bloom, just enough water to saturate the grounds, and allow 22 seconds for the CO₂ to release. This bloom phase is particularly important for a light roast, where trapped gas can cause uneven extraction if not allowed to escape first. Complete the remaining water in three consistent spiral pours, each with 22 seconds of pause in between. Allow the brew to drawdown fully before removing the dripper.

Recipe: https://share-h5.xbloom.com/?id=h6uh5A6S%2F2a8wO8E9LxqZA%3D%3D

Let the coffee cool for two to three minutes after brewing before your first sip. Cold washed coffees in particular open up significantly as temperature drops, revealing sweetness and complexity that can be obscured at full serving temperature. The apricot and honey notes in the H1 are most expressive between 55°C and 65°C.

The xBloom Studio's 48mm conical burr grinder with 80 grind settings gives the kind of precision that allows you to dial in this recipe accurately. The adjustable water temperature system ensures the 92°C target is hit consistently, which matters for a light roast where even a few degrees can shift the balance of extraction. Once you find the sweet spot for this particular lot, Copilot mode lets you save the recipe and repeat it exactly every time.

Why a coffee grown in Denmark matters for everyone

The most important thing POMA is doing is not growing coffee in Denmark. It is building an evidence base for how agricultural decisions affect cup quality, in a controlled environment that eliminates every variable except the one being studied. No farm can do that. Fields are subject to weather, pests, uneven soil, inconsistent harvesting. POMA's greenhouse removes all of that.

The research they produce, covering crop load management, biostimulants, pruning techniques, microclimate effects, and processing methods, is then taken to partner farms around the world and verified at production scale. That process, from greenhouse experiment to farm-level implementation, typically takes 8 to 12 years. The Cold Washed H1 on xBloom is, in a sense, a window into the laboratory stage of that journey.

Coffee growing regions are facing serious pressure from climate change. Temperature shifts, changing rainfall patterns, and the spread of disease are all pushing the boundaries of where quality coffee can be grown and how. POMA's work on climate simulation, variety research, and agricultural practices that improve both quality and resilience is directly relevant to that challenge. What they learn in Fyn, Denmark, is designed to benefit farmers in Colombia, Costa Rica, Kenya, and beyond.

xBloom carries POMA's coffees because this kind of rigorous, transparent, research-led approach to quality is exactly what our roaster selection criteria look for. The Cold Washed H1 is not just an interesting cup. It is proof of what serious science applied to specialty coffee can produce.

Frequently asked questions

What is POMA Coffee?

POMA is a coffee research and roasting company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded by fruit cultivation researcher Rasmus Madsen and specialty coffee specialist Kapo Chiu, POMA operates a climate-controlled coffee research greenhouse in Fyn, Denmark, and works with partner farms worldwide to study and improve coffee cultivation practices. Their research findings are made available to coffee growers globally. They are best known for the Cold Washed Process, a proprietary processing method they developed and have verified through scientific analysis.

What is the Cold Washed Process?

The Cold Washed Process is a coffee processing method developed by POMA Coffee that preserves the genetically inherent qualities of the coffee variety by preventing fermentation and germination throughout drying. Whole cherries are stored at 8°C for 48 hours after harvest to suppress microbial activity, then depulped, washed, and dried at temperatures below 10°C in a pressurized tumble dryer. GC-MS analysis shows that cold washed coffees retain over 90% of their unique aroma compounds, significantly higher than standard washed (84%) or naturally processed (67%) coffees. There are no additives, no introduced yeast or bacteria, and no active fermentation involved.

Can coffee be grown in Denmark?

Not commercially outdoors. But POMA Coffee has been growing coffee in a climate-controlled greenhouse in Fyn, Denmark, for six years. The facility uses algorithms to manage temperature, humidity, light, and airflow, simulating the conditions of coffee-growing regions at various elevations. The coffee is hand-pollinated and harvested by hand. It is primarily a research operation, designed to study how farming practices affect cup quality in a controlled environment where all other variables can be eliminated.

What does the Cold Washed H1 taste like?

The Cold Washed H1 has tasting notes of apricot, cascara, and autumn honey. It is a light roast with dense natural sweetness, a clean and transparent body, and a long finish. The balance between fruity and floral sweetness is the defining quality of the cup. It is best brewed as a pour over and opens up significantly as it cools, revealing more complexity between 55°C and 65°C.

What is the H1 coffee variety?

H1 is a hybrid coffee variety, a cross between T5296 and Rume Sudan. It was developed primarily for its productivity and resistance to coffee leaf rust. In POMA's greenhouse experiments, it has shown consistent mellow sweetness and balance when processed using the Cold Washed method. It is not a commonly celebrated variety for flavour complexity, which is part of what makes POMA's work interesting: they are demonstrating that with the right cultivation practices and processing, even a utilitarian hybrid can produce a genuinely remarkable cup.

Where can I buy the Cold Washed H1?

The POMA Coffee Cold Washed H1 is available exclusively on xBloom. It is a limited release from POMA's Denmark research station. Once this lot is sold out, it will not be restocked with the same harvest.