Some cafés are built around a menu. Others are built around a mood. Hakone Coffee was built around an idea: that great coffee, thoughtful design, and a sense of everyday inspiration can come together in one place.
Founded in Oslo in 2024, Hakone Coffee takes its name from Hakone, the Japanese town outside Tokyo known for its natural beauty, simplicity, and connection to Japanese culture. But the name is far more than an aesthetic reference. For Hakone, the principles associated with Japan are woven into the way the cafés are built, the way coffee is prepared, and the experience they want to create for every person who walks through the door.
At the center of it all is coffee.
Coffee First, Always
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Photo credit: RRebel
Hakone Coffee is unapologetically coffee-centric. Rather than treating coffee as one element among many, the brand has made it the foundation of its entire experience.
The team roasts its own coffee while also working with some of the most respected specialty coffee roasters in the world. Coffee Collective, La Cabra, and Koppi are all represented on the bar, giving customers the opportunity to experience different approaches to specialty coffee in one setting.
There is also an unmistakable focus on consistency. Hakone brews its pour-over coffee using a Poursteady, allowing each cup to be prepared with a level of precision that removes unnecessary variation from the process.
For the team, this attention to detail is not about making coffee feel complicated. It is about respecting the ingredient and allowing the quality of the coffee to speak for itself.
That philosophy extends beyond the cup. Every detail is considered with the same intention: keep things simple, do them exceptionally well, and create an environment where people can slow down, reset, and enjoy the experience.
Bringing Japanese Tea Culture to Oslo
Coffee may be the heart of Hakone, but its identity has also been shaped by another Japanese tradition: tea.
When Hakone Coffee first opened, Japanese teas such as matcha and hojicha were still relatively unfamiliar to many people in Norway. Today, they have become an important part of what Hakone offers.
Matcha brings its own ritual, flavor, and cultural history, while hojicha offers something altogether different with its roasted, comforting character. Together, they have helped Hakone introduce a wider audience to Japanese tea culture without losing sight of the café’s central philosophy.
The result is not a café attempting to replicate Japan. Instead, Hakone takes inspiration from Japanese simplicity and quality and interprets those ideas through an Oslo lens.
Photo credit: RRebel
A Dream Built Without Big Capital
Behind Hakone Coffee is a story that is perhaps even more interesting than its minimalist aesthetic.
The company was started by two individuals in Norway, with Camilla Svanberg as CEO and the main driving force behind the business. There was no major investment fund or large capital backing the idea. Instead, the founders relied on their own savings and a belief that Oslo could have a more inspiring coffee shop experience.
That decision came with risk.
Building a hospitality brand from personal savings requires more than a good concept. It requires persistence, patience, and the willingness to keep making decisions when there is no large financial safety net behind you.
Yet that independence has also helped shape Hakone’s character. The business has been able to grow around its own standards rather than following a formula designed by outside investors.
What began as a dream has since grown into six locations across Oslo.
Photo credit: RRebel
More Than Somewhere to Get Coffee
Growth has not changed the fundamental idea behind Hakone.
The goal is not simply to open more cafés. It is to create spaces that encourage people to feel inspired and, in the brand’s own words, to be their best self.
That can mean different things to different people.
For one person, it might be the quiet ritual of a carefully prepared pour-over. For another, it could be discovering matcha for the first time. It might be meeting a friend, working for an hour, taking a moment alone, or simply finding a little beauty in the middle of an ordinary day.
This is where Hakone’s Japanese influence becomes particularly meaningful. There is a sense of restraint in the brand’s approach, an understanding that an experience does not need to be excessive to be memorable.
The coffee does not need to compete with the surroundings. The surroundings do not need to compete with the coffee.
Everything has a purpose.
Photo credit: RRebel
Six Cafés, One Philosophy
Today, Hakone Coffee has six locations in Oslo, but the ambition remains remarkably straightforward.
Great coffee comes first.
The rest exists to support that experience.
In a coffee culture increasingly filled with elaborate concepts and endless choices, there is something refreshing about a brand that knows exactly what it wants to be. Hakone is not trying to be everything to everyone. It is building its identity around quality, consistency, Japanese-inspired simplicity, and the belief that a café can be more than a place to buy a drink.
It can be a place that changes the rhythm of your day.
Hakone Coffee’s journey is still relatively young. What started in 2024 with two founders, personal savings, and a dream has already become a six-location presence in Oslo. But perhaps the most compelling part of the story is that, despite that growth, the original idea has remained intact.
Great coffee first. Always.
And around it, a space designed to inspire people to pause, appreciate the details, and leave feeling a little more like their best selves.
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