A traditional food hailing from the Sámi people, native to the north of Sweden, Finland and Norway, combines two of our perhaps most popular foods – coffee and cheese – and the core product has recently been granted a Swedish Protected Designation of Origin by the European Union.
Named kaffeost, which literally translates as “coffee cheese”, it is a cheese typically made from reindeer, goat or cow’s milk. Often described as tasting like halloumi but less salty, the cheese has a mild taste and slightly squeaky texture.
In Finland the cheese is known as leipäjuusto, meaning “bread cheese”. It gets this name from its baked nature; once the milk has curdled and set, it is baked in the oven to produce a disc-shaped cheese that has distinctive charred marks. In some areas, the cheese is instead smoked.
So what about the coffee? The most traditional way to enjoy kaffeost is by cutting it into cubes which are placed at the bottom of a coffee cup. Coffee is then poured on top, slightly softening the cheese and making it take on the bitter aroma of the coffee. When the coffee is finished, the cheese is scooped up for a creamy ending to a coffee break.
The tradition is believed to stem from the necessity to defrost food, which would freeze as temperatures often reach well below -20 C in the north of Sweden during winter. This was often done by putting the frozen food in boiling broth. When coffee started to become more common in the region, several hundred years ago, it was made by placing coarsely ground coffee beans into boiling water on the stove. At some point the tradition to boil cheese in coffee rather than broth evolved, and this forms the basis of the kaffeost tradition today.
Other usages include eating the cheese as a side dish to coffee, often fried in butter and served with cloudberry jam. In modern cuisine, diced kaffeost is also used as a mild replacement for feta cheese.
In order to preserve the tradition and protect the quality of the product – while preventing it from being copied in other areas of the Nordics and beyond – kaffeost was in June this year given the EU’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). This is the same certification enjoyed by European classics such as Champagne, Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano and it makes kaffeost the second cheese in the Nordics to enjoy such a certification.
“This EU quality seal signals genuine food and drink with roots in the knowledge and tradition of the Swedish countryside. While the label helps to preserve knowledge, production and jobs, it can also have a positive impact on food tourism and place development,” says Malena Bathurst at the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
100g of kaffeost delivers 388 kcal, 32g of fat and 23g of protein. It is made with milk from the traditional Swedish cattle breed Fjäll (known as Fjällko in Swedish), with the only other ingredient being rennet.
During a recent visit to the Kiruna area in the north of Sweden, NNB enjoyed both the most traditional version of kaffeost and a more novel version whereby it was served deep-fried as a crunchy topping on ice cream with cloudberries (pictured below). Both were delicious, although the traditional version might take some getting used to.
