Kaffeost | Hacker News Reader

Kaffeost

atlasobscura.com

56 pointsi_don_t_know41 comments

This very much reminded me of the cheese in coffee (actually any hot beverage) culture in Colombia [1]. The same basic premise that the cheese softens but does not melt. Imparts a little extra flavor to the coffee but the best part for me is the cheese absorbs the liquid resulting in an awesome tasting cheese with unique texture. The first time I was introduced to this I thought the locals were trying to trick a silly foreigner into putting cheese into their coffee. Another favorite of mine in Colombia in putting achiras (like small cheesy bread sticks) in coffee [2].

[1] - https://www.roastycoffee.com/cheese-in-coffee/

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achira_(biscuit)

Glad to see a cherished local delicacy featured on HN! Growing up in northern Sweden, I learned to enjoy it even before I started drinking coffee. While it is a rather mild cheese on its own, when immersed in coffee it softens up and absorbs some of the liquid, giving it a texture somewhere between Camembert and Tiramisu. It pairs well with the traditional Swedish way of preparing coffee, which is coarsely ground coffee seeping immersed in boiling water. Similar to a french press, the unfiltered particles in the coffee give it a more rounded taste, as do the fat the kaffeost disperses into the coffee. As far as I understand from traveling the area and talking to friends, it is more common to eat it like this in the northern parts of Finland and Sweden, whereas further south (but still in the "northern parts") it is enjoyed on its own together with cloudberries.

The article seems a little bit confused regarding locations, though. It mainly uses the Swedish name kaffeost and claims it to be a Scandinavian delicacy (i.e. excluding Finland), but it gives several names for the cheese in Finnish without mentioning Finland. My understanding is that it is mainly a Finnish thing centered around northern Finland and Tornedalia [1], at least originally.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me%C3%A4nmaa

I am a Swede but never heard of this at all and haven't seen it. Seems like something that is happening far up in the north? Maybe something new for the hipster coffee shops to try.

As a Dane, I feel like if it's coffee with cheese, shouldn't it be ostekaffe? Kaffeost suggests it's a cheese with coffee flavour. Though, I have never heard of this either.

It’s the cheese that is called kaffeost, not the combination of the cheese with coffee.

Coffee with cheese would be ostkaffe .. cheese that you specifically put in coffee will be kaffeost.

Had it a few month ago in Kiruna .. just not that exciting.

I am a Finn and also never seen or heard anyone do this. "Leipäjuusto" with jam is common though.

And much tastier.

Last 1 minute of this video is the first time I heard about this practice: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eB3svho-sF0

Same here from Norway. Though it says the cheese used is often made from reindeer's milk, so I figure it might be a Sami thing?

They did specifically mention the Sami in the article

| Though it may be an unlikely pairing to some palates, among the Sami people of Lapland and other regions around northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia, sharing a mug of kaffeost is a welcome and welcoming ritual.

I've heard the Sami like salt in the coffee, but the cheese thing is new to me.

My brother's wife is no Sami, just a regular fin, and she, and her mother and sisters, actually use salt in coffee. To me as a regular Swede it's sort of insane.

That sounds odd. I'm a Finn and I can tell you that it's definitely not common here.

Depends on how much salt. Salt just removes some bitterness, it's not too bad. It can actually improve a bad cup of coffee.

Apropos salt in coffee, the way I heard it when growing up was that coffee brewed (or rather boiled) on meltwater didn't quite taste right, add some salt and presto! Having tried that myself I can easily believe that, meltwater doesn't taste the same as well-water. For the record, I tried myself, and yes, when boiling instead of brewing some salt will work, in brewed coffee though, not!

As a fellow Swede: having grown up in northern Sweden, I have both heard of this, and have personally witnessed cheese especially made for this practice in regular stores, but I have never tried it myself.

Swede here. Yes, I've heard of it and have witnessed it, but I'd say it's extremely uncommon (bordering “unheard of”) among people under the age of 80. In Sweden it's practiced mainly in the north.

Highlighting some ancient ritual and making it sound like it's a part of everyday life is typical for this kind of journalism.

I’m an American, but I lived a year in Kiruna (up north, mining town, part of Lapland) and it was a common thing among my friends from there. Common enough that I brought the tradition back to the US and enjoyed a cup of coffee-cheesed coffee just yesterday.

Wow. How was your experience there? Even as a native Swede, that’d be quite a cultural challenge, as well as harsh to deal with the total darkness during the winter.

I loved it. We moved there with 4 kids and had number 5 there. Life-changing, wonderful experience.

I spent some time in northern Sweden, have seen and tried this. It seems pretty common for people who take coffee to work, on hikes, camping etc. I’ve never seen it in a cafe.

To me it’s just an much easier to transport milk alternative.

I grew up in Norrbotten (north of the gulf of botnia, northernmost part of Sweden). This was (and still is a thing). Anyway, my mother is from the province of Hälsingland (in the middle part of Sweden), there one eats ”ostkaka” (cheese cake), which is almost the same thing, but heated in the oven and eaten with jam. I therefore suspect these to be ”relic-dishes” and that this type of dairy product was once more widely spread.

And for those who have neither heard or eaten kaffeost, the most similar thing I can think of is Halloumi, though unsalted and made from predominantly cow's milk.

Interesting. I wonder if other types of cheese would work in a cup of coffee, since I doubt I can easily get my hands on this kind. Maybe Butterkase, it's soft, mild, and buttery.

I was half expecting to read about coffee-flavored cheese.

I tried chocolate cheese once. We were thinking, chocolate = good, cheese = good. Chocolate Cheese = EVEN BETTER!

We were wrong. It was terrible.

Chocolate and Cheese is also the name of one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

I know the reference, but I can't put my finger on it ;)

I’ve experimented in the US since “real” kaffeost is hard to get ahold of, and I’ve found Wisconsin cheese curds to work the best.

If you're in proximity to Wisconsin, https://carrvalleycheese.com has various bread cheeses ( https://carrvalleycheese.com/product-category/bread-cheese/ ) can be found in the specialty cheese section of many grocery stores.

For coffee, you'd likely want the one without other things in it ( https://carrvalleycheese.com/product/bread-cheese/ )

> In Finland there is a cheese called Juustoleipa. This translates into cheese bread. We make ours different but better with oven baking it until it has a browned crusty top. Pop it in your oven or microwave until it glistens. Serve it with your favorite dip as a delicious snack. Good as is!

Note the pairings recommended:

> Honey, jam, syrup, coffee

It looks like you can order it from there too.

I’ve heard dark chocolate and parmesan make a nice pairing.

Halloumi has a similar squeaky texture so you could try that. The taste is not the same, though.

In Brazil it is common. The root is maybe that fat makes caffeine to spike less and last longer.

I’ve heard that it has similar effects to Bulletproof coffee in that way.

I wonder where the root of this is. Puerto Ricans do this as well "Café con queso"

Wow! Gotta visit a place in LA that sells these - https://www.google.com/search?q=caf%C3%A9+con+queso+los+ange...

Thanks!!!

Never heard of this before, but I have fond memories of my grandmother sipping Greek coffee with a piece of Cretan gruyere.

I'm from Bulgaria, and I would've thought I would know about this (one of my grandmothers is from Greece), but would check.

I was actually looking for more different ways to flavor my coffee - not just heavy cream, or butter, but something else.

So might try both yours, and what the article suggested!

In Sweden it's only a thing far up north.

I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t some new startup using some Swedish word as their name.

There’s also egg coffee. Two versions of it, in fact:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_coffee

Cheese in coffee is not that unusual. In France they dip the cheese comte in their coffee in the morning in the alpine area. It's probably mostly older people who do it these days.

I've seen many claim that the tradition came to northern Norway with Finnish immigrants. It seems likely, but really hard to say for sure who first did this thing around here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com