There’s nothing strange about adding a bit of milk or cream to a cup of coffee, but in northern Sweden, they prefer a different kind of dairy with their coffee – cheese.
Kaffeost is a combination of hot coffee and a particular type of cheese called leipäjuusto, which loosely translates to “bread cheese”. But there’s no bread involved in this unusual combination, just cheese and coffee. The name most likely comes from the cheese’s absorbent quality, which allows it to take on a surprising amount of coffee flavor after soaking for only a few minutes. The spongy texture may not be for everybody, but the taste is said to be more than worth it. Leipäjuusto is noticeably sweeter than your average block of cheddar, so adding a few pieces to your cup of coffee is surprisingly similar to adding cream, or milk and sugar to it.
Consuming kaffeost has deep cultural roots among the reindeer herders of northern Sweden and Finland. It is said that semi-nomadic Sami people discovered the delicious combination of coffee and cheese during their travels. They noticed that kaffeost helped solve their sodium deficiency problems, while the hot coffee kept them warm and gave them the needed energy to journey through the cold.
Coffee and cheese may not sound like a match made in heaven for most people, but in Scandinavia, the popularity of kaffeost is on the rise. Specialty coffee shops are increasingly offering kaffeost, along with variations that use cow’s milk or goat’s milk cheese, alongside the traditional reindeer milk leipäjuusto.
Last month, the EU granted “protected designation of origin” status to kaffeost at the initiative of local cheese-makers who wanted to preserve a piece of their food heritage and hopefully attract curious coffee lovers to their region.
