# Kaffeost (Coffee Cheese)

Source: https://dailyextraction.com/methods/finnish-kaffeost/
Last updated: 2026-10-20

> Kaffeost is coffee with cheese, from northern Finland and Sweden. You cut a mild, squeaky baked cheese, leipäjuusto, into small pieces, put them in a cup and pour hot coffee over them. The cheese softens and takes on the coffee's flavour, and you scoop it up at the end. Kaffeost, Swedish for "coffee cheese", is also the cheese's name.

## At a glance

- Category: Boiled & Traditional (Boiled)
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Origin: Finland
- Also known as: kaffeost, coffee cheese, kahvijuusto, leipäjuusto in coffee, juustoleipä coffee

## Steps

1. **Brew the coffee**: Make a pot of coffee. In Swedish Lapland it's often boiled coffee, kokkaffe, made with coarser grounds that sink to the bottom of the pan.
2. **Cut the cheese**: Cut leipäjuusto (bread cheese, sold as kaffeost in Sweden) into small pieces or cubes.
3. **Put it in the cup**: Drop a few pieces into the bottom of each cup.
4. **Pour the coffee over**: Pour hot coffee over the cheese. It softens slightly and picks up the coffee's flavour.
5. **Drink, then eat the cheese**: Drink the coffee, then scoop up the soft cheese at the end.

**Kaffeost** is coffee with cheese, a habit from **northern Finland and Sweden**. You cut a mild, squeaky baked cheese called **leipäjuusto** into small pieces, put them in the bottom of a cup and **pour hot coffee over them**. The cheese softens a little and soaks up the coffee's flavour, and you **scoop it up at the end**. The name is Swedish for "coffee cheese", and it's the name of the cheese as well as the drink. Here's how it's done and where it comes from.

## The short version

- **Coffee poured over cubes of cheese**, in the cup.
- **The cheese is leipäjuusto**, a mild, squeaky Finnish bread cheese.
- **It softens but doesn't melt**, and takes on the coffee's taste.
- **Eat the cheese at the end** with a spoon.
- **From northern Finland and Swedish Lapland**, linked to the Sámi.



## What is the cheese?

**Leipäjuusto** ("bread cheese") is a Finnish **fresh cheese**. Wikipedia says it was traditionally made from **cow's colostrum**, the first milk after calving, though shop versions are usually made from ordinary cow's milk. The milk is curdled, set into a flat round disc, then **baked, grilled or flambéed**, which gives it brown or charred marks. It comes originally from **Southern Ostrobothnia, Northern Finland and Kainuu**.

It goes by many names:

| Name | Where |
| --- | --- |
| Leipäjuusto, juustoleipä | Finland |
| Kahvijuusto ("coffee cheese") | Lapland and the Tornio River Valley (Tornedalen) |
| Kaffeost, brödost | Sweden |
| Gáffevuostá ("coffee cheese") | Sámi |
| Finnish squeaky cheese | Sometimes, in the United States |

Some Finnish dialect names refer to the way fresh leipäjuusto **squeaks** against your teeth. In Lapland it was once made from **reindeer milk**, according to Levi, a Finnish Lapland resort. Swedish Lapland's visitors board describes it as having a very neutral taste, and New Nutrition Business compares it to **halloumi, but less salty**.

## How do you make kaffeost?

1. **Brew your coffee.** In Swedish Lapland that's often boiled [kokkaffe](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/kokkaffe/), made with coffee ground a bit coarser so the grounds sink in the pan.
2. **Cut the cheese** into small pieces or cubes.
3. **Put a few pieces in each cup.**
4. **Pour the hot coffee over them.**
5. **Drink the coffee, then eat the cheese** with a spoon once it's softened.

There's no set amount of cheese: a few small pieces to a cup is the usual description. Swedish Lapland's visitors board admits it "might be one of Swedish Lapland's weirdest habits", along with putting meat in coffee, "but it's a very long tradition that we still cherish".

## Where does the habit come from?

The tradition is linked to the **Sámi**, the Indigenous people of northern Sweden, Finland and Norway, and to the settlers who lived alongside them. The reason isn't recorded, but **New Nutrition Business** gives one explanation: in the far north, where winter temperatures fall well below -20°C, frozen food was defrosted in **boiling broth**. When coffee became common in the region, it was made by putting coarsely ground beans in boiling water on the stove, and at some point people began boiling cheese in coffee rather than broth.

Salt went into the coffee too. Swedish Lapland's visitors board says the Sámi and settlers used to add **salt** after a hard day's work, which also took away the bitterness of coffee boiled in water that was too hot.

## Is kaffeost protected?

New Nutrition Business reports that the cheese, made in northern Sweden, has been granted the EU's **Protected Designation of Origin** (PDO), making it the second Nordic cheese with that status. It says the protected cheese is made from the milk of the traditional **Fjäll** cattle breed, with rennet as the only other ingredient.

## Other ways to eat the cheese

Leipäjuusto isn't only for coffee. Wikipedia says the traditional way is to serve slices **alongside coffee**. Levi suggests warming it in cream in the oven, or in a pan over an open fire, and serving it with **cloudberry jam**. New Nutrition Business adds that it's often fried in butter, and diced as a mild alternative to feta.

*General guidance only. Leipäjuusto is a dairy product, so it isn't suitable for anyone avoiding milk, and take care with very hot coffee.*

## Kaffeost vs other methods

- **[Kokkaffe](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/kokkaffe/):** Swedish boiled coffee, the traditional brew to pour over the cheese.
- **[Scandinavian egg coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/egg-coffee-scandinavian/):** another Nordic coffee with an unexpected ingredient.
- **[Cowboy coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cowboy-coffee/):** coffee boiled in a pot over a fire.

Explore every boiled method in the [boiled chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/boiled/).

## FAQs

### What cheese is used for kaffeost?

Leipäjuusto, a Finnish fresh cheese also called juustoleipä, bread cheese or, in Sweden, kaffeost. Wikipedia says it was traditionally made from cow's colostrum, and is now usually made from cow's milk, then baked, grilled or flambéed to give it brown marks.

### Does the cheese melt in the coffee?

Not really. It softens slightly and takes on the coffee's flavour, and its squeaky texture is part of the appeal. You eat it at the end with a spoon.

### Where does kaffeost come from?

Northern Finland and Sweden. Wikipedia says the cheese originally comes from Southern Ostrobothnia, Northern Finland and Kainuu; Swedish Lapland and the Tornio River Valley share the coffee tradition, and it's associated with the Sámi.

### Why did people put cheese in coffee?

Nobody knows for sure. One explanation, reported by New Nutrition Business, is that frozen food was defrosted in boiling broth in the far north, and at some point cheese was boiled in coffee instead.

### Can I make kaffeost with halloumi?

Kaffeost is often compared to halloumi, but less salty. Leipäjuusto is the traditional cheese, and some supermarkets outside the Nordics sell it as bread cheese or Finnish squeaky cheese.

## Sources

- [Bread cheese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_cheese)
- [The way we eat](https://www.swedishlapland.com/stories/the-way-we-eat/)
- [A taste of Lapland, part 1](https://www.levi.fi/en/news-and-stories/a-taste-of-lapland-part-1/)
- [Cheese meets coffee in protected traditional food](https://www.new-nutrition.com/nnbBlog/display/258)