Kaffeost (Coffee Cheese)

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, 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: Swedish boiled coffee, the traditional brew to pour over the cheese.
• Scandinavian egg coffee: another Nordic coffee with an unexpected ingredient.
• Cowboy coffee: coffee boiled in a pot over a fire.

Explore every boiled method in the boiled chapter.