# Norwegian Kokekaffe Source: https://dailyextraction.com/methods/kokekaffe/ Last updated: 2026-10-20 > Bring water to the boil in a kettle or pot, take it off the heat and stir in coarse (kokmalt) coffee until it's all wet. Leave it to steep, not boil, for about 6 to 8 minutes while the grounds sink, then pour gently so they stay behind, or pour through a strainer into a flask or serving jug. ## At a glance - Ratio: About 55–70 g per litre (Norwegian filter strength) - Grind: Coarse (sea salt) - Water temperature: Just off the boil - Brew time: about 6:00 - Category: Boiled & Traditional (Boiled) - Difficulty: Beginner - Origin: Norway - Also known as: Norwegian boiled coffee, bålkaffe ## Steps 1. **Boil the water**: Bring the water to the boil in a coffee kettle or pot. 2. **Take it off the heat and add coffee**: Take the kettle off the heat and add coarse, kokmalt coffee. 3. **Stir until it's all wet**: Stir at the top of the kettle until all the coffee is soaked through. 4. **Steep, don't boil**: Leave it to steep for about 6 to 8 minutes. It shouldn't boil again. 5. **Pour gently**: Stir lightly, then pour slowly into cups so the grounds stay in the kettle, or pour through a strainer into a jug or flask. **Kokekaffe** ("boiled coffee") is Norway's traditional coffee: coarse coffee steeped in just-boiled water in a **kettle**, left until the grounds **sink**, then poured off into cups. It was the everyday way to make coffee in Norway until **electric coffee makers** took over, and it lives on outdoors, as campfire coffee and in flasks on hikes. Norwegian coffee people have been championing it again, for its full body and sweetness. Here's the modern Norwegian method, and the history and health research that make kokekaffe a story of its own. ## The short version - **Boil the water**, take it off the heat, then add **coarse, kokmalt coffee**. - **Stir until it's all wet**, and let it **steep, not boil**, for **6 to 8 minutes**. - **Pour gently** so the grounds stay behind, or use a strainer. - **Full-bodied and sweet**, with no paper filter. - **Unfiltered**, so it keeps the coffee oils that can raise cholesterol. ## How do you make kokekaffe? This is the method published by **Norsk Kaffeinformasjon**, the Norwegian coffee information body (kaffe.no), and recommended by roaster Ola Brattås of Kaffebrenneriet: 1. **Boil the water** in a coffee kettle or pot. 2. **Take it off the heat** and add **coarse, *kokmalt*** coffee. 3. **Stir at the top of the kettle** until all the coffee is soaked through. 4. **Steep, don't boil, for 6 to 8 minutes.** Brattås says a coarse grind gives good flavour after about 6 minutes. 5. **Stir lightly and pour carefully** into the cups, so the grounds don't follow, or pour through a **strainer** into a serving jug or flask. Brattås points out that a finer grind needs less time, because the flavour comes out faster, and that the method is forgiving: it's "less dramatic" if you're a little out on the timing. ## How much coffee should I use? The Norwegian sources don't give a fixed dose for kokekaffe. For filter coffee, Store norske leksikon says Norwegians typically use about **55 to 70 g of coffee per litre** of water, and that's a sensible starting point for kokekaffe too. I'd begin around **60 g per litre** and adjust to taste. ![Chart of coffee grind sizes from extra fine to extra coarse, with coarse highlighted for kokekaffe](https://dailyextraction.com/diagrams/grind-size.svg#coarse "Kokekaffe uses a coarse grind, sold in Norway as kokmalt.") **Kokmalt** ("ground for boiling") is the coarse grind Norwegian shops sell for kokekaffe. Norwegian Wikipedia notes that kokekaffe is ground coarser than filter coffee. ## What does kokekaffe taste like? Brattås says kokekaffe gives a **soft mouthfeel with more body and sweetness**, and that it's never watery or sour. He compares it to **cupping**, the way coffee professionals taste beans, because nothing is taken away or added. That's also why he says it suits **any roast**: some people prefer it darker, others lighter. Paper filters, by contrast, take away some of the mouthfeel. ## The Norwegian coffee kettle Kokekaffe is made in a **kaffekjele**, a coffee kettle with a spout. The best known is designer **Tias Eckhoff's** kettle **941**, in matt anodised aluminium: according to Norsk Kaffeinformasjon, he began drawing it in **1961**, it went into production at **Halden Aluminiumvarefabrikk** in **1964**, and it won the Norwegian award for good design (*Merket for god design*) the same year. In **2017**, Brattås and Eckhoff's daughter **Sigrid Eckhoff** relaunched it as the **Tias Kettle**, in thick steel, with a patented filter in the spout, the "Os Flow Restrictor", to keep the grounds out of your cup. ## How did kokekaffe become Norway's coffee? | When | What | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | 1876 | Norway drinks about 8.8 lb (4 kg) of coffee per person a year | Ukers | | 1921 | Norway's consumption has reached about 10.95 lb (5 kg) per person | Ukers | | 1922 | Ukers writes that in Norway "the boiling method has many followers", using a big open copper kettle | Ukers | | Later 20th century | Electric coffee makers replace kokekaffe as the everyday method | Norwegian Wikipedia | | Today | Norwegians drink just under 10 kg per person a year, mostly filter coffee | Store norske leksikon | Ukers describes how, in poorer country homes, the **copper kettle** was brought to the table on a wooden plate and the coffee poured straight into cups, while better-off homes poured it into **silver coffee pots** in the kitchen. Norwegian Wikipedia adds that because coffee was expensive, people often **reboiled old grounds** with a small dose of fresh coffee. Kokekaffe also lives on as **bålkaffe** (campfire coffee) and as **turkaffe**, coffee carried in a flask on a hike. ## Is kokekaffe bad for you? Norway is where some of the key research on boiled coffee was done. Unfiltered coffee keeps oils such as **[cafestol](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/cafestol/)** that paper filters mostly trap (see our [French press](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/french-press/) guide for more). - **1983, the Tromsø Heart Study.** In 14,581 Norwegians aged 20 to 54, more coffee went with **higher total cholesterol**. Men drinking more than nine cups a day averaged 6.23 mmol/l, against 5.56 mmol/l for those drinking less than one. - **1985, a Tromsø trial.** In 33 men with high cholesterol, cholesterol fell when they stopped drinking coffee. It **rose again in those who went back to boiled coffee**, but not in those who switched to filter coffee. - **2020, a Norwegian follow-up of 508,747 people** over about 20 years. **Unfiltered coffee was associated with higher mortality than filtered coffee**, and filtered coffee with lower mortality than no coffee at all. These are observational studies and a small trial, not proof that a cup of kokekaffe harms you. But if you've been told to watch your cholesterol and drink a lot of coffee, it's worth making more of it filtered, or pouring your kokekaffe through a paper filter. *General guidance only, not medical advice. Take care with boiling water, open fires and hot kettles.* ## Kokekaffe vs other methods - **[Swedish kokkaffe](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/kokkaffe/):** the Swedish side of Scandinavian boiled coffee. - **[Scandinavian egg coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/egg-coffee-scandinavian/):** boiled coffee cleared with an egg. - **[Cowboy coffee](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/cowboy-coffee/):** America's campfire coffee. - **[French press](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/french-press/):** coarse coffee steeped, then pressed through a mesh. Explore every boiled method in the [boiled chapter](https://dailyextraction.com/methods/boiled/). ## Words used in this guide - [Steeping](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/steeping/): Steeping is leaving ground coffee to sit in water so its flavour dissolves out, as in a French press or cold brew. - [Body](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/body/): Body is how heavy and textured coffee feels in your mouth, from light and tea-like to thick and syrupy. - [Cafestol](https://dailyextraction.com/glossary/cafestol/): Cafestol is a natural oil compound (a diterpene) found in coffee beans that can raise LDL cholesterol when consumed regularly in large amounts. ## FAQs ### What is kokekaffe? Norwegian boiled coffee: coarse coffee steeped in just-boiled water in a kettle until the grounds sink, then poured off. It was the usual way to make coffee in Norway until electric coffee makers arrived, and it's still made outdoors, over campfires and for flasks on hikes. ### What is kokmalt coffee? Kokmalt means ground for boiling. It's the coarse grind sold in Norway for kokekaffe, coarser than the grind used for filter coffee. ### Do you boil the coffee in kokekaffe? Traditionally the coffee was boiled in the kettle, but the Norwegian Coffee Association's guide boils the water, takes it off the heat, then adds the coffee and lets it steep, not boil, for 6 to 8 minutes. ### Is kokekaffe bad for cholesterol? Unfiltered coffee keeps oils that can raise cholesterol. Norway's Tromsø Heart Study linked heavy coffee drinking with higher cholesterol in 1983, and a 2020 Norwegian study of 508,747 people found unfiltered coffee associated with higher mortality than filtered coffee. ### Is kokekaffe the same as Swedish kokkaffe? It's the same family of Scandinavian boiled coffee under its Norwegian name. Our kokkaffe page covers the Swedish tradition and the boil-briefly method. ## Sources - [Kokekaffens renessanse](https://kaffe.no/kokekaffe/) - [Kaffe](https://snl.no/kaffe) - [Kokekaffe](https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokekaffe) - [The Tromsø heart study. Does coffee raise serum cholesterol? (N Engl J Med, 1983)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6855815/) - [The Tromsø heart study: coffee consumption and serum lipid concentrations in men with hypercholesterolaemia (BMJ, 1985)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3919832/) - [Coffee consumption and mortality from cardiovascular diseases and total mortality: does the brewing method matter? (Eur J Prev Cardiol, 2020)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32320635/) - [All About Coffee (1922), Project Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28500)