Finland is the world’s biggest consumer of coffee, so it’s only fitting that a roastery in the capital has launched a blend that has been developed by artificial intelligence
A Finnish coffee roastery has unveiled an AI-generated blend, surprising many with the results.
The Helsinki-based Kaffa Roastery introduced a coffee blend developed by artificial intelligence, in a bid to see if technology could lighten the load in an industry that typically prides itself on manual labour. The “AI-conic” blend was aptly launched in Finland, a country known for its high coffee consumption – the highest in the world at 12 kilograms per capita annually, according to the International Coffee Organization.
The blend is a unique mix of four types of beans, with Brazil’s smooth Fazenda Pinhal taking centre stage. It’s the result of a collaboration between Kaffa, Finland’s third-largest coffee roastery, and AI consultancy Elev. Elev explained that they used models similar to ChatGPT and Copilot to create a blend that would ideally suit the tastes of coffee enthusiasts, pushing the boundaries of traditional flavour combinations.
Svante Hampf, managing director and founder of Kaffa Roastery, said the partnership aimed to explore how AI and its various tools could assist in coffee roasting, a highly valued artisan profession in Finland. “We basically gave descriptions of all our coffee types and their flavours to AI and instructed it to create a new exciting blend,” Hampf revealed, while presenting “AI-conic” at the annual Helsinki Coffee Festival, a gathering of roasteries and coffee enthusiasts.
In addition to selecting a unique mix of beans from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Guatemala, the AI also designed the coffee package label and provided a detailed taste description, describing “AI-conic” as “a well balanced blend of sweetness and ripe fruit.” Mr Hampf admitted his surprise when the AI “somewhat weirdly” opted for a blend of four different types of coffee beans, rather than the usual two or three, which typically allows for a distinction in taste between flavours from different origins.
However, after the initial test roasting and blind testing, Kaffa’s coffee experts agreed that the tech-assisted blend was spot on, with no need for human adjustments. According to Elev’s spokesperson Antti Merilehto, “AI-conic is a tangible example of how AI can introduce new perspectives to seasoned professionals”, while offering coffee lovers fresh taste experiences.
Kaffa Roastery hopes this experiment will spark a conversation among coffee professionals about the future of the industry in Finland, a country known for its strong coffee culture and thriving technology startup scene.
“This (trial) was the first step in seeing how AI could help us in the future,” added Mr Hampf, pointing out that the project effectively combined “the artisan skills of a roastery” with information provided by AI. “I think AI has plenty to offer us in the long run. We are particularly impressed of the coffee taste descriptions it created.”
