a LIFE IN HELsinki: Kahvia ja pullaa

The evil twins of temptation!

Coffee and buns - curse or blessing?
I´m not able to decide but I can´t get enough of them, that´s for sure. And you find them everywhere, because the Finns are full-blown coffee addicts. Just take a look at what the statistics say: In 2003 every Finnish resident consumed an average amount of 11,4 kilogramms of coffee. That means that each Finn gulped down 4,8 cups per day. This bare fact puts them in world wide pole position, they are the masters of mokka, the coffee champions with esprit for espresso! The Krauts in comparison are not that hot for coffee with only 2,8 cups per day and person. All of you who think that the low German consumption is a result of their constant beer drinking I will have to disappoint: according to the same statistic that hot juice made from beans makes it before beer when it comes to Deutschlands favorite beverages.

Germany has a reputation as the promised land of bakery products and rightly so, this centuries-old trade has spawn a huge variety of goodies and tidbits. But let me call out: I DON´T CARE! I found my promised land here in Suomi because cardamom is what I dig and cinnamon is what I crave! Both ingredients are used a lot in Finnish bakeries and I love it. My fellow Germans connect the taste mostly to christmas, that´s the time cinnamon usually finds its way into teutonic dough. Here you have it all year long so it´s christmas every day, ain´t that nice, kids? My absolute favorite is the Korvapuusti which means "slap in the face" or "Ohrfeige" (recipe linked below) and I must limit my gluttony if I don´t want to morph into a member of Poison Idea (R.I.P. Pig Champion).

By now I´m drinking so much coffee that a friend already told me I would be close to becoming a real Finn. I would applaud to that if my hands wouldn´t sh-sh-shake so m-m-much. As mentioned before you will find kahvia ja pullaa almost everywhere but especially in sommer time the nicest place to enjoy them is one of the many outside coffee places. This year´s summer was historic with the highest temperatures in Finland´s written history (37,2 °C, global warming anyone?). Many have hold me responsible for that, accusing me of having brought that incredible heatwave from Germany to the country, maybe in my suitcase? Or maybe I put the sunshine in a condom and swallowed it, only to give birth to the hottest summer of all time on a Finnish lavatory. But wait, I lost my train of thought...Ah yes, I was getting at this: The weather has been more than nice, also the beginning autumn was rather mild so far with lots of sunshine. I really wonder when the shit hits the fan over here and the cold comes creeping in. Many, many days were just perfect for a coffee break, sometimes at the seaside, sometimes in a park or on a terrace. Dear suomalaiset, your coffee culture rules and I´m your biggest fan!