An artisan roastery based in the capital of Finland has introduced a coffee blend developed by artificial intelligence (AI) in a trial in which it is hoped that technology can ease the workload in a sector that traditionally prides itself on manual work.
It is only apt that the Helsinki-based Kaffa Roastery’s “AI-conic” blend was launched last week in Finland.
The Nordic nation of 5.6 million consumes the most coffee in the world, at 12kg per capita annually, International Coffee Organization data showed.
Photo: AP
The blend — an AI-picked mixture with four types of beans, dominated by Brazil’s velvety Fazenda Pinhal — is the end result of a joint project by Kaffa, Finland’s third-largest coffee roastery, and local AI consultancy Elev.
“Leveraging models akin to ChatGPT and Copilot, the AI was tasked with crafting a blend that would ideally suit coffee enthusiasts’ tastes, pushing the boundaries of conventional flavor combinations,” Elev said.
The two partners wanted to trial how AI and its different tools could be of help in coffee roasting, a traditional artisan profession that is highly valued in Finland, Kaffa Roastery managing director and founder Svante Hampf said on Saturday.
“We basically gave descriptions of all our coffee types and their flavors to AI and instructed it to create a new exciting blend,” Hampf said during the Helsinki Coffee Festival that brings together roasteries and coffee aficionados annually.
In addition to coming up with its chosen mixture of beans from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala, AI created the coffee package label and a detailed taste description saying “AI-conic” is “a well-balanced blend of sweetness and ripe fruit.”
Hampf said he was surprised that AI “somewhat weirdly” chose to make the blend out of four different types of coffee beans, rather than the usual two or three, which allows distinction in taste between flavors from different origins.
However, after the first test roasting and blind testing, Kaffa’s coffee experts agreed that the tech-assisted blend was perfect and did not need human adjustments.
“AI-conic is a tangible example of how AI can introduce new perspectives to seasoned professionals,” Elev spokesman Antti Merilehto said while he offered coffee lovers new taste experiences.
Kaffa Roastery said that it hopes the trial can serve as a dialogue opener between coffee professionals of things to come in the future in Finland, a nation that has a strong coffee culture and a passion for technology with a flourishing start-up scene.
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