Pop-up Café Days in Kärdla, Estonia

For anyone travelling in Estonia on the first days of August here is a last minute tip you don’t want to miss. On the island of Hiiumaa there will be the Pop-up Café Days - one of the most awaited events in the summer of Hiiumaa. This is an yearly event and is now being held for the 9th time. On the café day several cafes will their doors for just one day in different locations throughout the town of Kärdla: in beautiful back gardens of locals, at the seaside, and other places in the town. The main event is only one day but there are additional happenings outside of Kärdlä also one day before and after so all weekend you can find pop-up cafes in the island.

I was at the Hiiumaa café days last year and enjoyed the event very much. It was so much fun walking with a café map from one café to another and drinking lots of coffee and tasting all sorts of food and pastry. The atmosphere was very similar to Restaurant day and the event gathered a lot of people. The most popular cafes got crowded and I even recognized a few Estonian celebrities at the café Bella Rosa. By the way café Bella Rosa was a super nice Italian style restaurant café in an absolutely beautiful garden - like a garden restaurant of dreams! At café Bella Rosa they made really good pizza, served also wine, and had tiramisu and other cakes on the dessert menu.

Best coffee on the café day I had at King Coffee’s. It was a hot summer day and their ice-coffee tasted heavenly.

This year Hiiumaa Café Days will be on July 30 - August 2. Main event is on Saturday August 1.
For more information see their website and Kohvikutepaev in Facebook.    

Helsinki Coffee Festival 2015

The first Helsinki Coffee Festival was organized over the weekend and let me tell you - I didn’t sleep that much last night. Apparently I had one too many cappuccinos at the festival and all the caffeine kept me awake. But there were so many wonderful coffees to taste that how could I have said no.

At the festival coffee roasteries mainly coming from Finland (from Helsinki to Rovaniemi) were presenting and serving their coffees prepared with different brewing methods. In addition to the roasteries other companies related to coffee making were present. The festival also had a nice program of coffee talks with interesting guests. The Speciality Coffee Association of Europe's (SCAE) Finnish Chapter also arranged the official Finnish Barista Championship and Brewers Cup finals at the festival.  

I absolutely loved the festival and hope this becomes an annual event to showcase the best roasteries and coffees, learn about the latest trends, meet people, and taste and share coffee in good company.

Cappuccinos made with special oat milk developed by Oatly.

Coffee books and magazines to read at Paulig's stand.

Hot discussion at the speaker's corner on how to become a coffee roaster and how not to burn down your roastery.

Loving this amazing fruity and sweet coffee by Turun kahvipaahtimo. 

Kattilahalli was a great location for the festival but maybe next year the festival needs a bigger space? Looking forward to the next Helsinki Coffee Festival!

Instagram Moments: Taste of Helsinki

We Love Coffee

Add cafe and Helsingin Kahvipaahtimo (Helsinki Coffee Roastery) organized a We love coffee day on Valentine's Day Eve at Add cafe in Aalto digital design laboratory’s facilities in Otaniemi, Espoo. During the event different brewing methods were introduced and coffee was prepared for tasting (2 euros a cup). My coffee was made from their darkest roast, blend no 4, and prepared with aeropress.

At the event Tomi Nieminen from Helsingin Kahvipaahtimo gave an interesting lecture on coffee – where coffee comes from and what steps are needed before coffee is ready to be served. The lecture gathered around twenty coffee lovers to the coolest and whitest lecture room on the campus. I think the lecture and the event in total was good preparation for Valentine’s day – the ones who participated and bought coffee beans home can surprise their loved ones on Valentine’s day with fresh quality coffee and perhaps make an impression with their coffee knowledge.  

Do you have beans ready for Valentine’s day coffee? Are you planning a special coffee moment? Perhaps breakfast in bed?

See also my earlier post on Add café here.

Helsinki Coffee Tour 2.2.2014

On the first Sunday of February I took part to a coffee tour in Helsinki organized by Hanna-Maria Huhtonen from Mustana blog. The program of the tour was packed with the trendiest coffee shops in Helsinki and a visit to a coffee roastery. The tour started with morning coffee at Johan&Nyström's coffee shop by the sea in Katajanokka. I was there a little early and had time to enjoy a morning cappuccino and read some magazines before the tour started.  Other coffee shops on the tour were Fratello's siphon coffee bar in central Helsinki, Good Life Coffee in Kallio and Freese Coffee Co in Töölö. Most of the people on the tour moved from one place to the other by bicycle - even the snowy roads did not bother thirsty coffee fans.

Coffee made with the siphon was on the menu at Fratello Torrefazione. The video on Fratellos’s website shows what happens in siphon coffee making - it is like a visit to chemistry lab.

The tour also included a visit to Kaffa Roastery's roastery at a temporary location in Teurastamo area at Helsingin kahvipaahtimo's facilities. At the roastery coffee roaster Michael Akins introduced how the system of coffee roasting works and what happens to the beans in roasting. He also gave a demonstration by roasting one batch of beans. At the roastery we also tasted a new roast of Bolivian beans and got some samples to take home.

The party really got started at Freese's where we tasted three different coffees prepared by Finnish barista champion Kalle Freese in frespresso style (filter coffee made on the espresso machine). After all the coffee drinking people had a cheerful feel and caffeine levels hitting the roof.

The tour gathered around twenty coffee enthusiasts to learn about coffee roasting and brewing, spend time together, talk about coffee, and of course drink a lot of coffee. This was a first time for a coffee tour like this but hopefully more is to come. The participants seemed to be locals but I think tourists visiting Helsinki would enjoy this kind of program as well. The café culture definitely belongs to the top reasons to visit Helsinki.

Coffee and wine tasting at Cafetoria

On Thursday evening Cafetoria Roastery together with Luomuviinit.fi organized a coffee and wine tasting at Cafetoria’s showroom in Helsinki. The tasting was focused on organic coffees and wines. Cafetoria’s owners Ivan Ore and Mia Nikander-Ore were hosting the coffee tasting. The coffee tasting menu had two organic espressos and two organic filter coffees. One of the coffees was naturally the organic and Fairtrade certified Gran Palomar – perhaps the best known and oldest of Cafetoria’s coffee brands. Gran Palomar is a filter coffee coming from Peru and is said to have the flavour and aroma of the Andes.

The espressos on the tasting menu were Espresso Amigo and Espresso Sublima. The Espresso Amigo is made from 100% Arabica beans coming from Honduras and Ethiopia. The Espresso Amigo worked very well in a cappuccino and gave a flavoursome yet soft taste. The Espresso Amigo ended up being my favourite of the entire tasting. The other espresso – Espresso Sublima – was very good as well but comparing to the Espresso Amigo I felt the taste was a little more spicy and acid.  The Espresso Sublima was told to be an organic blend of gourmet Arabica coffees from South and Central Americas.

The tasting was organized at Cafetoria’s beautiful showroom.

After tasting the coffees it was time to taste some organic wines. The online wine shop "Luomuviinit.fi" was in charge of the wine tasting and they served several organic red and white wines coming from Spain and Italy. Similarly as with the coffees I personally do not prefer much acidity in any drinks and this clearly influenced in the wine tasting as well.  Maybe it was because the weather has now turned colder the red wines seemed much more interesting than the white ones.  Of the red wines I tasted a favourite was easily found. The Spanish red wine Aroa Gorena Reserva coming from Aroa Bodeagas in Navarra was preferred by many of the participants – including myself.  The Aroa Gorena Reserva is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon red wine matured in oak barrels for 18 months making it taste soft and full-bodied. This is a wine I would consider to accompany a  well cooked meat dish. Good to keep in mind when preparing a special dinner!

The Aroa Gorena Reserva standed out in the wine tasting.

Cafetoria Roastery

Runeberginkatu 31

Helsinki, Finland

Coffee cups, tables and more at Habitare

On Wednesday I had the chance to visit Habitare at Messukeskus in Helsinki. Habitare is an annual fair exhibiting interior decoration ranking from furniture and materials to art and design products.  Here are some of the things I spotted at the fair.

Coffee inspired graphic design in these sweet postcards caught my eye at the Polkajam stand. The postcards are designed by Kristiina Haapalainen and Sami Vähä-Aho. Naturally I bought a whole set of these.

Marimekko cups and textiles

Wood material was widely used at the stands and many times in the format of wooden euro pallets. I wrote about these also in my earlier post Trendy coffee table: wooden pallets. A big trend at the moment!

A more colourful coffee table by Tikkurila

Wine bottle cork inspired bar stools from Boknäs

A cake pop is a perfect little dessert to have with coffee. These cake pops made with Lékué’s silicone baking mould looked delicious at Mastermark Brands stand.

I spent the entire day at the fair and of course I had some coffee during the day - three cups in total to be exact. My first cup was at the Tori kahvila in the Reading corner located in the ahead! area. Tori kahvila’s coffee was filtered and served by Benjamin Andberg from Helsingin kahvipaahtimo. Benjamin told me that the coffee beans he used had been roasted only one day before – fresh coffee in so many terms!

The second cup I had was machine made at Miele's stand. They had a very nice coffee bar surrounded by newest Miele home equipment.  Their automatic coffee machine is meant to be integrated as part of the interior design. I could see this used at office type of environments but I am not sure who will have space for this at home? The machine uses beans but the taste of the coffee was very much the average what you can expect from an automatic machine.  

The Messukeskus exhibition centre has been recently renovated and especially the cafeterias and restaurants seemed to have gone through a big facelift. My third coffee was at Fazer café located at the newly renovated space in the entrance lobby. I can still remember how the café here looked before and I think that the renovation for this space has really made miracles. This was really needed here I would say.

Habitare is open until Sunday 22^nd - do you plan to visit?