Indian Arabica Coffee comes to Finland

 

Balehonnur (Balanoor), Karnataka (Photo by KZ Kuriyan)

This news report appeared on Newsmeter.in.

Photo from the Newsmeter.in article

I have been for years been  telling our family  in India that the Finns would love the coffee we produce in our estates as in Badra Coffee Estates, in which I am a tiny shareholder.

Finns are the real  coffee connoisseurs in the world. 

They appreciate a good reaonably priced coffee. 

I recount an incident from 1992 when Annikki and I were visiting our daughteer, Susanna, who was studying in Exeter University in England.

As we walked down the High Street, Annikki smelt some coffee and was in the mood for a cup. There was s small kiosk on the walking street. We went in and asked the lady for the coffee which aroma Annikki had smelt.

After consuming it very slowly, she said that it was the most delicious cup of coffee that she had ever had. I told her that we could buy a kilo to take it to Finland.

I approached the lady and asked what was the price of the coffee. She told me that it was called Blue Mountain Coffee  and it came from Jamaica. 

The cost was  Blue Mountain Coffee was €100 per kilo. (Coffee in Finland at that time cost about €5 per kg.)

I was literally coffee-shocked and opted to buy 100 gm for Annikki. 

She drank it on special occasions for a year

On her 60th birthday in 2004 I found it in the Oulu Coffee shop in the Market Place and bought her 200 gms. 

Annikki drank it for the next 5 years on special occasions till her 75th birthday. 

(She now only drinks coffee very occasionally!)

I also recall sending a cousin of mine the tender papers for the Finnish Army as the soldiers would revolt if they did not get their four times a day quota of good coffee.

 I can imagine the Finnish soldiers stopping a war so that they could enjoy their brew! :-)