Finns brew world’s first AI coffee

The Finnish companies set out to experiment whether artificial intelligence could lend a hand to coffee roasters, an occupation that has traditionally relied on personal experiences and taste preferences.

The development process was set in motion by providing an artificial intelligence system with taste notes on the current line-up of coffee blends at Kaffa Roastery. After analysing the notes, the system was assigned to develop a new blend that matches as well as possible the taste preferences of people who savour a good cup of coffee.

The system ended up proposing a blend of four different beans, a notion that was met with some scepticism by roasters at Kaffa Roastery, revealed CEO Svante Hampf. Named roastery of the year in Finland in 2023, the roastery typically uses two or at most three different beans to create its blends.

“[Our roasters] viewed that it would be impossible to distinguish the tastes of the different beans,” he commented. “The AI-conic coffee launched today is nonetheless created specifically with the blend proportions defined by artificial intelligence.”

Antti Merilehto from Elev viewed that the coffee is a concrete example of how the applications of artificial intelligence are not necessarily limited only to office work, but extend also to artisanal work.

“[A]rtificial intelligence can help to incorporate new perspectives that even seasoned professionals have not thought of,” he said.