AI for coffee? Finland's roastery comes up with blend generated by artificial intelligence

Kaffa Roastery worked with an AI company called Elev to create this blend using artificial intelligence.

Kaffa Roastery, a coffee company based in Finland’s capital Helsinki, has introduced a new coffee blend that has been developed using artificial intelligence (AI). Called "AI-conic”, the blend was launched last week in Finland, a country that consumes the most coffee in the world at 12 kilograms per capita annually, according to the International Coffee Organisation.

Kaffa Roastery worked with an AI company called Elev to create this blend using artificial intelligence. The AI chose four types of coffee beans, mainly from Brazil, to make this blend unique.

“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 flavour combinations,” Elev told AP.

Svante Hampf, the managing director of Kaffa Roastery, explained that they wanted to see how AI could help in coffee roasting, a traditional craft in Finland. They provided the AI with information about their coffee flavours and asked it to create a new blend that coffee lovers would enjoy.

“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.

The AI not only created the blend but also designed the label for the coffee package and wrote a description of its taste. The description says that "AI-conic" is a balanced blend with sweetness and ripe fruit flavors.

Although Hampf was initially surprised that the AI chose four types of beans instead of the usual two or three, after testing the blend, they found it to be perfect without any need for adjustments.

Antti Merilehto, a spokesman for Elev, mentioned that "AI-conic" shows how AI can bring new perspectives to professionals and offer unique taste experiences for coffee enthusiasts.

Kaffa Roastery sees this project as a first step in exploring how AI can help in the future, combining the artisan skills of roasting with data provided by AI. They believe AI has a lot to offer, especially in creating detailed taste descriptions for their coffee blends.

(With inputs from AP)