> Traditionally Finns love coffee that is extremely lightly roasted
No, not really. It's called light roast here, but my understanding is that compared to actual light roasts (e.g speciality coffees from smaller roasters) most coffees tend be actually closer to medium or even dark roasts. Good quality light roasts taste of their origin characteristics (coffee from different places tends to taste different, who would've guessed) and they are closer to acidic than bitter.
Normal light roasted juhlamokka is maybe a 2/5 roast, medium roast tends to start at 3/5.
When roasting coffee, they're of course graded visually but there are two important bench marks: first and second crack.
If you don't roast your coffee beyond the first crack, it's essentially still raw and unsuitable for drinking.
Second crack happens later in the roast process if you keep roasting it, usually medium coffee is taken out before the second crack as it tends to get noticeably darker and more oily aftrr that point. A dark roast (4/5) is after the second crack as well is a parisian roast (5/5), which is essentially burnt charcoal in my opinion.
About the Finnish coffee habits, I think it's true that historically we've mostly drunk lighter roasts and it has started to shift somewhat to darker roasts.
There are still a lot of people who prefer lighter roasts but I wouldn't clump them together by age group.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that the more you roast the beans, the more you can only taste roast level and less off the actual coffee. Some coffees might reach their peak at a lighter roast, some at medium but it's all downhill after that imo.
Thats not to say that darker roasts are inferior, if that's what you prefer. But if you buy expensive beans, you'll usually get a wider range of flavors out of lighter roasts.
I think the reason Finns have moved a bit towards darker roasts is simply the fact that it's not what we're used to drinking and it seems "better" or more exotic to us. A reverse shift has happened in countries where darker roasts have been prevalent, for similar reasons.
If you compare the normal market offerings in Finland to neighboring countries, you'll find that even the bulk juhlamokka is pretty good in comparison.
I've never been a fan of robust blends in general and Paulig for example has done a pretty good job at keeping their offerings consistent over decades even. Obviously they hold no candle against 3rd wave coffee but it's not exactly bitter tar we're drinking either.
Heh. I think you go little carried out with you coffee enthusiasm.
It's called light roast here and everywhere. I challenge you to find any place on earth where normal people (not coffee connoisseurs) drink lighter roast.
I'm not claiming that people of any nation in particular drink lighter roasted coffee, or even that Finland is exceptional in this regard. It's not a competition. I'm arguing that on the whole spectrum of coffee roasting, even Finnish supposedly light roasted coffee is not very light at all.
No, not really. It's called light roast here, but my understanding is that compared to actual light roasts (e.g speciality coffees from smaller roasters) most coffees tend be actually closer to medium or even dark roasts. Good quality light roasts taste of their origin characteristics (coffee from different places tends to taste different, who would've guessed) and they are closer to acidic than bitter.