VOA文化艺术2024--AI Tries Hand at Blending Coffee in Finland

AI Tries Hand at Blending Coffee in Finland

Human experts spend years roasting and tasting coffee from many places to learn about the beans. They might then combine a coffee bean from Africa with another one from South America to come up with a new blend.

But, a coffee roasting company in Helsinki, Finland is hoping that artificial intelligence, or AI, can help ease the workload¹.

Kaffa Roastery recently launched its “AI-conic” blend at the Helsinki Coffee Festival. The blend is a mixture of four kinds of beans, including Fazenda Pinhal from Brazil. It is the result of a joint² project by Kaffa and Elev, a local AI business.

Elev told The Associated Press that its computer models, similar to ChatGPT and Copilot, created a blend that would “push the boundaries of conventional flavor combinations.”

Svante Hampf is the founder³ of Kaffa Roastery. He and his partners wanted to do an experiment to see what blend the computer would produce.

“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-conic” blend combined beans from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala. It is described as “a well-balanced blend of sweetness and ripe fruit.”

Hampf said he thought the combination was “somewhat weird⁴.” He was surprised that the AI program chose to make the blend out of four different kinds of beans. Most humans choose only two or three beans.

However, after the first blind test of the new blend, Kaffa’s coffee experts agreed that the AI-assisted blend was perfect. There was no need to change.

Elev’s Antti Merilehto said “AI-conic” is an example of “how AI can introduce new perspectives to seasoned professionals.”

The International Coffee Organization says that the 5.6 million people in Finland drink the most coffee per person in the world. And the roasters at Kaffa said they hope the AI project will help to bring more things to the strong coffee culture in the country.

Hampf called it a “first step,” adding, “I think AI has plenty to offer us in the long run. We are particularly impressed of the coffee taste descriptions it created.”

Words in This Story

roast –v. to cook something over heat

blend –v. to combine multiple flavors to come up with something new, for example, mixing three kinds of red wine

conventional –adj. common, usual, traditional

type –n. a categorization that shows the differences among one kind of thing, for example different grapes, or coffee beans

flavor –n. how something tastes

ripe –adj. ready to be picked and eaten or put to use

weird –adj. strange, unusual

perspective –n. a way of looking at things

seasoned –adj. experienced

1 workload   

n.作业量，工作量

参考例句：

• An assistant one day a week would ease my workload.每周有一天配一个助手就会减轻我的工作负担。
• He's always grousing about the workload.他总是抱怨工作量大。

2 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。