When it comes to drinking coffee, Finland leads the world. Coffee is usually served with soft, mouth-watering coffee bread, a fairly sweet, light bread made from wheat and normally flavoured with cardamom or cinnamon and decorated with almonds or sugar. The basic bread is a long braid which is cut into slices. Buns may be small and round, pretzels or cinnamon buns. These bakery products are low in fat and light, especially berry pies. 

A beautifully laid table, featuring seven different types of pastries, is an inherent part of the Finnish coffee party heritage. In addition to coffee bread, the selection offered includes various biscuits, coffee cakes, scrumptious pies, a rich cream cake or two and other delicacies which, in accordance with unwritten etiquette, it is polite to eat in that order. Coffee and cakes are consumed to celebrate birthdays and name days at home and work. At home, any coffee bread left over is dried into rusks which can later be dipped into hot coffee and eaten. Bakeries also produce excellent rusks for export.