Do you plan to go on holidays to beautiful Finland? But you have no idea how it looks like in Finland concerning the vegan offers?

I always feel somehow connected to Finland. I think that’s primarly caused by some friends of mine from Finland. I had some penfriends from that beautiful country when I was younger (yes, I indeed was writing letters by hand, not with the keyboard of my computer ;)). I stopped writing letters because a lack of time (and somehow also lack of motivation I guess), but I still have friends there which turned out to become not only penfriends.

Since I have been living vegan I haven’t been to Finland anymore. But I’d like to change that someday, so it’s awesome that Sarah Eleni can tell us a bit about living vegan in Finland! She did an internship in the capital Helsinki and gained some experience regarding veganism in Finland. Thank you a lot for sharing that with us Sarah :)

 

Far away from asceticsm – Vegan in Finland

I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream!
– Mumins 1: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip –

Concerning drinks there are a lot of smoothies and juices available in Helsinki – some of them are even not from concentrated juice. You can find them in supermarkets to affordable prices. A package of juice costs normally around 2 € per liter. However a liter multivitamine juice by the brand “Rauch” costs almost 4 €. In general I liked the products by “Rainbow” as they were comparatively cheap and could keep on with the prices from Vienna/Austria. Rainbow offers several multivitamine juices, plant-based milk, nut and fruit mixes as well as corn, beans and chickpeas in cans. Who prefers to buy freshly squeezed smoothies has to pay a little bit more in comparison to Austria: There prices vary between 2 – 3 € which is still affordable, especially if you compare it to coconut water which is relatively expensive (4 €).

Plant-based milk is provided by different brands and you can find it in different price ranges. You should expect to pay around 3 € per liter for oat milk, rice milk and soy milk. For products from the brand Alpro you pay around one euro more. My favourite milk is – not only because of the awesome design – oat milk with cocoa by Oatly. The price (2,79 € per liter) is definitely fair considering the taste! There are also vitamines added, so that you don’t need to have such a guilty conscience.

OatleyMilk

There were also plenty of vegan yoghurts from the Swedish brand Oatly. Even the typical finnish yoghurt in a package of 1 liter was relatively cheaply available. Besides Alpro Soja you could also find Yosa in different supermarkets. They offer a yoghurt with wild berries as well as two “fitness yoghurts”: Pineapple-orange and coffee sweetened with stevia. There consistence was more like a pudding, but even because of that or just because of that the coffee yoghurt was my favourite.

In terms of vegetables and fruits I ate almost daily bananas. They’re with 1,49 € per kilo one of the few – very few – edibles which are cheaper than in Vienna. Every day I took two or three with me to the kindergarden. My friend Victoria was happy about the avocados: She bought a package of seven for only around 4 €, so they were also cheaper than in Vienna. Pomelos cost around 1,99 per kilo, but I would keep my hands off from the tomatoes: With more than 5 € per kilo they’re quite expensive, if you don’t have that much money.

Auf dem Gemüsemarkt in Helsinki

There are also a lot of affordable vegan cereal products: Besides mueslis and pulp you’ll find a variety of vegan bread. Especially the brown bread is famous in Finland. Who prefers sweet marmelades instead of savory alternatives can find tahina and hummus.

Moreover you can find a variety of deep-frozen vegetables and falafel for adequate prices. Regarding nut mixtures you’ll find similar prices than in Vienna. Only plant-based soy supplements are not that wide-spreaded. You can’t find so much more than soy granulate, but that wasn’t disturbing as there were many other vegan products to try. For example in the S-Market you can find a huge salad buffet with quinoa, chickpeas, marinated soy beans, mangos, avocados, falafel and more delicious stuff – but for a price of 14,90 € per kilo. So keep that in mind as there is a lot of space in the boxes, so it’s easy to end up with a lot of delicious food.

Talking about sweets you can find vegan ice cream (0,5 – 1 l) which you can’t in Vienna. The sorts range from vanilla and chocolate to strawberry. There is also the brand “Pepparkakor” offfering vegan biscuit alternatives. So I was quite excited when I found Moomin-biscuits by Fazer. You can not only find Moomin, Moominpappa and Moominmamma, but also Snork Maiden, little My and Snufkin.

Vegane Moomin Kekse

Vegan Moomin-biscuits ❤

Conclusion: I had the possibility to get to know Finland and its vegan food for three weeks and Helsinki was quite a rich source which can definitely compete with Vienna. It is also possible to shop consciously without paying horrible sums. So I can say that it’s just a myth that Finland is such an expensive country. Who doesn’t buy a bottle of water for 4 € in the hotel lobby instead of going to the next supermarket, will soon realise that there are far other dangers: You can find nice souvenirs everywhere :)

Café Engel in Helsinki

Café Engel in Helsinki

For those who like to eat out I can recommend café Engel which is opposite of the cathedral. They offer salad with goatmilk cheese (I asked them to leave that out), nuts, vegetables and fresh fruits for 13,70 €. But there is a really warm atmosphere and it tastes just delicious!

Many thanks to the author Sarah Eleni!

Many thanks to the author Sarah Eleni!

 

Vanessa

Vanessa

I'm 22 and from Germany, blogger, vegan, traveller, student, librarian, addicted to cooking & baking and I like strange things like walking through the supermarket in foreign countries. And I'll tell you about all these things on my blog :)
Vanessa

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