First of all, I want to clarify that our guide, Cornelia,
was really great. She was the highlight of the tour, and was
very informative and easy to talk to. She answered all our
questions and didn't rush us at all, after the tour we
discussed how much we enjoyed talking to her. The actual
food tour though could have been better organized. There
were four tastings but only three stops, two in the indoor
market, one at Restaurant Kappeli, and one at a candy store.
The market and Kappeli offered delicious food tastings:
cheese, cloudberry jam, lamb, mushroom sauce, artichoke soup
and a few more. However not one person discussed the food,
the food culture, the history of the food, where it came
from in Finland, and in Kappeli I was expecting to meet the
chef or have someone discuss how they create their recipes.
I also would have appreciated a seafood tasting, herring or
perch or anything local. Lastly, we went to a candy store
that was maybe a 20 minute walk which was nice to see the
downtown area and discuss the city with our guide. But the
tasting there was one very small piece of chocolate, and the
woman who worked there said she didn't know anything about
the candy or how/where it is made because she didn't make
it, no comments about candy in general or Helsinki or even
the piece of chocolate that we ate. We did know that
licorice is popular in Finland, but that was about it. I was
expecting to have a few different tastes of locally made
candy, maybe a tour of where they make it, and some
education about where they source their ingredients etc. We
ended up buying some candy so we could taste it, and turned
out we didn't care for it so it was a waste of money. I was
confused to see that other people rated this tour much
higher, but perhaps they have not been on very many food
tours. As someone who has been on many food tours, I would
not recommend this tour unless the company makes some
improvements or significantly reduce the price. They need
more stops, more education about the food and food culture,
and I would suggest discounts on purchases from the vendors
that offer the tastings this is pretty standard on all of
the food tours I've taken. It was over 100 per person, we
had three people so for 300 we could have eaten dinner at
Kappeli three times.