I had never heard of crispbread before a couple of weeks ago. Which makes sense, since it seems to mainly be a Scandinavian/Nordic countries thing. Crispbread apparently dates back to Sweden in about 500 A.D. Although the date for "traditional crispbread" is said to be about 1500 A.D., so evidently there was a lot of unofficial, non-traditional crispbread, or pseudo-crispbread, being made for a millennium. By the 1800's it was being made in Finland as well.
Crispbread is a thin, dry kind of bread. So thin and dry that it's more like a cracker than a piece of bread. Traditionally it was made from rye flour, salt, and water. It was made twice a year--in autumn, following the harvest, and then again in the spring after frozen rivers and lakes melted. Crispbread is very useful in part because it's stored easily, and keeps very well. The typical manner was to make the pieces of it in doughnut-like shapes--round, with a hole in the middle. That way the crispbread discs could be put on long sticks, and stored underneath the roof. (I guess being hung in this way deterred mice and rats from getting to them.) At some point in history it was reportedly considered a food of the poor. However, it seems to have made a resurgence, and not have that negative stigma anymore.
The crispbreads I bought were Finn Crisps. I purchased two kinds--the original flavor, which is sourdough rye, and the caraway thin rye (also made with sourdough). The makers are the Vaasan Group, out of the Finland town of Vaasa. Vaasan Group started out in 1849 as a steam mill, which processed rye flour for bread makers. By 1904 the company began making their own crispbread. In 1952, to mark the Summer Olympic Games, being held in Finland's capital city, Helsinki, Vaasan rolled out Finn Crisps. Their original flavor became their flagship brand. By 2015 Vaasan was the number one manufacturer of thin crispbread in the world, and exported to 40 markets around the globe. (I don't know if this means 40 separate countries--the website didn't explain.) In 2016 the company joined the large Lantmannen company. Lantmannen is a large multinational company which operates out of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Ukraine. Lantmannen is very diverse, as it's other activities include an agricultural sector, a machinery sector, an energy sector, and real estate. As for their edibles they also make flour, muesli, pasta, pancakes, meats, green food, and drinks. There are also many different kinds of Finn Crisps. Some of the alternate flavors include coriander rye, garlic & herb, 5 whole grain, tomato & rosemary, and sesame.
1) Finn Crisps, original sour dough rye flavor. These were brown rectangles about 12 cm. by 4 cm. (or about 5 inches by 2 inches), with a white dusting, presumably of herbs. And very thin, of course. They tasted crunchy, rye-y, and kind of plain. I was staying in a hotel without any semblance of a kitchen, so the condiments I tried on the crisps were only ketchup and Taco Bell hot sauce. They were definitely tastier with both of these, especially the latter.
2) Finn Crisps, caraway thin rye flavor. These were the same size, and color. And the taste was also very similar. And once again the ketchup and Taco Bell sauce helped things out. As with the original kind these were alright overall, but not great or anything.
However, it must be admitted that I didn't eat these as intended. I should have bought some other spreads, or cheeses, or lunch meat, or just about anything else. It was like I got a box of plain saltine crackers and basically ate them out of the box. As I mentioned, they were okay plain, or with my simple condiments, but I'm betting they're much better with more complicated toppings. A recipe on the website showed a Finn Crisp open face sandwich, essentially, made with smoked salmon, cream cheese, dill, spinach, radish, and onion. It looked pretty delicious to me. So I'll try to eat these right if/when I get the chance. Probably the next time I'm in an area with both a high population of Nordic/Scandinavian ancestry and a grocery store with a decent selection.
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