It is fair to say that Estonia is not internationally known for its cuisine. When other nations have tagine and sushi and creme caramel, we have potatoes, blood sausage and some more potatoes. There is a bit of a local food revival going on in Estonia at the moment and it’s great, you can eat extremely well in Tallinn and several other places these days. But you cannot bring the restaurant food with you when you leave, you need something small and portable that you can show off to your friends as a token of authentic local flavour.

Most people would recommend going for black rye bread (and that is OK, too), but I say there is one food item you absolutely have to try and buy when in Estonia. It’s cloudberry jam. (I can hear the Finns and Swedes already, going on about how this is actually originally their jam. I don’t care. Wherever you can get this thing, buy it. And if you’re an Estonian and have not tried it – I don’t even know what to say.) Cloudberry is a golden berry that grows in Estonian wetlands and is difficult to cultivate. It’s also very tedious to pick, as the berries are not conveniently located on compact bushes like blueberries, for example. This makes it very pricey for a jam, but perfection cannot be cheap anyway.

When Nordic berries generally tend to be a bit sour (with the exception of the divine wild strawberries, but making decent jam out of them is a hopeless exercise), cloudberries have a sweet, honeyed taste that is almost tropical. A non-Estonian friend of mine who has a much more refined palate than I do, said the jam reminds her of mangoes and this is a good point. They don’t taste the same, but there is an affinity, a certain golden ripeness that they share.

I mostly eat this jam out of a jar, but it works great with bread or porridge, too. My favourite combination is cloudberry and goat cheese, it is excellent with both fresh, mild versions and more potent variations. I think you can buy a jar in IKEA and it’s fine, but has too much sugar – as do most commercial varieties. If you can, find a jam-making Estonian grandmother or if that fails, a small Estonian company that makes artisanal berry jams. And buy 17 jars.