Auran burger sauces and hamburger culture in Finland are interwoven

When Jalostaja and Lunden with their dozens of years of history merged in 2002, brand Auran started at the same time to be at the top of Finnish burger sauces in future.

Lunden started in butchery business in the 1950s, and bought the Jalostaja brand which started with processing garden products in the 1930s. At the same time Turun Sinappi which was earlier manufactured by Jalostaja was just being moved to Sweden. Consequently, Lunden decided to take the bull by the horns and continue the manufacture of mustard in Turku, Finland, with brand Aura chosen by loyal customers. Originally, Aura was to concentrate exclusively on mustard but in a few years Lunden noticed that there was a market niche for mayonnaises. When production facilities were found ready in the area of perishable goods of the firm and bottling was already running with mustard, Aura’s cucumber mayonnaise and pepper mayonnaise were launched in 2010.

Afterwards the number of mayonnaises in production has grown significantly and the world of tastes has been extended to comprise more than a dozen different alternatives. The latest launch by Aura was a series of burger sauces which also include vegan products according to the newest trends.

“We knew that the burger culture was booming and we were thinking about new trends for Aura’s products. As a result, we ended up in developing Aura’s burger sauces and Bööga.fi site which is essentially connected with them”, says Jaakko Lunden who is Sales Director steering the firm in his grandfather’s footsteps.

Hot burger summer of 2018

Summer 2018 was the last breakthrough of Finns into the world of burgers. High-grade burgers are served at restaurants all around Finland and burger patties frizzled for a dining table of nearly everyone who is at least a little bit interested in grilling. The burger which earlier had a reputation as high-fat fast food turned presentable in one go and for an obvious reason.

“The burger is not just a patty and a bun but the burger is an incredibly broad concept. Though it was earlier considered to be fatty and unhealthy, this does not hold true. When you use good raw materials, the burger has no unhealthy ingredients. You have endless possibilities with burgers”, Jaakko Lunden clarifies.

The burgers are nowadays stuffed with most different fillings including fish, chicken and pork and different vegetable alternatives. However, the most traditional is still a high-quality beef patty. For all these alternatives there are certainly suitable sauces in Aura’s selections. Jaakko Lunden’s favourite is a more domestic choice anyway – a game burger. There are several hunters among relatives so they have venison in the freezer all year round.

”At home I make lots of game burgers which have notably less fat than beef burgers. When feasting, I fix the fat content with bacon and, for example, with Aura’s Sriracha burger sauce”, Jaakko says.

In the future, there will certainly be more Aura’s burger sauces, and the Lundens are watching new trends all the time. Earlier called grilled food or fast food has been refined into street food which is often more international and more carefully thought out than traditional domestic grilled food. Jaakko Lunden thinks that the progress of street food has only just begun and eating on the run will continue to be a big part of Finnish food culture. In this trend Aura will be strongly involved!