Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats (9 page)

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n many places in the world, such as the United States, coffee is often equated with speed–we drink it to wake up, we grab a latte on the go, and if we need an afternoon pick-me-up, we reach for the office coffeepot that has been sitting on the “warm” setting all day.

In Sweden it’s practically the opposite, more commonly representing a pause in the day, a time to slow down. Breaking for coffee is an excuse to enjoy a break from what you’re doing; it’s important to make time to enjoy life. Certainly, coffee is consumed for breakfast in many Swedish households, but a cup of coffee isn’t just a means to waking up; it’s an important moment in the day, be it at work or with friends on weekends. Life is for living, which means life is fueled by fika.

In most Swedish office spaces you’ll find a
fikarum
, the “fika room.” This is the break room, often with a pantry and kitchen, intended for taking a fika break and also serving as the proverbial office water cooler. Coffee brings people together, and in Sweden fika—even at work—is a reason to socialize.

If you’re a good coworker, you might even bring homemade kanelbullar to work one day. You’re sure to have the favor returned the following week; a chance to see what someone else can do with cardamom. And when one of your coworkers shows up with fika goods purchased from the local supermarket, you can feel the home bakers raising their eyebrows in moderate disdain. Baking is such a part of Swedish culture that even the busiest of people will make time for a home-baked cinnamon bun or chocolate cake.

While coffee drinking is a long-standing Swedish tradition, the more northern custom of dark, black filter coffee served in porcelain cups has given way to the influences of southern European coffee culture, which tends to favor espresso drinks. While you will still find the classic
konditori in Sweden, serving iconic cakes and fancy pastries in a more traditional setting, modern cafés are sleek in a Scandinavian minimal aesthetic (think lots of white walls, well-placed plants, and cool textile designs on the curtains) and cosmopolitan in their menus.

Kaffe lattes are the go- to drink of girlfriends out for an afternoon fika, and they pair well with oversize muffins piled in breadbaskets atop the café counter. Espresso, cappuccino, and even Chemex—you can find it all in a modern Swedish café. But the good old classic is still strong
bryggkaffe
(drip coffee), with
påtår
, the Swedish word for “refill,” and you can always be sure that it will be dark and delicious every single time. As the Swedes love their coffee, it should come as no surprise that there’s even a word for the third filling of the cup:
tretår.

While coffee shops in the United States are filled with laptops and freelancers, doubling as remote office spaces where you can crouch for a few hours as long as you keep refilling your mug, cafés in Sweden are meeting points for friends. “Ska vi fika?” (“Shall we fika?”) could just as well mean “let’s check out a new café.” In the winter you want something cozy, warm, and full of light. In the summer you want an inviting terrace, a carafe of water served with your coffee, and hopefully a summer berry tart with heavy whipped cream. Getting together over fika isn’t just a time to catch up with an old friend; it’s yet another reason to take a moment and appreciate the good life.

As a Swede, one doesn’t board a train or embark on a long car ride without thinking about fika. On the go, fika is part of the overall travel experience. Crossing Sweden on the rails, you’re never without a bistro car offering up a fika special—a paper cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun for a few Swedish coins—but if you really want to live well, you’ll be prepared and bring your own.

This goes for day trips as well. An afternoon at the beach in the summertime necessitates a thermos and a bag of baked goods. A winter outing of cross-country skiing requires the same. Forget granola and protein bars thrown into the bag at the last minute; packing fika to take with you is about bringing all the things you would consume inside and taking them outdoors.

Going out for fika is as much a part of Swedish culture as bringing your own, and while an afternoon hike in the forest certainly requires a backpack with a thermos, a baked good wrapped in tinfoil, and something to sit on, an excursion to a new city is the chance to check out a local café. From the countryside to the cosmopolitan hub of Stockholm, fika is a common affair. In the hinterlands of Värmland you may end up taking part in fika at an old farmhouse, recently opened for a summer exhibition of local handicrafts; in Malmö you will map out who makes the best semlor; and in downtown Gothenburg you’ll crowd into a popular café to see if their chokladbollar are any better than the ones you make at home. Any place serving coffee will have an offering of goods to eat for fika, and they’re always worth a try.