STREET SCENE 2.0: __________ RGGUS REFLECTION 2.0

the coffee break tradition

The history of coffee

To discuss the highs and lows of life over a cup of coffee in a cozy cafe. Taking a fruit to boost energy during a hard day at work. To invite the family home for cinnamon buns and juice in the garden. Sitting on a bench in the sun with a take away latte. Ask Swedes what fika means to them and you will get as many answers as we have residents of our country.

Our Swedish fika tradition stretches back a long way. In the middle of the 19th century, women started inviting each other to coffee parties to socialize in slightly more light-hearted ways. At finer parties, cookies, sugar cake and wheat bread were often offered. Here, the choice of cloth and porcelain was at least as important. And the demand for seven kinds of cookies? Well, the classic number of cookies was a widespread tradition. If you offered less than seven you were considered stingy and if you offered more than that you were arrogant.

During the 20th century, coffee parties also began to be held in the farming community, and the tradition spread across the country. At birthdays, name days and baptisms, it eventually became the most common form of invitation - just as coffee is for us today.

That's why we say "fika"

The expression is said to have first come into being around the year 1910. In so-called backslang, the syllables in the word kaffi (dialect for coffee) were thrown around and thus came up with the word fika. In the beginning, the word was used as slang for a coffee break, but over time came to be so much more than just a cup of coffee. Today, the accessories are at least as important – because who wants coffee without a cinnamon bun or other coffee bread? Fikat is perhaps one of the most Swedish things we have, "The Swedish Fika" is known (almost) worldwide.