It’s barely a few hours into my first day in Sweden, and I’m already beginning to see the legendary reserve the Swedes are known for, flake away one sip of coffee at a time. Hesitant giggles morph into full-throated laughs, as eyes lock, ideas click into place and new friendships forge.
And all this in just 15 minutes; a mere quarter of an hour we’ve all taken time off for, from a day immersed in the knowledge of foraging techniques and analysing the dominance of the ‘New Nordic Cuisine’ on the global culinary scene, among other academic pursuits.
Just like my colleagues and I at the Culinary Academy of Sweden that afternoon, groups of others across the country are indulging in one of Sweden’s greatest ‘downtime’ pursuits: fika.
A clever syllabic play, the term fika is a spoonerism for ‘kafi’ as coffee is spelled in Swedish. And as the world’s second highest consumers of coffee, after their northeastern neighbours, the Finns, the Swedes have perfected the art of celebrating the beverage and all the trappings that come with the seemingly simple act of drinking it.
Social phenomenon
But then again, fika is much more than having a coffee. It is a social phenomenon, a legitimate reason to set aside a moment for quality time.
According to the Swedish Institute publication, The Swedish Kitchen — from Fika to Cosy Friday , fika is best left undefined. It says that the Swedes prefer not to translate the word as they don’t want it to lose significance and become a mere coffee break.
It’s at fika time that most ideas are incubated, discussed and even put in motion. All this, set to the stimulating tune of intense debate. Not dissimilar to the very Kolkata adda tradition, but minus all the garrulous yelling, of course.
For the Swedes are loath to partake in anything confrontational and prefer to keep their decibel levels as low as humanly possible.
All things Swedish
“Fika is an important and inalienable part of our culture,” says Elizabeth Daude who had been guiding us in the nuances of all things Swedish that day. “It’s not strange for us to indulge in fika sessions several times a day. It’s about spending time with people, eating baked goods and drinking great coffee. Kind of like going for a drink with colleagues after work, only we do it mid-work and minus the alcohol!”
And speaking of baked goods, one of fika’s greatest ‘platefellows’ is the kanelbulle or cinnamon roll. It is these gloriously gooey warm rolls that members of the fika group take turns in either buying or making at home, every day, for the rest, further adding to the intrinsic ‘we-feeling’ aspect of fika.
Not surprisingly, many companies in Sweden have made it mandatory for their workers to have a designated time-off during the day to sit down and do fika. It’s often built into many employee contracts for that matter. There’s even empirical data to prove the impact of fika on productivity. An analysis of the productivity by workers in 38 countries, in the form of a 2014 study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reveals that Sweden comes in at a respectable No. 11.
And after having got the idea of writing this very piece you’re reading at one such fika session, I couldn’t agree more!
The Mumbai-based writer is passionate about food, travel and luxury, not necessarily in that order.
