Do you know what fika is? It’s the Swedish word for coffee-break, but it’s more of a concept than just a word.
Fika (pronounced fee-kah) is both a noun and a verb: “taking a fika” is the same as “to fika“. It basically means to take a break and have coffee, usually with something sweet. You can also have other beverages, including tea and lemonade, but nothing with alcohol.
Swedes have fika almost everyday, and often several times a day. We enjoy it at home, outdoors, in cafés and at work (most work places actually have fika on the schedule, including in the government).
Traditionally you were supposed to serve at least seven freshly baked pastries when having guests over for a fika, but today people are more relaxed about it. It isn’t mandatory to offer anything besides coffee for it to constitute a real fika.
PS. I saw this picture on Facebook yesterday – priceless!
I’m gonna have to start scheduling fika in my daily routine!
-TA
http://www.laptopsandlipgloss.blogspot.com
Loved the pictures from Facebook – I got a good laugh over them!
I love the fika concept!
I just discovered that I do it everyday without knowing there is an actual concept like this. I’m glad it has a name and importance! ^^ I really love having coffee constantly, it makes me feel like I’m on holiday every time I have it, and if I don’t have it (especially the first coffee of the day right after breakfast) I get reaaally cranky, and I mean really grumpy. I love those kind of pictures by the way, to be honest they make me laugh like crazy =)
Хорошая традиция. Тонь!) Так и поправиться недолго.
Aaaaah, Alexander Skarsgaord….. love him!
Coffee is really important in the Netherlands too. At the company i work for (goverment institution) they have coffee every morning and afternoon.
Alexander
))
I love Fika. One of my favourite parts of the day… Hehe. At least one Swedish legacy I certainly took back home with me.
I’m about to bake banana bread for this afternoon’s coffee break
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I like Sweden even more now
I mean, if a coffee-break is a whole concept and reason for a small “party” the Swedes definitely know what “la dolce vita” means, haha!
My Swedish friends taught me about fika and I wanted to adopt the word to the English language! We are definitely missing this one
I’m working on it too!:))
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