The Nordic Ways
001 Coffee
(Repost from the NNBC group 2020 and have been reposted and updated since then.)
Together with Holland the Nordic countries drink the most coffee in the world per capita.Depending on how you count the consumption, the international ranking differ a bit. Sometimes Sweden is second, Sometimes we are no 6. Finland is often the leader. But all of the Nordic countries drink a lot of coffee. As do the Dutch.
In Sweden it is common to sit down, have a coffee break. Coffee and a cinnamon roll or a bit of pastry. It is called "fika". Both the noun and the verb is fika. On youtube you can see people from other countries going to Sweden for a Swedish fika.
Well, on the surface they do it right. But missing the whole point that fika is a moment of relaxation. Doing nothing, talking about whatever that comes into peoples mind. Or just sit alone, resting the brain for a while.
The British 5 a clock tea might be something similar. But right me if I'm wrong on this, The tea drinking is mostly a social thing. A fika doesn't have to be that.
The old school Swedish café culture reminds a bit like that in Vienna, Austria.
is not uncommon for teenagers sit for hours in their favorite café. For a fika, just for gossip or talk about their unrealistic dreams for the future.Working as a public servant, going home to, often lonely or older people, you have to count in a fika.
Often the offering of coffee in Nordivc Noir stories are full with subtexts. That I think a non Nordic have a hard time to get. Some elderly prepares their treats hours before the landlord or service staff ring the doorbell. And it is rude to say no. Saga Norén, Länskrim Malmö doesn't always get it. Even if she sometimes tries. Norwegian Steinar Hovland in the later episodes of Beck is turning fika into an interrogation technique. Finnish Sofia Karppi will often be seen with a paper cup of coffee in her hand. And so does Wallander. Not having the time to relax for a proper fika. In the novels however Kurt Wallander spend a lot of time with creamy fika sessions. Sometimes at Fridolfs, sometimes at Fritidsbaren or Bäckahästen.
Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark or Sweden. It is always coffee in every episode. The Danes add some hygge with a green labeled beer as a local way to relax.
Because in Denmark it is more common to have a beer as fika than in the rest of the Nordic countries. Or Hygge as they say. Having a grøn or øl.
The Green labeled beer is 4,5% and are quite common as hygge. Dicte does a lot of hygge for instance. As Sarah Lund and Martin Rohde. While Saga Norén look upon at it as drinking alcohol, a festive activity not a fika.
To go to the pub to have a beer the English way, like inspector Morse or Lewis is rare in all countries except in Denmark. Mostly because the laws, social manners and prices don't encourage beer drinking as a fika in the middle of the day. And when the Finns, Swedes and Norwegians drink, they drink a lot.
My favorite cafes are still there, one in Gamla stan in a basement that is supposed to be an old monastery something(?), Gråmunken.
Ritorno in Vasastan that New York times listed as one of the most atmospheric cafés you have to visit. Appears as a location in one of David Lagerkrantz Salander books. And as a plot making spot in a real life crime. But that is another story.
I found them in my early 20's and still find them great.
The best known cafés in the NN world are Fridolfs in Ystad (Wallander) and Kaffebar in Stockholm (where Stieg Larsson hung while writing about Lisbeth Salander).
you going to have a Swedish fika you must have a moment to yourself, a cup of coffee. Alternative tea or a soda. A treat. Most people go for a cinnamon roll bun. I go for a "fralla" which is a sandwich bun. Some kids and grown ups have biscuits, cookies or scones. And a moment to gather new energy.
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