"Fika is a social institution in Sweden; it means having a break, most often a coffee break, with one's colleagues, friends, date, or family. The word "fika" can serve as both a verb and a noun. Swedes consider having a coffee an important part of the culture. You can fika at work by taking a “coffee break,” fika with someone like a “coffee date,” or just drink a cup of coffee. As such, the word has quite ambiguous connotations, but always including something to eat accompanied by a drink, such as cookies, cakes and even candy. This practice of taking a break, typically with a cinnamon roll or some biscuits or cookies, or sometimes a sandwich (smörgås) or a fruit on the side, is central to Swedish life, and is regularly enjoyed even by the government.
Although the word may in itself imply "taking a break from work," this is often emphasized using the word fikapaus ("fika pause") or fikarast ("fika break"), with kaffepaus and kafferast, respectively, as near synonyms. Fika may also mean having coffee or other beverages at a café or konditori (a "patisserie-based coffeehouse.)
Traditionally, fika requires sweet, baked goods, especially cinnamon roll. According to Helene Henderson, author of The Swedish Table, one needs three items minimum to avoid insult to Swedish guests; "to impress, serve a variety of seven freshly baked items--and be ready to talk about the weather."
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| Cinnanom rolls - kanelbulle |
Fika is also combined in words such as fikabröd ("fika bread") which is a collective name for all kinds of biscuits, cookies, buns, etc that are traditionally eaten with coffee. Non-sweetened breads are normally not included in this term (even though these may sometimes be consumed with coffee). Fika is also used as a noun, referring to fikabröd and coffee combined.
The word is an example of the back slang used in the 19th century, in which syllables of a word were reversed, deriving fika from kaffi, an earlier variant of the Swedish word kaffe ("coffee").
While the term is nowadays mostly used as a synonym for "coffee break" (or "tea break", "cake break" or similar), the original use of the word - meaning just "coffee" - still lives on, especially in the elder generations. The phrase "en kopp fika" for "a cup of coffee" is not as common as it used to be, but still prevails to some degree."
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| Freshly made sponge cake by yours truly. It lasted ... well... not very long. |
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| Pale spring light. Love it. |
