When my friend found out that I was making a quick trip to Sweden, she mentioned Swedish Fika to me, and I had to look it up. A coffee and cake break with friends seemed like the usual coffee break away from my desk (minus the daily cake) that I would take with my coworkers to re-fuel to get through the rest of the workday. As I came to find out, Fika is actually much more than that. It's a Swedish tradition that I enjoyed very much!
Fika is a very common tradition in Sweden during which friends, coworkers, etc. take a break and press pause on their work and busy lives to slow down and have a fika or simply fika with a friend. (And yes, it is used both as a noun and a verb!) While it was traditionally coffee and cake including the famous Swedish kanelbullar or cinnamon roll, it can actually be anything - tea, coffee, soda, cake, pastries or a snack. Whatever you want to have during your fika, which usually happens both in the morning and afternoon, is acceptable!
In the mid-18th century, the king of Sweden, King Gustav III, imposed a hefty tax on coffee, paranoid that it could cause health problems and fearing that coffee meet-ups could lead to people conspiring against him. It led to a black market for coffee.
