Fika started as slang — Swedes flipped the syllables of kaffe and got fika. It’s a coffee break, but calling it that undersells it. It happens once or twice a day, everywhere, at every workplace, and it’s a verb: You fika with somebody. Sit down, drink coffee, eat something sweet, talk. Sweden runs near the top of the world in coffee per person and this is why. Brones writes, Kindvall draws, and they lay out the custom and then give you fifty recipes to run it — kanelbullar with cardamom in the dough, saffron buns for the dark part of winter, coconut peaks, ginger snaps, rhubarb cordial, rye bread, glögg. The illustrations do the teaching on the tricky ones, like how to twist a bun.
Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break