Swedish Fika vs American Coffee Break

In the US, a lot of people don't have too much time for coffee breaks like they used to. They go through the McDonald's, Tom Hortons, Dunkin Donuts, or Starbucks drive thru to get their caffeine rush and maybe grab a few for friends or co-workers. If you are lucky you will make coffee plans with a friend once in a while and it will actually be plans to have a coffee. If you make plans to grab a coffee with someone you may or may not actually go out and order coffees somewhere. You may end up at a bar for drinks instead or somewhere for frozen yogurt. I used to make plans to go for "coffee" with friends all the time and we'd go to Denny's and order whatever we felt like, maybe even a full dinner, but maybe only half the time did we actually drink coffee. Here if you make plans with someone to have a coffee you have fika and everyone understands that you are meeting for fika.
In Sweden one of the first things you find different is the social custom or ritual of fika. Fika (Fee-ka) is both a coffee break, or strong Swedish coffee, or to drink a coffee, however it is much more than that. Fika is meeting up with a girlfriend to chat about your latest experiences, fika is enjoying some family time and joking around, fika can also be a solo experience when one doesn't have an abundance of time or cares to reflect alone. Generally fika has been a coffee break served with treats and spent with others. Today at fika, you can drink tea, like Anton's younger sister, or if you're a kid or me while pregnant, you could have juice. If you're really different like my future brother-in-law, you'll always stick to milk. Fika is normally served with buns, or a pastry, or chocolate balls, or cookies, or a platter with some of each. Sometimes fika is a short break at work, or sometimes it's a meal substitution, like it takes the place of lunch at Great-Grandma's house. You can have a morning fika, and an afternoon fika. If you're really wild you could have a night fika, but that is unusual according to my sources.Ikea offers fika for 5 kr, which includes strong unlimited coffee and a cinnamon bun. That is the cheapest you will ever find fika. Often people meet others or have family or friends over for fika. It is fun to entertain others for fika, and if someone invites you over, you expect fika.
I find it interesting that obesity it not a problem in Sweden, a country where they teach you to have a sweet tooth, where you have sweets everyday at fika, and most people are carb-a-holics... but that is a topic for another time.
I have been enjoying fika long before I knew what it was. When I was 18 and came to visit Anton in Sweden for the first time, we had fika regularly, but nobody told me what it was. I just assumed his mother loved coffee and tea, which she actually does (Anton says it's always tea time at the Toll family house). When I was here two years ago for my first Swedish Christmas, we had fika instead of lunch at Grandma's. The eating schedule would be brunch, fika, dinner, snack. This Christmas it was the same schedule and the same meals as two years ago, but it did not get old, rather it was something to look forward to. Fika here is something to look forward to too. Not just because you're allowed to have a chocolate biscuit everyday and no one looks at you sideways, but because the fellowship that comes along with fika is fun. In the US I would make time for my friends often and try to take a "coffee break" regularly, but it's difficult to do. Here it is just automatic. One tradition I will keep wherever we are is fika.