Life is Good: coffee parties

Thursday, April 24, 2014

U ~ Underbara Kaffee Kalas = Wonderful Coffee Parties #atozchallenge

All Aboard! "It's Very Swedish..." a train on a cultural journey through Sweden, exploring the differences big and small between American and Swedish culture.

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Americans, when they want to "have coffee" with you they meet you at a coffee shop and you buy (totally overpriced) coffee, and maybe something to eat. You fight over who pays.

In Sweden, "having coffee" means going to someone's house and they have a wonderful array of goodies ready to quickly set out for you. The Swedish hostess needs to be ready for visitors, who may show up at any time. I remember how Farmor always had several kinds of cookies, buns (see B ~ Buns), and other treats available.

There's sometimes a silly little ritual of , "Oh, please don't bother, I'm fine!" and "Oh, it's no bother at all!" while the hostess makes the coffee and sets out the goodies.

There are more formal, organized coffee parties as well. My Swissie and I would sometimes have two-a-day when we visited in the summers as Farmor and Farfar wanted to parade us around to all their friends.

I remember vividly the summer she was 14 and I was about to be 17. We were "forced" by politeness to eat so much that we were never, ever hungry. Then one day when we had no formal plans, I at some point in the day turned to her and said, "Blessed! I do believe I'm hungry again!" It's been a saying between us ever since.

At those parties you might start with a fancy sandwich (see D ~ Dill), then a bunch of cookies (you were to try one of each) and of course the aforementioned buns, and then when you thought you'd about burst (and die of thirst as we discussed in I ~ Ice, Ice Baby), out would come THE CAKE.

(yes, I know this is not the inside of the above picture...but I wanted you to see an inside, and variations of the outside, so for those of you who thrive on detail, just know I am aware of this and not trying to fool you)

These cakes were really awesome, but I never had room for them once they arrived. This cake starts with a layer of sponge cake, then some sweet jam is mixed with whipped cream and spread on the bottom layer, then the next layer goes on. After that, the whole cake is covered in the whipped (and of course sweetened, sometimes with vanilla sugar) cream and decorated with fresh fruit. A sight to behold.

Coffee is a ritual in Sweden. It's called kaffe (cuff - eh? (as in "I can't hear you!")) and it's served hot, strong, and in smaller cups than we use.