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- Guide to Sweden
Guide to Sweden
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Tuesday, September 30 | 2025
Tuesday, September 30 | 2025
Swedish food culture lives in its rituals: fika with cinnamon buns, a once‑a‑year semla, crayfish parties, berries under the midnight sun. Curious about Swedish cuisine, pastries, seasonal treats and the occasional “weird” classic? Explore what people actually eat here and how to taste Sweden like a local.
Swedish pastries are a big thing in Sweden. As someone with many sweet teeth, one thing I love about Sweden is its “excuses” to always have something sweet between meals. Thanks to its most celebrated tradition, Fika. It seems to me that despite the lagom value, Swedes are quite into cake and pastry; they even have special days to celebrate almost all of them. Here is the timeline for those sweet days.
Weird Swedish foods is something you will come across when you are in Sweden for a longer period of time. Every country has its own food peculiarities, foods that you often miss when you are away from your home country. Foods that often also have a cultural significance. And Sweden is of course no exception when it comes to weird foods.
Swedish forests are abundant in berries at this time of the year, which is actually one of my favorite things about the Swedish summer. However, not all types of berries fit all types of cooking/eating. Plus, there are so many different kinds that it might be difficult to recognize them, both in the bush or in the supermarket. Don’t worry though… here is a crash course in Swedish berries.
I have all the Mexicans, and all other sensible people out there, screaming at me through their screens now, but I’m afraid Sweden has claimed and appropriated tacos. This is old news, I assume, but this blog post is to confirm it: there is no food more Swedish than tacos.
A Swedish semla is something you should try at least once. To tell a Swede that you are not a big fan of the bun semla (semlor in plural) – might be considered sacrilegious and semlor are sold pretty much everywhere during January and February. But what is a semla, why is it such a big deal and how do you eat one? Let’s find out!
Before you innocently suck on your first kräftor… take the time to read these 5 facts about the do’s and don’t of Kräftskivor. At the bottom of this article, we’ve added a series of coupons for money off your big pre-crayfish party food shop. Don’t miss out!
Fika is much more than just a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. At work, fika is a social event, in which one gets not only to relax and take a break but also to know the colleagues a little better. The art of fika doesn’t rely on the quality of the coffee, as one might think, but instead on the quality of the conversation. In fact, a bad coffee is a very good conversation starter.
Want to make Swedish friends? Want to know them more or want to learn more about Swedish behaviour? Yes? then there is a ‘Short & Sweet’ way to do that – and in Sweden we call it a ‘Fika’.
”Ska vi fika?” when you are asked this question in a Swedish office, the only answer you are supposed to give is ”Yes”. What have you just said “yes” to? Probably to the most common moment of relax in any office worldwide: the coffee break. The Swedes have this little word, Fika. If you wonder what is so special about it, then you’ve probably never had one.
Sweden is obsessed with fika and everything it has to do with it, especially coffee. Ask any of your Swedish colleagues how many cups of coffee they’ve had just today, and you’ll be surprised to hear that the number is higher than you expected.
Swedish pastries are well known. The sweet treats come in various kinds and all forms and flavours. Swedish fika is an essential part of every day’s (and everyone’s) life and you should not miss it out by any chance. For some sweets, however, there is a special day in the year or even more often.
“What food is traditionally Swedish?” is probably the most asked questions when I go abroad. I never know how to reply. I have asked other Newbies and even Swedish friends but they don’t seem to be sure on that either. What is Swedish traditional food?
I am intrigued by the concept of comfort food, and I had to ask several native English speakers, native food comforters about the topic. In Swedish, there is one seemingly fitting equivalent, which is tröstäter, ‘comfort eating’ or ‘consolation eating’, but this leads us in the wrong direction.
The Swedish countryside is full of outdoor fire pits, making cooking outdoors very accessible. They come in all shapes, sizes, and conditions, but there is no doubt about it, being able to do your cooking outdoors on a hike or a camp, safely and responsibly, enriches the experience and memories.
Did you know that there is a tradition in Sweden that you bring your own cake on your birthday to your friends\colleagues? That’s new (and also a little strange) to me, since in my culture it is vice versa – generally people get YOU a birthday cake!
How do you bake lussebullar in Sweden? And why should you want to? Well, lussebullar in Sweden are just a staple of Christmas. One of the most fun parts of moving to another country is experiencing different traditions and tastes. And, as a bonus, in my family we already love eating and cooking, so it is inevitable for us to taste and also bake Lussebullar!
Have you heard of special food days such as fettisdagen, våffeldagen or even kanelbullens dag? As a newbie myself, finding out that such days exists just amazes me! Traditionally, there are various types of sweet stuff that are consumed by Swedes on certain days throughout the year.
Curious about where the spices that infuse your favorite fika buns are from? When I had my first cardamom bun and semla from the local bakery in Stockholm I was wondering what spices I was crunching on. Was it black pepper? No! It is cardamom!
Swedish pancakes on Thursdays, is that really a thing? Yes, indeed! In all cultures, there is an element of predictability. Some things that you can feel will always happen. Things that give you a sense of security because you can depend on them. And once you know about them, you feel slightly more integrated into society.
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