Coffee slurping
It seems that just as I am settling in here and getting used to Swedish quirks and thinking I have really seen it all, I suddenly get hit by something that makes me realize there is still so much about this place I need to discover.I was sitting at lunch today with several colleagues. Standard practise at lunch is to eat together and then whoever is finished eating first takes the coffee orders for the whole table and goes to the machine to fetch the 5-8 mugs. Today I was sitting with a colleague I don't often sit with and he asked for a lump of sugar. Instead of putting it in the coffee and letting it dissolve, he held it in his teeth and slurped the coffee over the lump. I sat there with my mouth open then started to laugh. I thought he was intentionally trying to be absurd.
Nope.
Turns out, this is a common practise among older Swedes. Wait, it gets better.
The folks at my table also told me that it is common practise among older Swedes to take their mug of coffee and pour it into the saucer, then slurp the coffee from the saucer (with the lump of sugar between your teeth). The reasoning is sound: Coffee here is steeped, not perked, so it is usually extremely hot. Pouring it into the saucer lets it cool enough to... well, to slurp.
I have not personally seen this - yet. However, I will be watching closely the next time I go to a coffee shop.
And no, this was not a late April Fools joke. At least, I am pretty sure it wasn't. Everyone seemed quite sincere. Hmmm....
posted by Jeff @ 7:05 AM
1 Comments:
I have read of this being done elsewhere as well... I can't remember where I read it
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