Sweden has a reputation for being stylish, beautiful and of having one of the highest qualities of life in the world, and annoyingly much of it is well-earned.
However, Sweden’s culture of Jantelagen, an attitude of being understated and self-deprecating, means they are likely to blush at the thought of themselves as the envy of anyone else. Add to the mix the Swedish commitment to lagom, a uniquely Swedish word meaning ‘just the right amount’ and it looks like Sweden achieves this effortlessly. So how do they do it?
‘Eat well and you live well.’ It’s an unspoken Swedish mantra. Food - and drink – plays a role in Swedish life that goes beyond the merely functional.
Take fika (fee-ka). Loosely translated, it means spending time over a coffee and a pastry, chatting and generally hanging out with a friend. It’s so important in Swedish culture, it’s even built into some employee contracts. Indeed, after the Finns, Swedes drink more coffee than any other nation – it fuels them both through the long, dark winter days.
Then there’s breakfast. This is not a meal that is skipped; it’s the engine-kick to start the day and Swedes are pretty exacting about what it contains: porridge, muesli mixed with filmjölk (a sort of sour milk yoghurt), knäckebröd (crispbread), lingonberry jam, caviar and huge blocks of cheese, sliced and eaten with marmalade on the obligatory open sandwiches.
Surrounded by clear, cold, mineral-rich seawaters and with thousands of lakes, it’s not surprising that fish and shellfish feature highly in Swedish diets. Swedes will find any excuse to add herring (pickled or soused in everything from mustard to fennel, lemon to blackcurrant) to a meal, especially on special occasions. So ardent is their love for it that they will even endure surströmming (fermented herring), a national embarrassment so potent it is usually eaten outdoors. A few years ago the police were called to ‘disarm’ a 25 year old can at risk of explosion.
Not that Swedes are fanatical purists. They know how to do hedonism. Herring, for example, is typically washed down with a ‘nubbe’ - vodka or aquavit - and micro-breweries are spreading. At Lundabryggeriet, for example, an artisan-style microbrewery in the university town of Lund, you can opt for beer tasting classes. Prefer cider? Head to Kivik, in the pretty Österlen region of Skåne; the heart of Sweden’s famed apple country. Swedish tradition dictates that every shot of spirit is preceded by eye contact with your guests, and - unusually for the famously reserved Swedish - many, many speeches.
The reason Swedes eat so well is two-fold: there’s a rich natural larder on their doorstep (the country has a vast geographical spread, with nine climatic zones) and - equally crucial - they know how to cultivate it without ruining it. Today’s chefs have a huge focus on indigenous ingredients (sometimes exotic, such as lichen, juniper twigs or moose bone marrow, to name a few); some restaurants have their own farms or allotments. Foraging is a common activity and an ancient tradition protected under a law called Allemansratten, ‘the right of public access’. Swedes can, and do, forage freely for everything from bilberries to cranberries, chanterelles to garlic. Places where wild raspberries and strawberries grow are coveted secrets handed down through generations.
Sustainability in Sweden is not just seen as tokenism but something that is actively strived for. The White Guide - the go-to guide for Sweden’s top restaurants - recently launched an annual award for sustainable gastronomy as well as a restaurant sustainability grading system. The Swedish Food Federation also has a sustainability manifesto whose goals include, for example, a decrease in food waste and the use of sustainably grown produce. Members include coffee company Löfbergs which buys only organic and Fairtrade-labelled coffee and was the first Swedish coffee company to introduce aluminium-free packaging.
So, just how well do the Swedes live? Outdoors most of the time, is the short answer. This has something to do with squeezing every last drop out of the daylight before winter’s shorter days creep in. But mainly it’s because they have such a clean and rich natural playground - pine and birch forests, crystal-clear lakes, powdery soft beaches - and barely nine million people to romp around a country twice the size of Britain. Cycling, wild swimming, sailing along the Bohuslän coast, fishing and barbecuing fresh seafood on the beach, are high on a Swede’s list of favourite activities. In the cities, having fika, wrapped in blankets at a pavement café even in winter months is not uncommon.
And they love any excuse to party. Midsummer Eve is celebrated outdoors at long tables groaning with platters of herring and plenty of aquavit, and in some cases a night-time (and often naked!) dip in the sea or nearby lake for the brave. As summer slips into autumn that’s the time for crayfish parties when lanterns are hung in trees, paper hats donned and rousing, traditional songs sung.
You don’t have to go to Sweden to sample the Swedish lifestyle. You can make time for fika in the UK, which incidentally in Sweden is used as an anxiety-free way of getting to know someone you fancy without it having the ominous implications of a ‘first date’. Try it with a cinnamon bun from Swedish bakeries like Fabrique - where you can also pick up traditional sourdough bread - or Bageriet, or simply make your own cinnamon buns (try Fabrique’s recipe) and invite friends round to relax over coffee.
Or try recreating fredagsmys, or cosy Fridays, at home. This relatively new Swedish ritual, inspired by a 1990s advertising campaign for crisps, sees families and friends across the country gather to make and share easy meals, such as pizza. If you’re feeling more culinarily adventurous online supermarket Ocado stocks it all, from meatballs to lingonberry juice, crayfish in dill to herrings in mustard, cloudberry jam to caviar.
And if you fancy that Swedish chic but rugged look - natural materials, clever cuts, tonal colours - have a browse through the clothing rails at Boomerang or Tiger of Sweden, or fill your home with the best of Swedish design from Skandium. If you feel like working up a sweat give Swedercise, from non-profit gym chain Friskiss & Svettis, a go. This fantastically un-cool aerobic workout will get you moving to high-octane Euro-pop. The class even takes place in a circle, ensuring a Swedish sense of equality for all.
But if you really want to get that natural but sexy, Swedish look, perhaps now’s the time to dip your toe into a bit of wild swimming…
Take a short break in Sweden with Expedia, or enjoy the outdoor life with Nature Travels. Explore the Bohuslän archipelago with Sunvil, or take a culinary tour of Skåne with Taber Holidays
