A LOT CAN HAPPEN OVER COFFEE AND TEA: Swedish Fika, British Afternoon Tea, Turkish Coffee & Tea at Stockholm Gastronomy Conference

The policy track on coffee and tea ceremonies that Thomas Blom and I organized at the recent Stockholm Gastronomy Conference, 23-25 November, was a great success much thanks to the caliber and dedication of the participants from the UK, Germany, Turkey, and Sweden.

While exotic differences were described, it was the commonalities among coffee and tea ceremonies from different parts of the world that stood out. An understanding shared across borders was that the coffee or tea really is a pretext for connecting, and that when we get together over coffee or tea indeed many things can happen.