Most people who are familiar with Swedish people know that Fika is a very big part of our culture. Fika essentially means taking some time in-between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner, to have a cup of coffee or tea paired with something sweet. But what many people might not know is that the only thing that is slightly better than Swedish Fika, is a Swedish Julfika. Julfika means Christmas fika and there is honestly nothing better or more cozy during the holiday season. I feel that way because Julfika is even more elevated than regular fika, as it incorporates all of the tastes and smells of Christmas such as saffron, gingerbread, cloves and oranges, candy cane, marzipan, caramel with sea salt and last but not least Swedish rice porridge. Christmas time has always been a very important time in Swedish culture and back in the day, it was really the only time of the year that people of all classes in society would truly splurge. It was a time when you would go the extra mile and buy expensive and extravagant things that didn't grow in Sweden during that time and that had to be important from far away places, such as saffron, rice, oranges and clementines, spices and marzipan. That is why these ingredients that were vert exotic to Scandinavia have become the base of Swedish Christmas fika.