Drinking coffee in the land of fika and geothermal geysers
When it comes to drinking coffee, Icelanders are over-achievers. They rank #3 in the world in terms of per capita consumption, with Finland and Norway taking the top 2 spots. And although this small Nordic island country only has 350,000 people, there are cafes everywhere. In fact, Iceland’s home-grown café scene is so robust that there is no need for Starbucks in Iceland. Coffee permeates Iceland’s culture, affecting every aspect of life, from work, to play, to love. Although coffee didn’t come to Iceland until 1703 (very recently given the long, long history of Europe), by the mid-1700’s, virtually every household in Iceland had a coffee grinder and roaster. Coffee plays an important part in love rituals in Iceland. In a famous Icelandic novel, published in 1935 by Halldor Laxness, coffee-drinking took center stage. This novel depicted the hard-scrabble life of Icelandic peasants, oppressed by debt-bondage and an inhospitable landscape. There were moments o