In Greenland, every happening in life is celebrated with coffee from a boy’s first successful seal hunting expedition to the start of the new school year, while in Arctic neighbor Iceland it’s common to start off dinner with coffee before cocktails. Since the earliest explorations of the Arctic regions of Greenland, voyagers have brought coffee with them to help endure the long and frosty periods spend on the inland ice and to this date coffee culture lies deep with the Viking ancestors of the ultimate Norse people. In this exclusive article for the February 2017 edition of the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, SpillingTheBeans explore the exotic and unusual traditions of coffee culture in the Arctics.
By Maja Wallengren
When a boy in Greenland catches his first seal, it’s tradition for the family to throw a lavish coffee celebration with multiple offerings of Danish pastry, bakery and desserts. From the more exotic celebrations for a seal and reindeer hunt, to family events like birthdays, the coffee celebration known as kaffemik serves as the key ritual in every aspect of life in this remote part of the Arctic region.
“We just love coffee and for so many generations it’s been an essential part of our culture so we really can’t imagine doing anything without coffee,” Malene Egede, local district chief in the tiny fjord of Igaliku in southern Greenland, told the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal during a recent kaffemik in this remote outpost.
From café culture and souvenir shops to a popular children’s book about the 12-year-old Inuit boy Tobias preparing for his first seal hunting expedition, coffee is at the center of local life in Greenland. And wherever visitors come they can expect a good cup of strong and perfectly brewed drip coffee.
”Greenlanders are particularly keen coffee-drinkers,” said Chris Coubrough, a New Zealand-born chef whose…
To read the story in full, please go to:http://www.teaandcoffee.net/1400/back-issues/february-2017/
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