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What’s this cream bun I’ve been seeing everywhere in Sweden?

It's that time of year again, the season when Swedes sink their teeth into cream-filled semla buns. But what goes into a semla?

Published: 12 February 2013 08:01 CET
Updated: 15 February 2021 12:06 CET
What's this cream bun I've been seeing everywhere in Sweden?
Om nom nom. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

In an effort to shed light on this mouth-watering mystery, The Local offers up a few things you've always wanted to know about semlor but were afraid to ask.

What is a semla?

It's a cream bun native to Sweden and Finland.

Why is everyone banging on about them?

Because they are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday.

You mean Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras?

Yes, whatever you want to call it, it's the day before the start of the Christian season of Lent. In Sweden it's most commonly known as Fat Tuesday (Fettisdag) or Semla Day (Semmeldagen).

Shrove Tuesday falls on February 16th this year, right?

That's right, but the semla season has been lengthening ever since Luther lost his grip on the country. You're likely to spot them in many bakeries for the entire first half of the year. Swedes eat 40 million of them per season. Basically as soon as lussekatt season ends, semla season starts.

Ohhh, are there more pastry seasons?

You bet! There's cinnamon bun day, waffle day, Gustav II Adolf day… Having specific days for specific pastries combines two things Swedes love the most: sweet treats and a sense of predictability.


What semlor look like. Photo: Hasse Holmberg/TT

So what's in these semla things?

A modern semla is a wheat bun, spiced with cardamom. The top is knocked off and the bun is hollowed out a bit to make room for almond paste and whipped cream.

So the top is just thrown away?

No, it's popped back on and sprinkled with icing sugar.

And then you just pick it up and eat it.

You can. But a lot of people prefer to put it in a bowl of hot milk and eat it with a spoon.

Sounds like a Lenten fast would be well-advised after eating one of these monstrosities.

Definitely. King Adolf Fredrik famously died in 1771 after eating 14 of them for dessert – at least according to the legend.

Where does the name semla come from anyway?

From the Latin semilia, meaning top notch wheat flour. But southern Swedes refer to them as shrovetide buns (fastlagsbullar).

All this talk is making me hungry. Where can I get one?

In any bakery in Sweden, or grocery stores and convenience stores like Pressbyrån or 7-Eleven.

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FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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