Swedish Egg Coffee is made by combining coffee grounds with raw egg and boiling water to create a rich, smooth coffee that is less bitter than regular brewed coffee. The egg acts as a natural filter, removing any impurities and creating a clearer coffee without any noticeable egg flavor.
This type of coffee has a long history in Nordic households, with many families passing down their own unique recipes from generation to generation. It is a beloved drink that has gained popularity in recent years, especially among coffee enthusiasts looking to try something new and unique.
While I’ve given you a taste of what Swedish Egg Coffee is, there’s more information that we’re going to dive into in this article, so hold on for some more down below. We’ll talk about the relationship swedes have with their coffee, Fika or the social aspects, and a recipe on how to make Swedish Egg Coffee.
Swedish Egg Coffee
Contrary to popular belief, egg coffee did not originate in Sweden. Go ask your typical Swede what egg coffee is and they will give you a blank stare.
Despite being billed as a ‘Swedish drink’, you would be hard-pressed to find somebody that has consumed it in Sweden. That being said, old cookbooks in Sweden seem to reference the use of egg whites to make coffee grounds go further (and fish skin), but this is a practice that really seems to have died out.
This isn’t true egg coffee anyway. At least, not the egg coffee that many people with Scandinavian heritage in the US know and love. So, where does egg coffee come from?
Well, history says that it is a drink devised by Swedish immigrants on their way over to America. It turns out the Swedes loved their coffee so much, they wanted to give it a nice caffeine boost too (see the benefits of egg coffee in the next section).
The result? Throwing an egg into their coffee and hoping for the best. In turns out these people liked it. They brought this rather unique combination of ingredients over to the United States…and history was made.
This recipe should give you a single cup of coffee. You can scale this recipe up if you wish. You do not really need to add an additional egg into the mix until you hit ten cups in the pot. However, some people will have an egg per person. You will want to mix it up to see which option is the best for you.
Who You Will Need
- 1 Egg (Medium)
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of water that is ice cold. You will want to leave it in the freezer just before you make this coffee. Don’t let it freeze!
- 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds. This can be any grounds you want, but coarse grounds are the best for this.
- French Press
As we said; you can scale this recipe up as much as you want. We have made it simple for you. Just double the quantities. The process of making the Swedish Egg Coffee will be exactly the same. It is just going to take longer for you to boil the coffee.
Swedish Egg Coffee Recipe
Step 1. Start by bringing your cup of water to the boil (not the ice-cold one).
Step 2. While that is on the go, you are going to want to grab a separate mug and crack your egg (or eggs) into it.
Beat the eggs with the coffee grounds until everything is properly mixed up.
Step 3. By now, your water should be boiling. If it isn’t, then wait. The second that water starts to boil, you are going to want to mix your freshly beaten egg and coffee concoction into it.
Step 4 For the next five minutes, you will want the egg and coffee grounds to boil with the rest of the water.
You will want to stir regularly. It is important that you stick around to monitor the boiling process. There is a chance that the egg will cause the water to start overflowing. If this happens, then you will lose the coffee grounds and, as a result, a bit of the taste.
Step 5. Once everything has been boiled for five minutes, pour in the ice-cold water.
This will instantly cool everything down. More importantly, the egg and coffee grounds will start to clump up. This will cause them to float to the bottom.
Step 6. If you have done everything correctly, then you are ready to serve the coffee.
Now is the point where you realize why you needed coarse grounds of coffee. While the cold water will have caused most of the egg and coffee to sink to the bottom, not all of it will have done.
There will be bits and pieces floating around. You will want to pour the coffee through a filter. This is where the French Press comes in. Pour the mixture into the French Press and push down on the plunger. This should remove all of the weird texture and leave you with a coffee that is delightfully smooth.
Swedish Culture and Coffee
You wouldn’t think it, but Sweden is a massive coffee-drinking nation. With most Swedish coffee drinkers, on average, drinking 3.4-cups of coffee per day, it is clear that the humble coffee is a key part of Swedish culture.
Swedish people drink the second-highest amount of coffee in the world. Second to Finland, and Finland only just barely pips Sweden to the post.
Where Sweden does shine over other coffee drinking nations, however, is the fact that their coffee is incredibly strong. Honestly, you could ask a Swede to make an instant coffee, and you are probably going to end up with something that has the same hit as an espresso.
The flavor is going to be that dark and powerful. The coffee is certainly not done by half measures here. If it isn’t a strong coffee, then it isn’t a real coffee to your average Swede.
Swedish people don’t just drink coffee ‘because’, though. Drinking coffee is a prominent part of Swedish culture. First dates. Birthdays. Weddings. Business meetings. Whatever social gathering you have, it just another excuse to consume coffee. This is all down to the Swedish tradition of ‘Fika’.
What is Fika?
Swedish people aren’t well-known for their ability to socialize. This is the nation that has the lowest number of people per house (more of the Swedish population live alone than any other country), and if you stand by a bus stop, you are doing things wrong if you are standing within four-feet of another person. However, when you suggest a Fika, everybody is going to mingle.
Fika, literally, means meeting over a coffee and a cake. It won’t just be a single cake, though. Oh no. There will often be a good selection of cakes and cookies. If you have ever been to a proper Swedish adult birthday party, you will no doubt see boxes of cookies to dive into. This isn’t just drinking coffee with your friends. It is a full-on social event.
Swedish will always make time for Fika…just give them the opportunity for it. Any time or place. If they can meet up with friends (or work colleagues) and have a bit of coffee and cake, then that is Fika.
It is a break from the norm. A time to unwind. As we said; it is such a prominent part of Swedish culture, that if you go on a date with somebody, nine times out of ten it will involve ‘Fika’. It is the perfect way to bond.
Benefits of Swedish Egg Coffee
You have the recipe for egg coffee, so what are the benefits to do you get from it?
The main benefit is that it helps to clarify the coffee a little bit. Swedish egg coffee is some of the smoothest coffee that you will ever try. This is because it helps to remove the tannins from the coffee. The result is a drink that is going to be a lot less bitter. So, if you are not a fan of the bitterness of coffee, then you may want to give egg coffee a try. It could be just what you need.
Egg coffee is also stronger on the caffeine front. This means that you need to consume less of it in order to get that same ‘caffeine hit’. This is one of the reasons as to why egg coffee became so successful when Swedish people emigrated over to the United States.
Many of them were poor, but they still loved their coffee. By mixing an egg into it all, they would find that the coffee could go a lot further. It also made the water they were using taste a lot better too.
Remember, back then, you couldn’t just add milk to coffee to change up the taste. Cows were expensive (and you probably weren’t carrying many of them on a ship). You needed to use chickens, and egg coffee came from that.
Some people also state that the egg is going to add a touch more nutrients into the mix. We do not know if this is the case since the egg is really there to change up the taste of the coffee. It may add a small amount of protein into the mix, and a couple of other nutrients, but nothing too crazy. You are boiling it, after all.
This is going to instantly reduce the potency of most of the nutrients anyway. We would say that this is a nice benefit, but certainly not the reason why you should be drinking Swedish Egg Coffee. If you want a coffee with a dash of protein added to it, then there are better egg-based drinks for that.
