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A History Of Coffee In Vienna
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by: Anastas Mikoyan
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Word Count: 606
In Europe coffee culture is typically associated with the Italians.
Actually, coffee was presented to Western Europe from Vienna, capital of the Habsburg Empire.
The Turkish Ottomans had been besieging Vienna from time to time for three hundred years. They were eventually defeated once and for all by the Polish King John III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. That victory probably saved Western Europe from centuries of Ottoman dominance - in any event, the Turkish Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha was forced to leave in an unforeseen rush, leaving behind tents filled with silverware and Persian rugs and gold and...heaps of odd brown-colored beans.
Before long the Viennese realized that the coffee bean was the most valuable prize of the lot.
The first Viennese Coffee House was opened in 1685 by Georg Kolschitzky - a Pole who had acted as spy and double agent playing the Viennese and Turks against each other for many years and along the way had learned the true art of coffee making. The good burgers of Vienna quickly took to coffee drinking and Kolschitzky died a very wealthy man.
In this day and age the coffee house plays a defining role in the Viennese concept of 'Gemuetlichkeit' - a term which is very difficult to render into another language, meaning a relaxed, comfortable, easy-going pleasure in life. In 1900 the Viennese coffee house was much more important - it was a home away from home, a place where chess was played, business transacted, critics and friends could meet to mull over the latest gossip concerning the Court Opera. People would settle into their favourite seat and savour their coffee and read newspapers mounted on wooden frames.
It was an art, too, to know which kind of coffee to order. The Viennese were far too fastidious to make do with simple black or white coffee.
For a start you had to decide between a cup or a glass - true connoisseurs would always insist on a glass.
Whipped cream, or, to use its Viennese name, Schlagobers, was served as a matter of course with your coffee unless you expressly ordered without, or would rather opt for coffee with skin (referring to the thick skin of the unpasteurized and unskimmed milk of the day). But you couldn't get away with a simple 'coffee with skin' - you had to be quite specific about the color: 'black with skin' or 'dark with skin' or 'whiter with skin'.
White coffee, too, came in many shades and variants - a 'cup of gold' referred to a golden colored brew, a 'cup of brown' was similar to the Italian cappuccino. For black coffee topped with whipped cream you ordered an 'Einspaenner' (a single horse drawn carriage - 'Fiaker' to the Viennese). If you were feeling really self-indulgent a 'Zweispaenner' came with extra Schlagobers.
Besides coffee, Vienna has some of the best tap water in the world - ice cold and delicious, delivered via aqueduct from the Alps sixty miles distant - and you invariably received a small glass of water to refresh your mouth after enjoying your coffee.
For many people the coffee house was a real way of life. You could spend many hours there for very little cost - unlike today there was no pressure to leave once your coffee was finished. If the 'Ober' (waiter) wiped the next-door table it was because it needed wiping, not as a signal for you to leave. You could stay as long as you liked reading the newspapers, and from time to time the waiter would discretely replenish your glass of water. Peter Altenberg, the famous poet, had no postal address at all besides his coffee house.
About the Author
Anastas Mikoyan is a coffee afficionado and regular contributor to http://Coffee-Suppliers.info
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