Viennese people love their coffee and everything that goes along with it. By Lorenzo Aldrett Rañal, Intern, GSS Central Team Vienna
With the weather inviting people to stay in cozy places, one of the most ingrained Austrian traditions comes to light: the coffee culture. For Viennese people, having coffee is a way of life, a very specific and distinct ingredient in the culture of the Austrian capital. Coffee is so much more than a drink; it is the centerpiece of the gathering with friends or business partners, what goes along when reading the newspaper, an excuse for a date.
Coffee was brought to Vienna in the course of the Turkish siege in the seventeenth century. Legend has it that Polish army officer Jerzy Francieszek Kulczycki, who was rewarded with property for his braveness in fighting the Ottomans, eventually founded the first coffeehouse in the city. The unaltered coffee being too bitter for Kulczycki, the legend goes on, he sought different ways of preparing it until he found sugar and milk as congenial additives, thus, giving birth to a 400-year tradition.
Since then, coffeehouses have played a substantial part in Viennese cultural and academic life: they have been gathering places for artists, philosophers, and members of the bourgeoisie to discuss the latest political development. Over the centuries, composers such as the Strauss family, Mozart or Beethoven used these hotspots for performances. At the end of the 19th century a literary genre called “Kaffeehausliteratur” emerged, referring to the works written by famous authors with a coffeehouse as their second home.
Maybe the best way to describe the magnitude of the impact that coffee has in Vienna, is to quote the UNESCO after having named the Viennese coffeehouse ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’: it is described as “where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill.”
So, next time you visit Vienna make sure you make time to relax over a cup of coffee and taste the big variety listed in the menu. But don’t ask for “Viennese coffee” – it exists everywhere but in Austria.