Coffee is Serious Business Class
The Austrians love their coffee and one of the best things about the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 was that the invading Turks came over with coffee – a sort of BYO invasion.
Although slightly miffed at the Turks for turning their city upside down, the Viennese capitalised on the opportunity and embarked on their own retaliatory siege taking the black bean as their own. They now had something new to work with – black, thick, dirty, muddy coffee.
But the strong, crude taste the Turks enjoyed didn’t quite suit the refined palette of Austrians so they added sugar, milk and a lot of care creating what we know today as Viennese Melange.
Coffee houses sprung up everywhere and the Viennese embraced the new pick-me-up with vigour. They nursed it, rehearsed it and gave out the news that the Austrian southland gave birth to a whole new range of variations on a theme.
[Pictured right, Cafe Central]
Today, with the Turks as their mates, Vienna is a world leader in serving up delectable coffees in a fine tradition that belongs solely to them.
Fine coffee houses line each street of Vienna but the spread of offerings seems to have no bounds. (I’m usually not a Starbucks knocker, but I was disappointed to see the familiar green logo blazoned across a beautiful building façade in the main street, Kartnerstraße. Get out of there you guys, you’ve really got no place in Vienna)
While most of the coffee houses are at street level, national carrier, Austrian Airlines now boasts the highest Viennese coffee house.
[Pictured left: Cafe Landtmann]
Business class passengers no longer have to suffer a muddy black stew while flying. Celebrated as a ‘coffee house above the clouds’ Austrian cabin crew now serve a range of ten famous Viennese coffees with the skill if trained barista just as you would expect from their fellow countrymen on the ground.
From the menu passengers can select a Kleiner oder großer Schwarzer which is your basic short black or the classic Wiener Melange made from foamed milk poured over black coffee.
The Wiener Eiskaffee , a double espresso with vanilla ice cream and cream comes to the tray table in a tall glass while the Marie Theresia is a variation on a long black, flavoured with orange liqueur. Many of the varieties feature the trademark whipped cream and all are served hot and fresh.
So passengers who feel they couldn’t possibly last an entire trip to Europe without a true coffee fix really have on option but to fly Austrian.
Oh yes please another Marie Theresia would be wonderful.
An on location from Austria and Central Europe report for TravelMole by International travel writer, Kevin Moloney
John Alwyn-Jones
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