Vienna Coffeehouse

The first coffee house in Europe opened in Venice in 1647. The first coffee houses in England were opened in 1650 and 1652. And in Vienna the first coffee house opened only in 1683.

Vienna Coffee is the name of a popular traditional cream-based coffee beverage. It is made by preparing two shots of strong black espresso in a standard sized coffee cup and infusing the coffee with whipped cream (as a replacement for milk and sugar) until the cup is full.

Then the cream is twirled and optionally topped off with chocolate sprinklings. The cream actually is more than aesthetic as it allows the coffee flavour to be drawn through the cream, resulting in a fantastic, deliciously creamy coffee.

The first coffee house in Vienna was actually opened by the Armenian spy Diodato. He served at the Viennese Imperial court and was a man full of secrets. He knew about the dark beans and the art of preparing coffee from his home country.

The Viennese coffeehouse has always been a central meeting point for literates, musicians and artists. Therefore, the coffee house culture stands for atmosphere, freedom of mind and creative working, without being alone; at the same time it is strongly connected with indulgence and relaxation.

The Vienna Coffee House is a true stem cell for creating new ideas, concepts, poems, literature, political declarations, etc. It is an incubator within an ethnic and cultural melting pot.

In general, the Viennese, who mostly lived in tiny, crowded flats, regarded the elegant coffee houses as their "extended living rooms" or second homes where they could meet friends and other people. After World War One, the first dance cafés opened and played popular American jazz music.

Vienna Coffee

History of coffeehouses in Vienna, Austria

Coffeehouses have served as hangouts for artists and intellectuals throughout Europe whenever they existed.

Mohammed IV mobilized an army of 300,000 men and sent it forth under his vizier, Kara Mustapha, to destroy and conquer Europe.  Reaching Vienna July 7, 1683, the army quickly invested the city and cut it off from the world.

The enemy was repulsed in 12 September 1683, and legend has it that 500 sacks of coffee beans were left behind by the fleeing Turks.

Geor Franz Koltschitzky a native of Poland, also formerly an interpreter in the Turkish army, entered Austrian history by successfully passing through the Turkish line, in disguise, in Mid-August 1683 to deliver messages about conditions in Vienna to Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, who was heading up a relief army prepared to come to the city’s rescue.

He won himself undying fame with coffee his principle reward.

After the siege of 1683, Koltschitzky brewed and sold coffee at the house in the Domgasse, quite near St, Stephen’s Square.

At first the Viennese resisted wholesale consumption of the brew because of its bitterness, but when Koltschitzky discovered by chance that the addition of sugar made the taste more palatable, trade became brisk.

On January 17, 1685, Johannes Diodato obtained the first permit in Vienna to open a coffeehouse, although he probably had operated it earlier without benefit of the legal protection from competition that the license afforded.

He finally secured a royal monopoly from Leopold I on the sale of coffee in the city for twenty years.
History of coffeehouses in Vienna, Austria