Kaffeehaus Ritual · Viennese Coffee
Wiener Melange
Photo: Manfred Werner (Tsui) / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
In 2011 Viennese coffeehouse culture was entered on Austria's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage, kept by the Austrian UNESCO Commission.
A Wiener Melange is roughly half strong coffee and half hot milk, topped with a layer of milk foam, traditionally served on a small tray with a glass of water. It's meant to be lingered over for hours in a Kaffeehaus, not rushed.
Why it's made this way: Legend credits Vienna's coffeehouses to coffee beans left behind after the 1683 Ottoman siege; the first licensed coffeehouse opened in 1685, and by 1900 cafés served as living rooms for the city's writers and thinkers.
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