How to Make A Vienna Coffee
19 Sep 2016
We’re feeling nostalgic and reaching back 40 years into the past to see what flavours and fun we can have with coffee. This post was inspired by David who gave me the inspiration to write about it when he mentioned Vienna coffee in a comment on our Flat White post last week. Thanks David!
The seventies were a great time. Think fast cars with big engines, disco music, rollerskates, video games the size of a fridge, ACDC, Star Wars, Lava Lamps, Bruce Lee and classic ‘old-school’ coffees like the Vienna. Yeah right, take us back to the 70s! And although out of vogue in almost every circle (except crossfitters), the Vienna Coffee, made to its classic recipe of black coffee with pouring cream is worthy of respect. A well made Vienna can be a wonderful taste experience and we want to give it a little more air time.
A blast from the past
The seventies were a great time. Think fast cars with big engines, disco music, rollerskates, video games the size of a fridge, ACDC, Star Wars, Lava Lamps, Bruce Lee and classic ‘old-school’ coffees like the Vienna. Yeah right, take us back to the 70s! And although out of vogue in almost every circle (except crossfitters), the Vienna Coffee, made to its classic recipe of black coffee with pouring cream is worthy of respect. A well made Vienna can be a wonderful taste experience and we want to give it a little more air time.
How to make a classic Vienna
- Preheat your espresso machine.
- Grind and dose 23g of coffee into your portafilter.
- Tamp flat and even, then place the portafilter in your espresso machine.
- Fill a medium sized glass or cup with hot water, about 80% of the cups volume.
- Place the glass on a scale on your espresso machine under the portafilter and tare the scale to zero.
- Extract a 33 - 35g shot of freshly roasted white horse coffee over the water.
- Grab a table spoon and gently pour fresh cream over the top of the espresso shot, to achieve a layer effect.
- Dust with cocoa if you like, and that’s pretty much it.
Layering, 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 exquisite ranges of flavour on offer, depending on where the coffee was grown, can be strawberries and cream in the case of an Ethiopian coffee, or hazelnut praline if you brewed a Brazilian coffee. It’s not a common way to experience coffee today, but fun to drink every now and again, especially when you have friends and family over. Give it a try and let us know how you go. Dom
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