Bean missin' you

Austria has a great tradition of coffee houses. Here among the clatter of china, the chatter of coffee lovers, Verlängertern, Großen Braunen, Espressos, Melange and more are served. Each cup and saucer placed on a small oval tray with a paper doily, sugar, cream, a glass of water and usually a small chocolate or a biscuit.

Then there are the cakes: big, sweet, creamy, gaudy, myocardially infarctful. Walk up to the glass counter and make your choice – it will be brought to the table with your coffee.

There is no rush. Newspapers are provided so that you can linger and browse, gather and gossip. A coffee can last an hour if you wish.

Each coffee house has its own style and many are steeped in tradition with panelled walls, tiny tables and waiting staff with huge wallets containing the takings in their trouser back pockets. Some coffee houses are listed monuments.

However, a coffee house needs more than this. It needs good coffee. There’s no beating the deep, ingrained, sensual aroma of well-ground, properly-brewed coffee, served, sipped and relished over many years.

Sadly, more and more coffee houses are serving half-a-cup of warm brown liquid that drips from an electronic machine at the press of a button – and charging far too much for it. At a time when so many varieties of beans are available from exotic corners of the world, why is there never a choice of coffee bean?

The days of skilled baristas grinding good quality beans, measuring the coffee into the basket, tamping with just right pressure and working the taps and knobs of a steamer machine as big as a church organ are fading fast. In Salzburg they are few and far between.

The coffee house is under threat – for how long will people pay over the odds for something which no longer lives up to the tradition to which it gave birth? Classy presentation without outstanding content is a hollow offering. Indulging in the atmosphere without the sustaining aromas and taste sensations of excellent coffees is an experience no more fulfilling a beautiful picture frame without the masterpiece it is intended to display.

Some Salzburg coffee houses where real coffee is made:

Primadonna – Platzl

220 Grad - Chiemseegasse