Did you know that a Pole opened a first coffee house in Vienna? This post will show you this and other coffee curiosities. Read on to learn more about the art of coffee drinking.

Born in 1640 near Polish-Ottoman border, Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki became very familiar with the culture and language of Ottomans – in fact, well enough that later his life, during the siege of Vienna, he walked out of the city dressed as a soldier and singing Turkish songs, contacted with Charles V of Lorraine, and came back to the city with news about military reinforcements yet to come, which prevented the city council from surrendering.

Thanks to his courage, after the defenders’ victory, Kulczycki was allowed to take one thing out of the Ottoman camp. He chose 300 bags of “strange grain”, though to be horse forage, which later allowed him to open the first cafe haus named “House under the blue bottle” (Hof zur Blauen Flasche). The main photo of this post shows a statue of Kulczycki in a traditional outfit in which he was serving the coffee himself.

It fills me with joy that such an important figure happened to be my countryman – this is the basic idea that inspired me to point you out some more curiosities about coffee drinking.

Coffee drinking throughout the world

Turkey

Turkish way of preparing coffee is very simple, yet utterly tasty: you put a very firm ground coffee inside the crucible, pour it with cold water, add some sugar and heat it up slowly. Turkish coffee is very full: strong, sweet, aromatic, and hot.

France

The French tend to drink coffee with a big amount of milk – sometimes even in vases instead of cups! The so-called “café au lite” is often used as a “dip” for French bread. In later hours, it is common to drink coffee with sweet ingredients, such as vanilla ice, whipped cream, and roasted chocolate.

Italy

Italy is not only about espresso – but they are also drinking coffee with lots of milk, but only in the morning. The espresso time shines in the dinner hours when Italians tend to quickly drink small portions during the work breaks.

It is said that a tourist in Italy can be recognized by ordering a cappuccino after 12 am.

Brazil

As one of the biggest coffee producers and exporters, it is not strange that Brazilians love coffee and drink it even in their childhood. The most popular drink is “cafezinho” – done by boiling grain and sugar for a long time and then filtered through a strainer.

Poland

Even though coffee houses are gaining more popularity every year along with traditional polish pottery, it is still way more popular to drink coffee in our own houses – both as a waking up ritual and a social activity with family after dinner.

The principles of coffee brewing

Of course, you can drink coffee from basically everything, but firstly, using ordinary glasses might be seen as pettiness, and secondly, the proper selection of dishes and cups can truly bring out the best from coffee.

It is worth to know that in order to bring all the essential out of coffee, it should preserve the same level of heat for at least 15 minutes (this is why the Turkish way provides very full results). If you pour coffee with boiling water, then glass and plastic will cool much faster than, for example, ceramics. Also, the cylindrical shape of a cup provides perfect coffee foam.

Connoisseurs admit that coffee tastes better when given in a proper way. It is said that the cup should have a white color, because it highlights the dark coffee, and thus making it even better. We value this point of view, but also consider pure white rather boring – this is why out cups provide a white inside, but also colorful patterns on the outside as it is in case of polish pottery cups or ceramic mugs.

Milk, sugar or lemon? Additional coffee flavors

There are many additional ingredients for coffee than just milk and chocolate – here are some intriguing examples.

Water

More unobvious than you might think – there are people that order a small glass of water in addition to coffee. It is used to rinse the throat between each sip of the coffee in order to feel its whole taste each time – especially when the drink is strong and full.

Whiskey

Classic café Irish is done from strong, high-grade, firmly ground coffee with a bit of whiskey and brown sugar. However, it is not a bad idea to add some cinnamon, ginger or cocoa.

Lemon

An unusual combination of full and bitter coffee and thin, sour lemon is a thing that won’t suit everyone, but it is at least worth a try – if not for the taste itself, then for other reasons. Because of chemical reactions, lemon coffee is way stronger than usual one (note that also because of chemical reactions, if you add lemon to coffee, then you should not add any milk).

If you feel tired and don’t want to drink a big amount of coffee, then adding some lemon juice might be the trick. It is a great alternative for energy drinks, which tend to contain a LOT of sugar.

Regarding sugar, you can find sugar bowls along with milk and cream jugs in our offer. They will perfectly compose with earlier mentioned, colorful cups – just look at these examples:

Find your own style

These are only a few out of hundreds of facts about coffee – the most popular beverage in the world. These are very basic proofs that coffee drinking is truly an art that comes in many styles and tastes – and such art is the very philosophy of BCV polish pottery online store as well.