Viennese Coffee
Viennese coffee runs on contrast — bitter hot coffee below, cold unsweetened cream above. Sweeten the cream and the contrast disappears, leaving an ordinary sweet drink. The cream is also whipped only to soft peaks, so that the cap slides slowly into the coffee instead of sitting there like a lid.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 5 min
- Total
- 15 min
- Servings
- 2
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 270 kcal
Ingredients
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What to use instead
No cezve? A double espresso lengthened with 150 ml of hot water works. Instant coffee does not: under cream it reads as burnt.
Makes: 2 large mugs
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Brew strong coffee
Make the coffee with 350 ml of water in a cezve or a French press. In a cezve, pull it off the heat the moment the foam starts to rise; boiled coffee turns bitter and muddy.
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Step 2: Whip the cream
With a mixer, whip the cold cream with the icing sugar for 1–2 minutes to soft peaks: it holds its shape but the tip of the peak flops over. Over-whipped cream goes grainy and sits on the coffee like a plug.
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Step 3: Sweeten the coffee itself
Stir the sugar into the hot coffee. All the sweetness belongs underneath, so every sip travels through unsweetened cream and the flavour arrives in layers.
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Step 4: Warm the mugs
Rinse the mugs with boiling water and dry them. Cold glass strips the heat instantly, and coffee under a cream cap cools faster still.
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Step 5: Pour and spoon
Fill the mugs two thirds full and spoon the cream on top so it stands slightly above the rim. Poured cream sinks straight through.
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Step 6: Finish
Scatter over the chocolate shavings and a pinch of cinnamon. Do not offer a spoon — Viennese coffee is drunk through the cream, unstirred.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Cream, bowl and whisk all need to be cold. On warm equipment the fat never sets and the cream splits instead of whipping.
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Swap
No cezve? A double espresso lengthened with 150 ml of hot water works. Instant coffee does not: under cream it reads as burnt.
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Variation
A dash of orange liqueur, or half a spoon of cocoa folded into the cream, makes a different drink entirely — then leave the coffee unsweetened.
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Storage
This one does not keep: the cream cap lives about ten minutes. Whipped cream holds 4 hours in the fridge, the coffee does not.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 2 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 270 kcal | 540 kcal |
| Protein | 2 g | 4 g |
| Fat | 24 g | 48 g |
| Carbohydrates | 11 g | 22 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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