Coffee and coffee machines

Do you drink latte or cappuccino? It's because of a Cossack

10 October 2011

Coffee is since long drank in several countries, but the modern latte or cappuccino have a precise birthdate, or at least a birthplace: Vienna. All started when Yuriy Kulchytsky , a Cossack from Ukraine, was captured during the war against the Turks, and while held in captivity he started to appreciate coffee, widely used by the Turks.

During those long years, Yuriy taught himself Turkish, a skill that proved useful when - during the siege of Vienna - he went to look for the help of the Emperor Leopold, crossing the enemy lines dressed as a Turk. Once the war ended, Kulchytsky  was hailed as a hero, and was given the coffee that the Turkish army left behind.

Originally coffee was served in the Turkish style without milk, but to help Austrians to appreciate the bitter drink, Yuriy stated adding milk and sugar to the coffee, a tradition still enjoyed nowadays; he opened the first coffee house in Vienna (probably the second in Europe after the coffee house in Venice) in 1963 and offered to his customers what is known up to now as "coffee Vienna style".

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