Vienna - Drinking good coffee has always been a matter of principle in Vienna. But, with coffee becoming increasingly a lifestyle issue, the battle between the different trends is on. Local coffee roaster have to do battle with competing international brands while established coffee houses have to deal with the Starbucks phenomenon and coffee-to-go.
The average Austrian consumes about eight kilogrammes of coffee per year, averaging to 2.9 cups per day. Austria is still a domain of filter coffee, drunk in 47 per cent of households, but espresso is gaining ground fast, 40 per cent of households said they owed espresso makers, from fully automated machines to capsule or pad systems.
Far from being a danger to Vienna's coffee houses, the espresso boom may be a boon, as it increased quality awareness among customers and enlivened the scene, said Maximilian Platzer, proprietor of Cafe Weimar, a traditional Viennese cafe.
"If a Viennese goes to a coffee house, it is not only about drinking coffee. It is about talking, and having a good time. The coffee house is like an extended living room," Platzer explained.
Vienna's local coffee roasters, only a handful of which survived into the 21st century, feel threatened, in particular by the pad or capsule-based convenience systems or other aggressively marketed lifestyle products.
Christian Schroedl, owner of the "Alt Wien" roasters, said the capsule systems were hard on the environment due to energy-intensive production methods and amount of garbage the created. Also, due to the quantities processed and limited availability of some coffee varieties, industrial-scale producers could not always provide the same quality small roasters did.
Schroedl remains optimistic that small roasters have a chance of survival: "People who started to appreciate freshly roasted coffee are unlikely to return to industrially processed coffee," he said.
In his small outlet, Schroedl in 2006 processed 19 tons of raw coffee. His customer base is growing. "The people know that they can get something special ... Thank God there are customers who understand that coffee does not equal coffee."
Austrian market leader in the capsule market is Swiss producer Nespresso. The Nestle-owned producer reported a 50-per-cent growth for 2006 with sales increasing to more than 45 million euros (61 million dollars).
Platzer concurs that some capsules would "produce the most expensive cup of coffee of all times," but quality was not generally abysmal. "Consumers are able to decide for themselves." And, overall condemnation of the convenience coffee was like "shooting myself in the foot," he added. If people had nice, high quality coffee at home they would expect the same a the coffee house, and if they did not get it at home, they would go to the cafe.
"The Vienna coffee house has survived other threats before. It is like when Starbucks came to Vienna. If I was afraid of that, I would not open in the mornings." Despite original fears, Starbucks did not doom Vienna coffee culture when it ventured into the Austrian market in 2001.
"There are 2,600 outlets in Vienna selling coffee - only 11 of them Starbucks. Go figure," Platzer argued.
Coffee-to-go was a different pair of shoes, as it attracts a completely different set of customers - mainly younger coffee drinkers. It could not substitute the unique atmosphere and flair of drinking coffee at a traditional coffee house, the cafe owner said.
Vienna coffee expert Leopold Josef Edelbauer believes in a comeback of the roasters. In the past, every small shopkeeper roasted his own coffee, the expertise being lost with the grocery stores making way for supermarket chains.
With coffee emerging as a lifestyle product, there were signs of a revival, he said, but more efforts were necessary. "You can't sit with your hands in your lap. By doing nothing, nothing will happen." Outstanding service and quality were the only way to go, Schroedl agreed.
"We can only impress with quality and expert advice," he said. But also purists like Schroedl may have to give in to the demands of convenience. He considers offering his coffee in "Cialde" versions - individual portions packed in filter paper.
