Einspänner

An Einspänner is a strong black coffee served in a handled glass under a thick cap of unsweetened whipped cream.

Einspänner means a one-horse carriage, and the usual explanation is practical: Viennese coachmen needed a coffee they could hold in one hand while keeping the other on the reins, and the cream cap kept it hot and stopped it slopping out.

Drinking it

Through the cream, without stirring. The contrast between hot bitter coffee and cold unsweetened cream is the drink, and the cream slowly dissolves into the coffee as you go.

Traditionally served without a spoon, which enforces this.

Making one

A double espresso, or a strong long black, in a small handled glass. Whip cream to soft peaks — thick enough to sit, not so stiff it becomes butter — and spoon it on generously.

Do not sweeten the cream. The whole balance depends on unsweetened cream against strong coffee. Sugar goes into the coffee if you want it, before the cream.

Vienna’s coffee vocabulary

Viennese coffee houses have a genuinely large menu of named drinks, and the names are not used elsewhere:

• Melange — the closest thing to a cappuccino, and the everyday order.
• Franziskaner — a Melange with whipped cream instead of foam.
• Kapuziner — black coffee with a little cream, darkening it to the colour of a Capuchin’s habit.
• Fiaker — like an Einspänner, with rum or kirsch.

The coffee house itself is UNESCO-listed intangible cultural heritage, which tells you how seriously this is taken.