Georg Franz Kolschitzky (1640 – 1694)
He is “Georg Franz” most frequently encountered by those interested in Ottoman history and gastronomy culture. He was a Polish nobleman, merchant, diplomat, and spy, whose real name was Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki.
- Siege of Vienna: During the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, thanks to his excellent knowledge of Turkish, he managed to infiltrate the besieged city disguised in Ottoman clothes and delivered news to the relief forces. This critical move played a significant role in Vienna’s liberation and made him a national hero.
- Coffee Culture: When the Ottoman army retreated, he took the coffee sacks they left behind (which many thought were camel feed) as a reward and opened one of Vienna’s first coffee houses, “Hof zur Blauen Flasche“ (House of the Blue Bottle). To adapt the strong and unfiltered Turkish coffee to European taste, he filtered it and added milk and honey/sugar, laying the foundations for what is known today as “Viennese Coffee” (Wiener Melange).
In fact, what was left in the sacks was not “Turkish coffee” but raw or roasted coffee beans.
“Turkish coffee” is not a botanical coffee type or a bean variety; it is entirely a brewing and extraction technique. The beans consumed by the Ottomans at that time and left in the camp were most likely Arabica beans of Yemeni (Mocha) origin.
Regarding the beverage preparation aspect, it is a complete story of recipe adaptation:
- First Attempt (Ottoman Style): Initially, Kolschitzky served these beans to Viennese people by grinding them very finely and boiling them with their grounds (i.e., using the Turkish coffee technique we know), just as he had seen in the Ottoman camp.
- Rejection of the Profile: The people of Vienna found this unfiltered, intensely extracted, and quite bitter flavor profile too harsh, earthy, and unfamiliar to their taste.
- Modification of the Recipe: Subsequently, Kolschitzky made a technical modification to balance the texture and flavor of the drink. He clarified the coffee by filtering it from its grounds, then integrated milk and honey into the recipe to break that intense bitterness and soften the body.
So, what the Ottomans left at the gates of Vienna was the raw material of coffee. Kolschitzky, however, took this raw material and, by filtering and adding milk, balancing the acidity and bitterness, created the Wiener Melange (Viennese Coffee) profile, which is the foundation of European cafe culture today.
Was There No Coffee Before Then?
Coffee was known in Vienna before the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, but it was not a commercial drink accessible or consumed by the general public. It was an “exotic and medicinal” product known only to court circles, diplomats, and some merchants.
The historical facts regarding Vienna’s relationship with coffee before the siege are as follows:
- Diplomatic Contacts and Court Culture (1665)
About 18 years before the 1683 siege, in 1665, the Ottoman envoy Kara Mehmed Pasha visited Vienna with a large entourage. During this visit, coffee was served to the Viennese aristocracy and court officials. Thus, the Viennese elite had tasted this “bitter black water” and witnessed its ritual long before the siege. - Situation in Other Parts of Europe
By 1683, coffee was not a brand new discovery for the rest of Europe.- Venetian merchants had already brought coffee to Europe around 1615.
- The first coffee houses in England (Oxford and London) had opened in the 1650s.
- Coffee trade had already started in France and the Netherlands. Vienna, despite its geographical proximity, lagged behind this trend in terms of daily consumption.
- Historical Legend vs. Objective Fact
The story of Kolschitzky opening a coffee house and starting Vienna’s coffee culture is a beloved and romanticized legend of Austrian history. However, official archive records paint a different picture:
The first person to receive an official privilege (license) to prepare and sell coffee in Vienna was an Armenian merchant named Johannes Diodato (originally Hovhannes Astvatsatur) in 1685. Diodato, having actively traded with the Ottomans, was already familiar with the supply of coffee beans and brewing techniques. He was the one who truly established Vienna’s first coffee house and laid its commercial foundations.
The 1683 Siege was not the event that “first brought” coffee to Vienna. However, the enormous coffee stock (approximately 500 sacks) left behind by the Ottoman army served as a catalyst, allowing this product to suddenly emerge from the black market, become cheaper, and descend from the palace walls to the public. Figures like Kolschitzky also accelerated the birth of a culture by adapting this raw material to European taste (with milk and filtering).