Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Austrian beer garden etiquette

For advice on Austrian beer garden etiquette, see here.

Café Coffee Day, a leading Indian chain, attracts customers in Vienna

Café Coffee Day opened its first coffee shop at Bangalore in 1996 and now has 952 shops in India. In 2005 it opened its first coffee house in Vienna, home of a distinctive European coffee shop culture (where melange, the Austrian cousin of Italy's cappuccino, is popular). Café Coffee Day now has three shops in Vienna and expects to add another five by the end of the current fiscal year. For more, see here.

Austrian or Viennese coffees

In the USA Italian-style coffees has become fashionable. The Austrian capital of Vienna also is a coffee center, but one whose coffees are less known in America. Probably the melange style is most common, but here is a round dozen.

Vienna-style lager from Ottakringer brewery

An article on dining in Vienna (New York Times, 27 January 2008) makes a passing reference to the "malty, reddish-brown draft beer made by Vienna’s Ottakringer brewery, one of the few beers on the market that comes close to the nearly extinct Vienna lager style."

Café Coffee Day looks forward to Starbucks competition in India

Café Coffee Day currently has 400 coffee outlets in India and plans to open another 250 this financial year. It also has thousands of Coffee Day Xpress vending machines (and two subsidiary-owned coffee shops in Pakistan and, as its beachhead in Europe, three in Vienna). Café Coffee Day looks forward to the entry of Starbucks into the Indian market as it believes that Starbucks will persuade customers to accept much higher prices for coffee drinks. For more, see here.

Austria: One of Europe's last smoking havens

A close look at Austria's bars and restaurants shows a nation in conflict: smoking bans are being both vehemently demanded and fiercely rejected. 

The Turkish Press reports.

Foothold in Vienna for Indian coffee chain

In 2005 an Indian coffee chain, Coffee Day, opened a shop in Vienna, sometimes regarded as the world's coffee capital, and added a second in 2006. Coffee Day has 250 outlets in India. Although there has been a slight decline in coffee houses in Vienna recently, there remain about 2800 places to buy a cup of coffee, many of them in the city center. To accommodate local tastes, the Indian coffee shop added sacher cake, apple strudel, and "melange" (strong coffee with hot milk and milk foam), to Indian specialities such as chai and curries. Another outsider has had only limited success in Vienna. When Starbucks opened its first Vienna outlet in 2001, it hoped to have a total of sixty in five years. It has been forced to settle for nine in Vienna and vicinity. Its Italian-influenced, vanilla-flavored coffee has not displaced traditional Vienna coffee styles. Coffee in Vienna often has a cinnamon flavor (as French coffee sometimes includes chicory). For more, see here.

How café culture influenced writers and artists

Ibsen, Satre and Dali worked best with a glass in front of them. A new book explores the contribution made by café culture to their greatest creations. The Independent reports.

Opium-licensing scheme mooted

Rather than eradicating opium crops in Afghanistan, the growing of opium should be regulated to manufacture medical drugs like morphine and codeine, which developing countries have limited access to, said an international think tank in Vienna on Wednesday.

Read more.

Internet 'pharmacies'

Legal prescription drugs are being trafficked illegally over the internet, the UN's anti-drugs body has warned. The BBC reports.