Taste of Hungary – coffee houses:

As many of you know, Jeremy calls me a “coffee snob” because of my picky taste in coffee. I, personally, just like a good cup of strong and fresh coffee – none of that water-down stale Forgers coffee they sell at the grocery stores. So, to my surprise, Budapest has really good coffee and apparently also a history of it.

Did you know that coffee houses appeared in Budapest long before they appeared in Vienna or Paris? Well, at the turn of the century Budapest had about 500 coffee shops. Although many of them have disappeared by now, you can still find coffee houses everywhere you go in the city. Just to get an idea, we have at least 10 coffee houses within a quarter mile radius of where we live!

Back then, coffee houses were an integral part of social and cultural life. Because many artists and writers could not afford to heat their small flats, they spent most of the day in their favorite coffee houses and these regular guests were provided with paper and pencil to create their novels and poems.

However, communist party leaders considered coffee houses breeding ground for underground communication and secret meetings so they had every coffee house in Budapest closed down in 1948. Since then, many Budapest coffee houses have been restored.

Last Saturday, Jeremy and I made a stop at Ruszwurm – the oldest coffee house in Budapest. Ruszwurm is a small and charming Baroque style coffee house that has been in operation since 1824. The story goes that the pastries were so tasty that the Austrian Empress and Queen of Hungary, Elizabeth, would send couriers to get her cakes from Ruszwurm for breakfast. So, after a long walk up on Castle Hill, Jeremy and I made a pit stop there to enjoy some nice cold drinks and yummy desserts. Jeremy had a chocolate/caramel cake and the Hungarian version of iced coffee - espresso with vanilla or chocolate ice cream, and I had a raspberry cream cake and Hungarian lemonade - lemon juice with a touch of lime juice and mint leaves- yum!





On Sunday, we ended up stopping at another coffee house and tasted the famous Dobos Torta. The Dobos Torta is a famous Hungarian cake invented by the well-known Hungarian confectioner, Jósef C. Dobos in 1884. It’s a 5-layer sponge cake layered with chocolate butter cream and topped with thin caramel slices. Dobos’ goal was to make a cake that would last longer than other pastries. Because cooling techniques were limited at that time, food could not be preserved for very long. Dobos accomplished this goal because the caramel topping on the cake helps keep the cake from drying out.



Jeremy and I had adapted easily to the Hungarian culture of relaxing at coffeehouses. We both like to do this after a long day of walking and sightseeing or just as a good excuse to get out of the house in the evenings for a good cup of coffee and cake after a nice walk around our neighborhood.