Should you visit the Vienna Coffee Festival? I want to answer this question for two types of people: Those who are not familiar with the Austrian (specialty) coffee scene or roasters and those who are looking for new roasters from outside of Austria.
The Austrian Coffee scene
Let’s start with the first assumption: You’re visiting Vienna, either from abroad or perhaps from other parts of Austria. You have a limited amount of time, so visiting over 40 specialty coffee shops in Vienna is not an option, even if you “only” narrow it down to the ones that roast their own beans.
For this group, the Vienna Coffee Festival 2024 offered a nice selection of Austrian roasters, from known names like kaffeefabrik, Süssmund, Wildkaffee, GOTA Coffee experts and Coffee Pirates to also some micro roasts like Vogel Kaffee or Kleines Wiener Café – just to name a few.
International roasters
Let’s now assume you already know all the roasters in Vienna, and you want to try something new. In this case you’re in luck too, because roughly a third of the exhibitors are from abroad, from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary or France.
What’s the experience like?
But let’s wind it back a little, what is it like to visit the Vienna Coffee Festival? At the entry you get an reusable cup which you can now use to go from booth to booth and try different coffees. Depending on the café you can try a selection of filter coffees, but most of them also offer at least one or two different Espressos or milk-based beverages. Of course you should be able to handle all that caffeine, luckily there are also some food stands to relax a little and get a full stomach.
The roast level ranges from light to dark, depending on the roaster, so basically all flavor profiles should be covered. In my case, I was mainly looking for new funky filter coffees, which is a big trend right now, so I got to taste quite a bit of variety. I also bought some beans to take home, which you can do as well.
If you’re in the market for a new espresso machine, it’s probably also a good place to visit, as many manufacturers will have some of their equipment on display, and some of the larger resellers will be there as well.
Should you go?
This year was the 10th anniversary of the Vienna Coffee Festival, but I have been there before, and the experience was very similar and enjoyable.
It probably comes down to how much you’re into coffee. If you want to taste as many different coffees as you (probably) can handle, it’s a perfect opportunity to try different beans and roasters. This alone makes it worthwhile for me, even if you visit roasters directly, it is usually not possible to try that many different coffees.