Coffee training Culture Napoleon's Coffee feud

On the eve of the French Revolution, a short, flesh-faced, stocky young officer appeared at the famous Café Procobe in Paris, found that he did not have enough money with him, and was detained as collateral by the persistent young clerk. How could the young man have thought that the guest he was teasing was none other than the future Emperor Napoleon?

Napoleon used to go to the Cafe Regency in Paris, which featured chess fights. At that time, he had not had the opportunity to command real people, so he used to command chess pieces. He loved to play chess, but his chess skills were mediocre. He was often defeated by reckless attacks. He complained ruefully: "This thing is not rigorous enough as science, and it is too difficult as a game." In the Regency Cafe, Napoleon's copper-sided chess table is still preserved.

Napoleon was a coffee drinker and even in his war years he carried around George Francis, a personal attendant who made coffee for him. Whenever he wanted coffee, he blurted out,"George, coffee." So the phrase "George Coffee" spread throughout the court and became synonymous with high-end coffee. Later Napoleon was exiled to Elba, Francis opened a home in Paris "George Cafe", with the help of celebrity effect launched a unique "Napoleon Coffee".

It turned out that Napoleon did not like milk very much and felt sick when he smelled milk. So he developed a solitary coffee-drinking habit: adding a few drops of brandy and lemon juice to his coffee. Hearing this anecdote, I suddenly realized that it is no wonder Napoleon praised coffee "not only for exciting me, but also for giving me warmth and extraordinary strength, and for not feeling the torture of pain…" It turned out that it was not the magical effect of coffee, but the effect of alcohol.

In 1805, Napoleon led his army into Vienna and occupied the Austrian emperor's summer palace-Schönbrunn Palace. Not only did he sleep in Queen Theresia's bed for a year, he also forcibly married the Austrian princess. During the French occupation, the Austrians had nowhere to vent their anger. Some cafe owners made waiters wear Napoleon uniforms to serve customers, which was a kind of AQ resistance.

War kills peace as well as ideas and economies. Coffee was in short supply in Vienna and prices were rising. Some people were eager to replace coffee with a grass root that tasted similar to coffee after boiling. However,"substitute coffee" could not replace coffee after all, and fewer and fewer guests came to the cafe; in addition, the Austrian emperor, out of fear of the French revolution, strengthened the control and surveillance of political activities in the cafe, banned political books in the cafe, and only read official newspapers. The German poet Ernst said that he always heard free speech and felt the vitality of ideas in German, French and Italian cafes, while in Vienna cafes, guests whispered and looked frightened. At the beginning of 1810, the government simply announced the Prohibition of Coffee Sales.

"What do you mean?" The ban was a headache for all Viennese. Tea? Beer soup? Wine? Vegetable soup? Viennese, accustomed to coffee and bread, could not accept this reality. Without coffee, the cafe naturally did not live up to its name. It sold wine at noon and hot meals at night. In fact, it became a fast food restaurant. Four years later, the ban was lifted with Napoleon's abdication, and Vienna resumed cafe life. The sudden arrival of the long-awaited day sent Viennese into a frenzy of excitement. The battle for coffee took place in the streets, and citizens ignored their manners. Men and women wrestled together, some with broken heads and some with broken ribs.

Disorder, good mood. Anyway, the Austrians lost a princess and won back coffee. Bitter-smelling coffee injects life into the imperial capital. Viennese coffee is drunk with milk, cream, milkshake and sugar, a tradition that continues to this day, as if deliberately at odds with Napoleon.