Coffee tour around Chernivtsi

Coffee tasting. Coffee traditions and social life of Chernivtsi in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. 

Special coffee recipes. The most interesting coffee houses and restaurants of Chernivtsi.

Starts at the Central Square, near the entrance to the Town Hall (Chernivtsi City Council).

The tour includes a coffee tasting in one of the city's establishments, a visit to at least 5 interesting conceptual establishments.

Let's start with the fact that coffee became famous in Europe after the historic Battle of Vienna in 1683. Coffee beans were found in an abandoned military camp by the Turks. Ukrainian Cossack Franz Yuriy Kulchytsky opens the first coffee shop "Blue Lamp" in Vienna and brews coffee from natural Turkish raw materials.

But it is known that the Turks captured Kamianets-Podilskyi back in 1672. And Moldova fell into vassal dependence on the Turks back in 1507 (!). Since then, perhaps, coffee began to be drunk in Chernivtsi.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chernivtsi coffee houses were already distinguished by a special atmosphere, pompous interiors and an exquisite menu. The owners of such establishments were sensitive to the needs of visitors. They subscribed to newspapers and specialized magazines from all over the world. This encouraged people to visit here, because foreign periodicals were in short supply in free sale.

In addition, every evening in separate areas they played billiards, chess, cards or dominoes. There were address and telephone books, train and stagecoach schedules and much more that could be useful for customers, who in the evenings had the opportunity to enjoy “live” music. Not only ordinary Chernivtsi residents, but also poets, writers, scientists, distinguished guests of the city, officials and deputies of the regional sejm liked to relax in such establishments. Sometimes it was here that they made important decisions for the development of Chernivtsi.

Lovers met in coffee shops, married men secluded themselves with other women... The walls of Chernivtsi coffee shops have seen and heard a lot. On a tour, you will learn their secrets.

Despite the fact that the tradition of drinking coffee was interrupted by the Soviet period, experts will confirm that it is in Chernivtsi that you can taste high-quality and inexpensive coffee or other coffee drinks. Probably because the tradition of coffee brewing is in the genes of genes of Bukovina,

because it is not for nothing that the Austrian publicist Georg Heinzen once wrote about Chernivtsi that it was a city where

“Sunday began with Schubert and ended with a duel. This city – halfway between Kyiv and Bucharest, between Krakow and Odessa – was the unspoken capital of Europe, where the best coloratura sopranos sang, where the sidewalks were swept with bouquets of roses, and where there were more bookstores than coffee shops. Chernivtsi was a pleasure ship with a Ukrainian crew, German officers, and Jewish passengers on board, which under the Austrian flag constantly kept course between West and East.”

So, as we can see, there were enough coffee shops in Chernivtsi...

Tour leader: tour guide and author, Ms. Tamara Rudyaga.