Fiaker

Why this works

The rum works because of sugar and fat. Neat rum in coffee tastes hot and thin, the alcohol sharpening the coffee's bitterness. Dissolved sugar softens both, and the cream on top coats the palate and slows how quickly the alcohol registers. The result reads as warming rather than boozy, which is the whole point of a winter coffee.

Dark rum suits it better than white. Its molasses base and time in barrels give caramel, vanilla and dried fruit notes that sit naturally beside a dark roast. Slivovitz, the plum brandy common across Central Europe, is the other traditional choice and gives a sharper, fruitier cup.

The cream has to be softly whipped and floated, as for an Einspänner. It insulates the coffee, keeps it hot under a cold cap, and gives each sip the contrast of cold cream and hot coffee. Stiffly whipped cream sits rigid and does not melt into the drink properly.

A Fiaker is a Viennese horse-drawn cab, and also its driver. The cabs have run in the city since the seventeenth century and still carry tourists round the Hofburg. The coffee named after them is said to be what the drivers drank to keep warm on the box, a story that fits the drink so well no one has ever tried very hard to check it.

Variations

• With slivovitz: plum brandy instead of rum, for a sharper, fruitier coffee.
• Without cream: strong black coffee with rum and sugar, served in a glass, the older version.
• With kirsch: cherry brandy, especially with the cherry on top.
• Pharisäer: the North German cousin, coffee with rum under cream. See Pharisäer.