The distinctive coffee stories each city tells
Every city has its own way of drinking coffee. Follow the ways people enjoy it, and you’ll discover the culture of the city.
There is no one right way to enjoy a cup of coffee. Some people grab one and leave in a hurry; others sit for hours with a cup in front of them. For some, coffee means time alone, while for others it is a reason to meet and talk. What’s interesting is that these differences are not shaped by personal taste alone. The way people live in a city naturally finds its way into how they drink coffee. So where should you go to experience a city’s coffee culture in depth? Through cafés in Vienna, Melbourne and Seoul, let’s discover how each city enjoys coffee and the culture behind it.
The best way to get to know a coffee culture is to take a seat in a café in that city. The same coffee can offer an entirely different experience depending on the setting, the company and the way it is enjoyed. So we chose one café in each of Vienna, Melbourne and Seoul that reflects its city’s culture. From lingering over a cup to seeking out new flavours and making coffee part of everyday life, we’ll follow the culture you can find only there.
VIENNA, Die Cafetiere ⎯ Coffee for lingering
In Vienna, coffee is less a drink to be gulped down than a way to spend time. For generations, coffee houses have served as everyday spaces where people drink coffee at length, talk, read the newspaper or spend time alone. Vienna’s coffee house culture is also recognized as part of Austria’s intangible cultural heritage. Die Cafetiere offers a glimpse of this Viennese coffee culture. Taking over from the former Cafe Naber, it retains the atmosphere of a 1950s interior and serves espresso, single-origin and organic coffees, among other varieties. There are also homemade ice cream, toast and other foods to enjoy. Rather than drinking coffee in a hurry, stay awhile and enjoy the time—and culture—of a cup. At Die Cafetiere, you can experience lingering, the essence of Vienna’s coffee house culture.
TIP. After ordering your coffee, don’t leave straight away; take a little time to linger. In Vienna, the time spent drinking coffee is part of the culture.
MELBOURNE, Dukes Coffee ⎯ From espresso to specialty coffee
Melbourne’s coffee culture bears the deep imprint of its history of immigration. After the Second World War, Italian and other European immigrants arrived, bringing espresso and café culture into the city’s everyday life. Independent cafés and roasteries later flourished, leading to today’s specialty coffee scene. Dukes Coffee is a roastery that reflects Melbourne’s coffee culture today. It roasts its own beans and offers single origins and blends, with a strong focus on producers and growing methods. Today, it centres its operations on certified organic coffee. At Dukes, coffee is about more than simply drinking it: looking into where and how the beans are produced reveals how Melbourne’s coffee culture has expanded to embrace an interest in quality and production.
TIP. When choosing from the menu, look at the origin and how the coffee was produced, too. Even the same coffee can taste different depending on how it was made.
SEOUL, Fritz ⎯ Coffee shaped by individual tastes
Seoul’s coffee culture is hard to define in a single image. Coffee to wake up, coffee to meet someone, coffee just for time to oneself—the reasons for drinking coffee and the tastes of those who drink it are all different in Seoul. In a city where countless cafés and choices coexist, what stands out is less what a place sells than the character it has. Fritz is a brand with a distinct identity in this Seoul landscape. It began in 2014 in an old detached house in Mapo, Seoul, serving coffee alongside bread. With distinctive branding infused with a Korean retro sensibility, it expanded coffee into a culture of its own. It offers everything from single origins and blends to a range of products, making it possible to enjoy its coffee beyond the café.
TIP. Take a look beyond the coffee at the space, packaging and website. Fritz’s distinctive sensibility is reflected throughout.
SEOUL, Unpage ⎯ Because taste is never just one thing
In Seoul, enjoying coffee made by a single brand is just one way of drinking it; another is to find your own taste among many different coffees. UNPAGE is the first offline coffee-curation showroom, opened in Hannam-dong in 2026. It introduces coffees from a range of roasteries, with a focus on filter coffee. With coffees from different roasteries available in one place, visitors can compare the distinct flavours and characters of each bean and discover their own preferences. The two cafés present coffee in different ways. At Fritz, visitors experience the taste cultivated by a single brand; at UNPAGE, they discover their own among many coffees. Different tastes coexist, each developing its own character. Fritz and UNPAGE offer a glimpse of this aspect of Seoul’s coffee culture.
TIP. Choose beans you don’t usually drink and compare the differences in flavour. Discovering your own preferences is another way to enjoy coffee in Seoul.
Each city’s coffee culture is different because its history and way of life naturally find their way into coffee. Simply sitting in one place and observing how people spend time with coffee can tell you a lot about the city’s atmosphere. In Vienna, you can learn to linger; in Melbourne, you can look closely at the beans and the process, building on its developed coffee culture. And in Seoul, you can see people discovering what they truly like. Rather than seeking out famous cafés, choose a place that shows how people in that city enjoy coffee. A cup of coffee can become a new lens through which to see the culture of a place you’re visiting.