Christina Meinl’s grandfather used to begin every day with a blind coffee cupping session. 

He knew all of his products, and his competitors' products, blindly and by heart.

It is exactly this unrelenting passion and expertise, and this dedication to producing perfection in coffee that inspired the espresso blend, 1862 Vienna, to be born.

Made up of Arabica beans from Africa and Central America, the realisation of the 1862 Vienna blend involved a long journey full of meticulous steps undertaken by people for whom coffee is a science.

‘ When you’re relentlessly striving for perfection, every moment along the chain, from bean to cup, must be undertaken with perfection in mind,’ Julius Meinl’s CEO, Marcel Löffler, tells us in a video call. He’s sitting in front of a virtual background depicting an elegant coffee house setting. The coffee house looks like 1862 Vienna tastes.

Marcel explains in detail how incredible care has been invested in every moment of the production process in the pursuit of creating a coffee that starkly stands out in its balance, flavour, and all-around experience.

We’ve even dared to call it ‘liquid gold in every sense.’ And it’s not only us at Julius Meinl making this claim.

Every 1862 bean is roasted at Julius Meinl’s coffee atelier in batches of 100 pieces per week. They then go into the so-called ‘Aroma fez’ airtight storage canister to ensure the bean’s optimum flavour is maintained up to the moment of the coffee being served.

Every HORECA 1862 Vienna customer is equipped with a precision-engineered grinder and a custom-made espresso machine that is designed to make an outstanding cup of coffee.

Even the signature Julius Meinl espresso cup has been redesigned so that it reflects the coffee’s charisma and rounds off the whole experience with its aesthetic and tactile features.

‘It’s the next generation of coffee,’ says Christina Meinl as she fervently switches between talking about her family’s lifelong love and dedication for the bean, along with today’s exciting new specialty coffee scene.

‘ We were founded in 1862 when my great, great grandfather opened a store in Vienna – today, my brother and I are the 5th generation of Meinls carrying on the passionate pursuit to produce the highest quality of coffee,’ says Christina. Her virtual background in the call is a minimalist modern cafe setting where the black grinder and espresso machine are propped on a counter. The 1862 Vienna looks at home in both the coffee house and the modern cafe settings.

This edition of 1862 was created by Julius Meinl’s Katharina Bartas and her team who, according to Marcel, achieved the almost impossible.

‘ The key challenge of creating top premium coffee is that you’re working with the finest of the finest Arabica, which is a very sensitive bean, and you’ve got to match the right origins of the beans to bring about a consistently balanced blend – this is no easy task.’

‘ At the heart of 1862 Vienna is this idea that we grow together with our partners and growers all over the world. As a family company, this is a mission close to our hearts which has been built into the 1862 production chain.’

‘One example of this is the Colombian Heritage Project  which sees us investing in equipment and training for small coffee farmers in a way that their businesses and lives are enriched, and they grow with us long into the future.’

‘This is exactly for customers looking for perfection, the HORECA customers who seek to deliver the perfect balance in a cup of coffee for their guests.

This is not just made for elegant hotels, cafes, or restaurants, but it’s for all of those people who share the same passion for coffee that fueled the making of 1862.’

The mention of ‘Vienna’ in the title gives a respectful nod to the spirit of the coffee house culture that was abuzz during the time the company grew up, according to Christina.

‘ Vienna at the turn of the century was the hub of creativity. All kinds of people were meeting, thinking, talking, creating, planning revolutions in coffee houses,’ says Christina.

‘We’re capturing that emotion and spirit of these moments spent in Viennese coffee houses and taking it to the world.

That’s what 1862 is all about – that moment of indulgence and luxury in a coffee house when the whole world stops around you.’