Eiskaffee

Eiskaffee belongs to the warm-weather German cafe table: city Konditorei, garden terrace, Sunday afternoon when cake would be too much and plain coffee not enough. It isn't owned by one region. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders: one cafe pours chilled filter coffee, another uses a short strong espresso stretched cold, the Rhineland may sweeten a little more, and the south often treats the whipped cream like it has rights of its own.

The technique is simple and it decides the whole glass: cool the coffee completely before it touches the ice cream. Warm coffee melts the vanilla before the spoon reaches the table, and then you've made sweet coffee soup. Brew it strong because the ice cream and cream soften the bitterness, chill it properly, then build the glass quickly.

Nicht aus dem Glas. No coffee syrup, no canned cream, no packet powder pretending to be a cafe. Good cold coffee, good vanilla ice cream, cream whipped soft enough to spoon, and a little shaved chocolate. That's the dish. Schön ist, was schmeckt.