Vienna Sacher Torte Experience

We’re back!

After a 2-week vacation in Europe, we’re finally back. This time we spent most of our time in Austria, including Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck.

One of the items on my agenda for this trip was to try the Sacher Torte, a Viennese chocolate cake.  You can get Sacher Torte in almost any restaurant in Austria, but we’re interested in two main places – Demel and Hotel Sacher.

Sacher Torte was first “invented” in Vienna.  Throughout the 30s and the 50s there had been legal battles between Hotel Sacher and Demel for the name “Original Sacher Torte”.  At the end they settled and Hotel Sacher got to use the name “Original Sacher Torte” while Demel got the right to decorate the torte with a triangular seal that says “Eduard-Sacher-Tort”

You can find the details on the Sacher Torte on Wikipedia. But here we just want to share our tasting experience of the torte.  As with all food it’s a personal taste so our comments not necessarily mean one is better than the other.

Our first stop was Demel.  Its Vienna location is on the high end shopping street of Vienna, and you can see the Hofburg Palace from the patio.

Inside you can see the working area for the pastry chefs. We were there late afternoon so I guess they’re off already.

So this is the much anticipated Sacher Torte from Demel.  I-LOVE-IT.

I’m not a big fan of chocolate cake because the ones in North America are typically overly sweet. Yet the Sacher Torte is not supposed to be too sweet (Austrian taste I guess?).  Even though with the chocolate icing on top and apricot jam in the middle the sweetness is just right.

We went to Hotel Sacher after a concert.  You can see the big sign “Original Sacher Torte” there.

The four of us had a light meal at Café Sacher and then shared a dessert set for two. It included (from the bottom): pancake with plum jam filling (which is another common Austrian dessert and one of Empress Sissi’s favourite), Sacher Torte, raspberry and chocolate mousse cake, petite four.

For the Sacher Torte, I found Hotel Sacher’s a bit heavier than Demel’s.  Demel’s cake was fluffier and Hotel Sacher’s cake was denser. Reading Wikipedia it’s supposed to be a dense sponge cake but I personally like fluffier cake.  The chocolate icing of Hotel Sacher’s was also a bit heavier, making the torte taste a bit sweeter than Demel’s.  Of course I’m no foodie so I can’t tell whether these differences were caused by having them in different time of the day (afternoon vs. late night).  But if you like light fluffy cake Demel would be your choice.  But if you like more richness of chocolate, Hotel Sacher’s “Original Sacher Torte” would disappoint you.