This blog post was published under the 2015 to 2024 Conservative government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Austria

21st July 2017 Vienna, Austria

#Viennamemories #2: a cup of hot chocolate

During my first posting in Vienna from 1984-87 I used to travel down the Westautobahn a great deal – often en route to Salzburg, Tyrol or Munich.

On the way home, I used to make a pit-stop at a certain motorway service station and consume a cup of hot chocolate.

Oddly, as I then saw it, the service station ran a promotional offer, presumably to promote hot choc sales, that for every portion you consumed you received a free cup.  They looked like this and were made in England:

Over time I collected three of these cups, before deciding that my collection was large enough.  I have long used them for measuring during cooking (“half a cup of rice”).  Sadly, after moves from Vienna to London to Moscow to London to Bonn to Berlin to London to Kyiv to Istanbul and back to Vienna, only one now remains intact.

I remain, as I was then, puzzled by the economics or environmental sustainability of giving away a free earthenware mug with every drink consumed.  So when, on a journey from Graz to Vienna recently I was offered another free mug after drinking my hot chocolate, I was so surprised that I took one.  The retro design may have played a role in this decision:

Austria remains the only country where I have ever been offered free mugs with my drinks, let alone over a thirty-year period.  I would welcome readers’ thoughts on why this might be – particularly in a country which generally has such admirable ecological credentials.

1 comment on “#Viennamemories #2: a cup of hot chocolate”

  1. My initial reaction is that with respect to the environment it is far better to give away an earthenware mug that can be kept and reused rather than using the disposable cups which are rarely recyclable and therefore sent to landfill.

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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