The vast majority find Krampuses to be terrifying creatures, especially when walking through a dark forest at night. Monstrous, shaggy, with a sinister expression and horns on the skull, that’s something you can of course also fear as an adult. It is remarkable, however, that their horns seem to scare the Tyrolean Chamber of Agriculture less than their drinking habits. A Krampus ordering an oat milk latte macchiato scared at least some Tyrolean farmers.
It’s about a video from the state’s own advertising agency, in which a Krampus named Sven runs through a dark forest and then enters an inn to give back a lost glove to a little girl. When the landlady asks if they could do something good for him as a thank you, Sven orders a latte macchiato with oat milk – and of course that’s a statement that isn’t allowed in Tyrol. Tyrol’s oat milk gate summarizes the essence of the federal state in such a pointed way that only Tyroleans can do it themselves.
According to the Chamber of Agriculture, this is an “affront to Tyrolean agriculture”. The “daily work of the farming families” is not “respected accordingly,” said President Josef Hechenberger to the ORF. You don’t have oats in Tyrol, this form of milk is produced elsewhere and therefore does not provide “the basis for tourism” as cow’s milk does, or rather the farmers and cows who are responsible for this milk. It should be mentioned at this point that coffee beans and oats are not native to the Defereggen or Stubaital, even if this plays a subordinate role in the Chamber of Agriculture’s arguments.
The commercial is no longer running on television, on which it was late anyway: the video had actually been ready since 2020, then the pandemic came to Europe via Tyrolean hut parties and thus also prevented the broadcast of the video, which was presented at an advertising award ceremony in Cannes was nevertheless awarded for its outstanding humorous approach.
However, one would have to criticize it for its lack of realism. It’s often dark in Tyrol, but there are plenty of Krampuses in the forest, especially at the beginning of December when Santa Claus is with them. But as vegans, vegetarians and lactose-intolerant tourists can report, it borders on a miracle when you come across a coffee with oat milk in a secluded hut in Tyrol.