We tried all kinds of coffee, so you could have only the best! There is a special kind of joy to be found in starting the day with the scintillating aroma of coffee wafting through the house, promising that perfect cup of joe, with just the right flavour and body to make you feel like you can conquer the world — even the Monday ahead of you. We understand how special that feeling is and how hard to come by it can be. Hence, we tasted all the homegrown gourmet coffee we could lay our hands on (no mean feat) and learned many interesting stories along the way. Below, we’ve rounded up the best of the best. Flying Squirrel The...
Elephant poop. Not the most elegant sentence to begin a food column with, I admit. But you have to admit, as first lines go, that’s a tough one to top. Elephant poop coffee to be specific. I’m rather bitter about this. I was just getting used to the idea of Kopi Luwak (made from partly digested coffee cherries defecated by the Asian palm civet). Once labelled the most expensive coffee in the world, it rapidly became de rigueur at posh brunches. “Kopi Luwak with your freshly-baked croissant, madam?” It took a year for me to nod elegantly at the waiter, instead of squealing, “Ew. Cat poop!” Now, I have to deal with elephants and their internal plumbing issues. I pull...
Hobson-Jobson, the 1886 Anglo-Indian lexicon explains ‘coffee’ as derived from the Arabic ‘kahwa’ (originally used to refer to wine). India’s connection is interesting: in south India, coffee was introduced by a Muslim pilgrim named Baba Budan. According to folklore, the pilgrim smuggled seven seeds out of Mecca (in the 17th century), and planted them on the Chandragiri hills (now named Bababudangiri in Chikmagalur, Karnataka). Today, coffee machines may be de rigeur at every office pantry, but the earliest adopters were south Indian households. Filter coffee was about brewing ground coffee beans using a traditional filter. Entrepreneurs from Udupi in Karnataka, who went on to set up Udupi restaurants in Mumbai, listed ‘strong filter coffee’ as a staple item. By the...
"People are appreciating the complexity of coffee," says Indianbean's boss Kunal Ross, adding that coffee has 1,250 taste notes compared to 350 in wine.
Three generations of Tarun Cariappa's family have grown coffee on their highland farm in southern India, 38 rolling acres of dark green bushes interspersed with towering jackfruit and mango trees — and the occasional wild elephant. But to that universal question "Coffee or tea?" Cariappa, like most Indians, has always answered, "Tea." "Dad and Mom started their day with a cup of tea," Cariappa said as he surveyed a patch of leafy plants studded with bright-red coffee cherries. "So I've never drunk coffee." Although India has long been one of the world's major coffee producers, the country's name is practically synonymous with tea. For most of the last century, it was the world's biggest tea-growing nation, renowned for its Darjeeling...
