Coffee and me

I recently had an opportunity to meet up with an old friend C aunty who was our neighbour before we moved to our current residence. Was in her part of the town, and decided to just drop in. Which is how I happened to have an excellent cup of authentic South Indian coffee made the old-fashioned way after a long, long time.

Coffee berries
Image fromcoffeeresearch.org

Now I like my coffee as much as the next person, but am mostly a tea drinker. Could it be because I haven't really learnt or mastered the art of brewing it right? This particular cup was heavenly. What is it about coffee and South India?

Coffee is a native of Ethiopia. The earliest known accounts of the use of coffee as a beverage is from the 9th century AD in the Arabian peninsula in what was then Abyssinia. The cultivation of coffee by the Arab nations continued unassailed for many centuries, and they had a monopoly on it. It was, in fact a punishable offence to take viable coffee beans or cherries out of Arabia. This was managed somehow by the Dutch, and coffee cultivation reached Europe in the late 1600s, a full century after the beverage had become popular. From there, it spread to the rest of the world, including the newly discovered Americas.

There is also a story about how coffee reached India. According to it, in the 1600s,  Baba Budan, a pilgrim to Arabia, brought coffee cherries with him and planted them behind his hut in what is now Chikmagaluru.  The crop spread to the hills around, making the region the hub of coffee cultivation in India. Coffee at that time was used more for the colonists, and it was a long time before it was adopted by the Indians.

Coffee was adopted by middle class Indians only around the early 1900s. It wasn't really considered something really good to drink, as it is now, and was considered a decadent habit. The tradition of coffee drinking, the brewing of it, and the rituals around it in traditional southern homes is quite a turn-around from that scenario. I think India Coffee House has a lot to do with it.

I never really had an authentic cup of filter coffee until I moved here. Back in Mumbai we would sometimes go to a small restaurant in the Matunga area known for its South Indian population, but somehow it was a poor cousin to what I've had here. Even here, the best I've had by far was at Tam /Kannada friends' homes, not in any restaurant. Though I would put my money on the coffee at a certain restaurant I used to frequent in Gandhibazar when I stayed near there. In Cafe Coffee Day/ Barista, I prefer the hot espresso.

Coffee is drunk in copious amounts overseas too. It is, however, a completely different breed from the local variety. It begins the moment you step on the plane. There is a unique smell of that coffee that permeates every place there. Somehow I never got used to it even after a long overseas stint. Not even the one available at Starbucks!

I'm happy to be here, where I can get my hands on the real thing. In a steel tumbler. Even when it is cutting or by-two. It is ambrosial. Even if I'm a tea-drinker at heart, I am uplifted when I get it.

Anyone reccomend any special coffee anywhere? Remember, I cannot get it right, so it has to be ready to drink. No raw materials!:)