#AtoZChallenge - Filter coffee

(This month, each day, except the four Sundays, I will be blogging about interesting features associated with Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, as part of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge)

There are various types of coffee (or kaappi, as it's called in many south Indian languages) depending on how the beans are roasted, ground, and how the drink is brewed. 

So, there is, to name a few, Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte, Instant, Americano, etc. I am sure there are many more. 

There are a few other varieties that are very (south) Indian in nature, like Black Coffee, Bella (Jaggery) Coffee, Karupatti (Palm Jaggery) Coffee, Chukku or Sukku (Ginger) Coffee etc. 

Then, there is the Indian Filter Coffee. 

SOUTH INDIA LINK

Coffee, and more specifically filter coffee, is more popular in the south of the country than in the north. Not surprising, because it's said that coffee was first grown in India, in the Chikkamagaluru district, of Karnataka in south India.

The legend has it that the Sufi saint Baba Budan, during a visit to Yemen was so impressed with the taste of coffee that he smuggled some seeds back home and planted them in the hills of Chikkamagaluru on the Western Ghats.

THE FILTERING

As the name suggests, the process of making the coffee involves a filtering process in a two-layer filter pot. 

The coffee powder (which is usually a bit more coarse than the ones used for other varieties) is put in the upper vessel, pressed to make it compact, a little boiled water poured into it and the mixture is allowed to percolate through the perforations in the top vessel into a lower one.

One or two teaspoons of the concentrate (depending on how strong or light coffee you want) in the lower vessel are taken in a glass and boiling milk added to it, and if needed, some sugar. There you have the filter coffee.

Image source: Rajshree Food/Youtube 
The video, from which the above screenshot has been taken,
explains how one can make filter coffee at home. 

Filter coffee is typically served in a small steel glass placed on a tumbler. Coffee is poured from the glass into the tumbler and back into the glass from a height many times. That's an art. It's done for two reasons: one, so that the decoction, milk and sugar mix well, and two, the coffee becomes frothy and gains a different taste.

Brazil and Vietnam are among the top producers and exporters of coffee in the world. According to India Brand Equity Foundation, India is the third-largest producer and exporter of coffee in Asia and the sixth-largest producer and fifth-largest exporter of coffee in the world.

COFFEE HOUSES

Coffee, more so filter coffee, was popularised in India by the restaurant chain, Indian Coffee House. It was originally India Coffee House. The first outlet was opened in Bombay in 1932 and around 50 others came up across British India. Later, the chain was closed down.

Encouraged by Kerala's famous Communist leader A K Gopalan, some workers of the India Coffee Board (a government organisation to promote coffee production) formed a cooperative at a meeting in Bangalore in 1957 and renamed the restaurant chain as Indian Coffee House. Different branches across the country are run by different workers' cooperative societies. There are hundreds of them across the country.

One of the Coffee House outlets.
Image source: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint 

There was one landmark outlet on M G Road in Bengaluru. It had to close down in 2006 after the workers' cooperative society lost a legal battle with the owner of the building to stay on that premises. A few months later, it reopened on nearby Church Street.

The ambience of a Coffee House is something very unique. It attracts not just coffee lovers (they serve tea too) but also artists, poets, writers, intellectuals, philosophers, etc. Very often, it's not about the food or drink, it's about the conversations in the Coffee House. It's a place where many ideas related to liberal movements in India have been discussed, and given shape.

(From the Coffee Houses, tomorrow we move to a market area that is one of the oldest in the city.)