Tea and coffee

 I am a coffee snob. It’s kind of surprising how I turned out this way. My family is from the north of India. We love our tea and each house has it’s unique concoction for the preparation of tea. There is a saying in the north that loosely translated would mean “a 100 mile journey can be easily done with a good cuppa”. Tea with ginger, black tea, milky tea all kinds of tea and it’s various versions. People love sharing titbits over a cup shared in a uniquely Indian construct of a one by two. I.e. one cup of tea shared between two people. You get charged for just that one serving. 

Contrast that to an uniquely Indian urban phenomenon of coffee and cafes - business deals done over a coffee in a Starbucks or a cafe coffee day. The urban Indian, especially the younger lot swears by the coffee they have - lattes, cold frappes and the like. Southern India loves its filter coffee (I don’t like that mess - it’s too milky and has an addition called chicory).  Folks can swear by the caffe in the south that serves the best filter exactly like how the north swears by the tea stall. 

Back to me. I started coffee while in school- the bournvita or complan I would not like; so mum started giving me Nescafé; a pinch in a glass of milk. It was like a fish taking to water (much to the disappointment of my cousins who all sweared by tea). That pinch of instant coffee in milk soon changed to lots of coffee in milk and to my current like - an espresso. I might one the odd occasion like a latte or an Americano, but day to day it’s an espresso. 

I have a coffee machine that allows me to use fresh ground coffee beans or nespresso pods. It’s the thing that gets fired up at least 3 maybe 4 times a day. No more instant coffee. I want to either grind the beans or use pods. I love the after taste, the crema and have become so particular about the crema that there are multiple brands of coffee pods that I will not use - because of a flat crema. I don’t over do it - it’s 40ml draw of coffee of strong blends and would be 100 Ml if I want to use one of the easier blends, always black; and yes I have a preference towards the Colombian beans. I find arabica a bit bitter (snob). No decaf or the messy coffee you get from the machines in railway stations or Indian airports for me; and for sure no filter coffee from a good Udupi food place. 

What’s your tea / coffee story ?

C