Coffee Lover's Attempt for A Perfect Cup of Coffee: How People Drink Coffee in India

Espresso served at Coffee Shop, Barista in India 2006

Espresso War 2006 vs 2015 in India
Above picture was taken at a popular coffee shop Barista in Chandigarh, India in 2006. Six years before first Starbucks opened in India in 2012, espresso drink of this type back then was very luxury item but people still visited these espresso shop to get very well made latte or capchino. A cup in above picture costed about 300 Indian rupees for a cup (About US$6); it was considered luxury where a good meal with a soft drink could be purchased less than 200 Indian rupees easily back in 2006. This type of espresso shops were usually new and very clean with often a door man opening door for you. You can see the quality of the drink and coffee shop just by looking at latte art in the picture!

Fast forward 9 years to the year of 2015. Espresso wars are hotter in India than some streets of Portland or Seattle now. Below left picture is one of the major player of UK base espresso bars Costa Coffee, right is Starbucks in India; you find them more often now at airport and major city corners. You find these coffee shops and other coffee shops including Barista (where above picture was taken in 2006) all over city. Other than the fact that Indian capchino has a lot more portion of milk then how Americans drink capchino, the drinks are made pretty much the same way in these coffee shops in India compared to ones in America. The price is still about 300 Indian ruppees or so (US $5) but with inflation and other factors, 300 ruppees are a lot more affordable price than back 9 years ago. Shops also look more casual now and less number of door man at a door.

Starbucks in India, 2015

UK Base Costa Coffee in India, 2015

Seeing Indians as Foreigner
As you know, I am from Japan and I live in Portland, USA. I had a very rare opportunity to visit both North and South India (Chandigarh and Chennai) for 1.5 months this year (2015) after living in the North (Chandigarh) in 2006 for over half an year. This article is based on my experience living in India as foreigner.

Coffee in Every Day India
Generally, espresso like mentioned above is still considered something you would have for occasion in most people in India. In fact, most people drink coffee very casual and quite a lot here. Drinking hot drink throughout day is part of most daily people's life. You find coffee/tea shops all over city and even on the street; in fact, you would be surprised to see how busy these tea boys are on the street!

In general, South Indians tend to drink more coffee, where North Indians have more preference of drinking tea instead of coffee. This is also due to the fact that coffee production is in the south India mainly due to the climate reason. (Source: Wikipiedia - Coffee Production in India) Either coffee or tea is commonly drank with milk and sugar. When you order coffee/tea blindly without telling anything on the street, they assume you want it with milk and sugar.

Most common way to prepare coffee at home or even on street is to boil milk and water with coffee to boil using pan. Milk and water proportion varies depend on preference, I have seen 100% milk (no water) to somewhat like 6/4 portion of milk and water. When the water comes to boil, heat is reduced to avoid spill, but then increased again. It is common to repeat this boil process for couple of times. If a person prefers "dark" coffee, you would do it more (like 5-10 times); this way more flavor of milk goes into the drink. This cooking method require full attention of the cook to control the temperature of the coffee making it more labor intensive than American way of drip coffee.

Supermarket in India Coffee Section - a lot of instants...

Coffee in Indian Hotel

It is common to see grind coffee to be used in above boil method, but very often instant coffee is used. In fact, when you go to grocery shop; the coffee section isle you see many instants; very less of non-instant coffee. This is sad reality of home coffee in India. However, due to the way cooking is done in milk, the coffee actually taste very well in fact even it is instant.

In the south, I found it very interesting that coffee is served in a metal cup and a bowl. You then flip coffee in the air to cool the coffee down to the temperature of your preference. I found it very difficult to do in the beginning, but got used to it over time.

Coffee is vegetarian, isn't it?
It feels very natural in India to think either veg or non-veg as you find many Indians being vegetarian and a lot of options are available for vegetarian cuisines in India. Coffee is no exception to the rule. In India, you find green circle symbol notating that the product is vegetarian. Coffee usually also has the symbol indicating that it is vegetarian as well. I never consciously thought about it, but coffee is vegetarian isn't it? I found it odd to find this symbol even on shampoo and toothbrush in India, but coffee is no exception!

Back of coffee provided at Indian Hotel, note the green symbol notifying vegetarian.

Green circle symbols are used everywhere in

India notating that the product is vegetarian.

Indian Coffee at Delhi Airport
On the way back from India, I found that India Delhi Duty Free sells variety of Indian Coffee and Tea. It is a good spot to get clean souvenir. The price is little hiked up from the price at local shops, but the quality of the products seem to be very well you only find well packaged items which can easily be gift.

Delhi International Airport carries Indian Coffee and Tea

Duty Free selling Indian Coffee & Tea

I decided to buy coffee from Blue Tokai Coffee Roaster (Link) at the Duty Free shop. I thought US$12 for 100g of coffee is quite expensive and it is very unfortunate that they only provide ground coffee. No un-grounded beans were option at duty free. (In fact, very less people in India own coffee grinder, so you almost never see coffee sold un-grounded in India which is another sad point to note...)

Below are some pictures of Blue Tokai Coffee Roaster (Link) I got. It has very strong coffee smell which is very good especially when it is drunk with milk in a way like mentioned above. The roast of this particular one was lightly roasted, and ground very fine so that it was very hard to use in french press, but again it tasted very well in milk, yes the Indian way!