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Cafes, kaapi and Hyderabad
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It is the native South Indian filter coffee that's making a festive entry into the swanky coffee pubs and there are young takers for the traditional brew, says SYEDA FARIDA.
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SIMPLY SOUTH: The taste that gets you started up.
PIPING HOT samosa and a window with a view! If you thought this was manna enough for lazy afternoon musings, a pleasant whiff of rich South Indian coffee awakens you. Sitting pretty, behind the bottles of vanilla and chocolate sauce, is the very traditional stainless steel filter coffee at Qwikys Coffee Bar.Yes, it's new brew fromthe strong Mysore Malabar, the medium Kumbakonam Degree coffee made from the first extract to the light Madras Filter Coffee -- all served in the stainless steel `davras'.
"I can relate to filter coffee only if it is served in the traditional way, and yes, it tastes good," says Japen who has been hooked on to the new flavour of coffee fresh from plantations in Coorg and Chikmagalur, and ground the traditional way. "It was a pleasant surprise to see the filter coffee on the menu. We prefer percolated coffee to the instant one, thus this is a welcome change," says Anirban Sahay.
Day one of introducing the filter coffee found jean-clad 16-year-olds sitting at the coffee bar counter sipping the traditional brew, high on the aroma wafting from the `davra'. This positive response to the kaapi has set aside all reservations one may have had about traditional filter coffee finding favour with the young , hip crowd specially in an upmarket cold coffee-guzzling ambience and in a chai-hooked Hyderabadi culture. And psst... there is also the `Mumbai masala chai' and the `Nizami chai' on the new menu at Qwikys. However, it is the thriving coffee pub culture that has facilitated the opening up of traditional flavours to the Generationext. August 2000 heralded coffee pubs in the twin cities, of cool hangouts offering non-alcoholic, non-smoking zones, and so a brownie point when informing parents where you've been and safe enough to lounge with buddies especially for girls who comprise about 40 per cent of the visitors here. A graffiti and mail board to leave a message for a friend or find a blind date, popular music beamed via the Q-Jam or the World Space, and the 15-25 year olds soon turned to must-have cold coffee from a one-by-two chai.
Thus the new equation -- read endless hours of conversation on almost any topic under the sun, over cups of cappuccino and soon these hangouts became hubs thriving at prime locales and high footfall shop-in-shops, the Café Coffee Day, Barista, Qahwa et al.
CATCH A COFFEE: Coffee pubs are popular hang outs. - Photo: Mohd Yousuf
"Ideally we wanted the coffee bar to be a part of the home-work-college axis offering the people a place to relax and revive," says Derrick Michael, area manager, Qwikys. "From a young executive plugging in his laptop and working over a sandwich to a group of young college first years, the place sees it all," says Varun, a regular at Barista.
A coffee bar today is `the' venue to invite friends. Reason? High energy warm interiors in contrast to the formal settings at the star hotels, from a hasty what-can-I-get-for-you-next attitude at the Udipi `tiffin' restaurants to the savvy coffee makers or baristas at the swanky coffee lounges.
"The reason that I stuck to Irani chai was absence of a comfy place to have an authentic coffee. The only option for coffee and especially authentic coffee was either a hurried coffee on a roadside thela or the downmarket restaurant. The coffee pub culture provided an avenue for me to try coffee and today am off chai altogether. And now it is home made filter coffee that enthuses me, served in a feel-good relaxing environment," says Om Prakash.
But will the kaapi hold its froth in a sea of latte and frappe? "Obviously, when a traditional Punjabi dhaba offering paratha rolls with sabzi for a hurried meal can take the avatar of the `Khatti roll' and go popular in a coffee pub, why not traditional coffee? The connoisseurs like it and I sure wouldn't be surprised if we have idlis or masala vadais on the menu next," says Piyush, a hotel management student and a regular at the coffee pubs.
Point taken. The Indian chutneys have swarmed into the western eateries and the Brits love them. The maxim then, Indian cuisine is hot and can be happening even in the existing burger and cola meal culture, provided it is served in style.
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