The South Indian Coffee Recipe

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Guest Post

Coffee is a universal drink consumed all over the world. There are many whose daily chores always start with a hot cup of coffee. Nowadays, modern cafes have promoted Coffee as an essential element of social networking amongst people of different strata. Apart from homes, even in workplaces and offices, there is always an informal exchange of one’s’ thoughts and feelings around a coffee machine.
In India, people of different regions consume both coffee and tea as their regular daily beverages. Coffee is predominantly consumed in the South India and the North Indians prefer tea. There is a traditional method of preparation of Coffee in the orthodox South Indian homes. This method has been in vogue for centuries and those who are addicted to the “Filtered Coffee”, as it is known, will not accept any other type of coffee including the commercially available “Espresso” in the coffee shops.
The coffee recipe of these particular South Indian homes goes like this – they purchase the coffee beans from the shops, mostly the local variety grown in the ‘Coorg’ district of India. These beans are roasted and ground in small home coffee grinders. Some people also mix a small percentage of what is known as “chickaree” beans, before grinding, to get a specific flavour to the coffee.
The ground coffee powder is stored in the homes and brewed as a ‘decoction’ in small filters with hot water. South Indians prefer the coffee to be quite ‘strong’ and the filtered liquid is mixed with boiled milk and sugar to get the famous “South Indian Filtered Coffee”. The coffee is served in a small stainless steel tumbler. If you happen to visit a typical South Indian home, remember to ask for their special “Filtered Coffee” and you can enjoy the drink with its rich flavour and aroma.

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August 10, 2009 | Filed Under Caffeinated, Coffee Beans, Coffee Brewing, Coffee Culture, Coffee Facts | Leave a Comment 

How To Maintain Coffee Consistancy & Roast Quality

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Maintaining Coffee Consistancy And Roast Quality

A customer recently emailed us that they liked our Big City Coffee blend and wanted to know about our consistancy and quality control.

That’s a great question for any small artisan coffee roaster commited to delivering every order to high standards. The great artisan roasters are fanatics about repeatable processes to achieve predictable results. It’s the variables that will drive the Roastmaster nuts; and the biggest variable is – (drum roll (it’s a pun!), please…) – The Bean.

The following is from my reply; it’s also posted here so you can add your comments, too.

We’re roasting all of the Big City Coffee brands 2-3 times a week and deliver it fresh :)
And quality is excellent and consistent…the beans are hand-selected and every roast is done on a small batch roaster and monitored by one our expert roastmasters.

We do a tasting several times a week, too, just for fun :)

An issue with small estate coffees is getting enough high-quality beans that are consistent from season to season. It’s more of a problem with ’single origin’ bean, like PanAltura, or all from one farm…even though the cup quality may be high from season to season, the taste may vary a little – like wine vintages – because of weather, soil, and other seasonal growing conditions.

With the blends, like Big City, or HiFi, it’s easier to find substitute high quality beans that still maintain the same great taste.

Megabucks and other large-scale roasters keep the taste the same by:

1) warehousing tons of product for 3-4 years (green beans do not improve with age)

2) using up to 30%+ lower-quality ‘filler’ bean

3) and over-roasting to add caramelized sugars to cover the underlying taste

But, if that’s what you like, and it fits your budget, you should probably stick with it…

More Coffee Facts

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June 8, 2009 | Filed Under Coffee Beans, Coffee Business, Coffee Roasting | Leave a Comment 

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