On 8/27/07, Biju Chacko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 8/27/07, Sriram Karra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 8/27/07, Gautam John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > What do you reckon is the best coffee chain in Bangalore/India. Or > > > > Hotel Saravana Bhavan might not be as hep, cool, or rocking as the > > coffee shops mentiond in this thread. However, if the objective is to > > seek out a place which knows the most effective way to deliver the > > right dosage of caffeine in a coffee cup (davara and tumbler, in this > > case), let it be known that HSB has few peers. > > > > And talking of confusing menus - the HSB coffee list has two items - > > "Coffee", and "Mini Coffee". Beat that. > > I have to admit there isn't much to beat a good South Indian filter > coffee. This may get me excommunicated but I also think that, in > general, you get better coffee in Madras than Bangalore.
Chicory laden south Indian coffee is not gourmet coffee by a long shot. Too sweet and too milky, I mostly swore off that stuff a long while ago. It was probably as good as it got for me when all I had for comparison was the awful nastiness of nescafe, bru and the cinema espressos. Quite often we had no clue what went into the coffee powder, coming from a Leo or Narasus coffee chain, you were lucky if there were any real coffee beans in it. I still like the coffee my mother makes, but I think it has more to do with memories of growing up with it, than any gourmet factor. Once I got a taste of rich and fruity Java & Kenyan beans and the intricacies of coffee making I was not going back to Narasus. It turned out to be too much of a good thing, I developed a caffeine addiction, and I had to painfully wean myself off caffeine, dropping down to a normal one or two cups a day. Since moving back to India I've had to do with local peaberry and robusta. Most Indian plantations don't seem to grow any other varieties. I grew up in the hills, where I used to harvest coffee beans from our home garden and help out in getting them dried, roasted and brewed. Now that was exciting, but I am not sure if it ever could be termed gourmet coffee. Unlike Charles, I gave up on convincing the kitchen staff at work to not pre-grind ginormous quantities of the beans every morning. Anyway, I don't much like the beans that are used at work; I've turned to drinking more chai these days. I get my beans from Coffee Day ground in my presence. My apartment is right next door to one of their stores, I usually buy a week's supply at a time. Cheeni
