Most of us start our mornings with a cup of hot tea or coffee. But for me, it’s more than one. For me, a cup of coffee in the morning or in the evening isn’t enough or completes my day. And I don’t care what my friend says about my coffee drinking habit. If I am busy with my work and want to refresh my mind, then what can be better than a coffee break?
I guess I have always been a coffee lover, and when she arrived in my life, this made two of us. We were both fond of coffee and made our coffee in different ways.
Hehe, I have no regular job right now, so I have limited choices right now. I am preparing for the mass media, besides doing a part-time job for a chartered accountancy company. The weather is cold and has been raining constantly for the last couple of weeks, so there has been no chance of outings. As a result, it feels good to curl up in bed with a mug of coffee, some of my favorite snacks, one of my favorite books, and some good music. It is pure bliss.
For coffee drinkers, coffee is prepared in many forms. Be it hot or cold, black or with milk, each one has its own way of making my day. And I love them all, be it Galao, Lungo, my favorite, the Macchiato, Irish (with a dash of you know what, hehe), Mocha, Ristretto, Flatwhite, Affogato, honey, sweet, black or whatever the different baristas make for us. Just name them, I will give you detail of every coffee!
It's too cold here, but what’s more refreshing than cool iced coffee in the summertime? I definitely enjoy different cold coffees, but I am waiting for summertime when maybe you will enjoy the chilled varieties of cold coffees you can sip that I will present here.
You know, I am in the northern part of our country, where coffee is not produced, but it all comes from the southern parts, where they produce world class coffee and send it all over the world. Yes, it is true that maximum production of coffee is in the southern regions, and probably the best is filter coffee served in southern restaurants with piping hot snacks. Let me assure you that our coffee has a unique aroma.
Coming for a cup of coffee? Image from my album!
Do you want to hear about the history of coffee in my country? It all started with a long, arduous journey about four hundred years ago, when the famous saint Baba Buddha brought seven magical beans from remote Yemen and planted them on the Chandragiri hills of Karnataka.
You can taste that uniqueness in coffee with each cup you drink, along with the aroma and the blend of Indian coffee. It is often said that growers of Indian coffee give their best to improve it all the time. It is no surprise that India has been continuously producing and exporting a unique variety of quality coffees for over 150 years.
Do you know we have special resorts and gardens in India to enjoy the smell and taste of coffee, where you can see the cultivation of coffee and what parameters they have to meet for your cup of coffee? Like you have wine tasting resorts, we have some world class resorts for tea and coffee tasting where one gets to taste the best of coffee.
India is the 6th largest coffee grower after Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Ethiopia. 80% of the 320,000 tones of coffee grown here goes to various countries. We produce both Arabica and Robusta coffee varieties, which are in demand and loved throughout the world.
To keep the record straight, only three Indian states produce 53% of the coffee, followed by Kerala with 28% and Tamil Nadu with 11%. The rest of the 6% is also in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, and less than 1% is grown outside of the southern region in Odisha and Northeast India.
The history of coffee in India says that coffee coffee accidentally came to India by mistake, which led to the coffee plantation in this country. So this is just the mistake I love because coffee is a great drink that perhaps most of us love. A cup of coffee gives us, especially me, a great boost of freshness to start my day.
So thank you, Baba Buddha, for first planting coffee in Karnataka and gradually spreading the production of coffee all over south India. Indian coffee, which is grown mostly in southern India during monsoon rains, is called "Indian monsoon coffee." Coffee, as I told you, is mostly grown in the mountainous regions of the southern Indian states.
Indian coffee is said to be the best coffee grown anywhere in the world in the shade rather than in direct sunlight. By reading this, you might assume that the monsoon Malabar is an exclusive Indian coffee, but it’s not. I must add that centuries ago, coffee beans came to India by accident. The coffee beans were being transported on one of the European ships that had met with an accident in the Malabar region. So I can say it was a fortune of an accident as it gave India a taste of something that forever lingered in the hearts of the people here.
The coffee beans bloom as a result of the monsoon winds, and they change color and become more intense. This led to the production of Monsoon Malabar-AA, the world famous coffee.
Monsoon coffee beans swell because of moisture, which is natural for the coffee bean to be treated naturally because of the monsoon wind on the west coast of southern India. Although the treat makes it more aggressive, it also adds a mellow flavor. This dilutes the acidity in the flavor and adds a heavy flatness, which makes the beans more flavorful. They use only the dried varieties of both Robusta and Arabica for this process. Monsoon Malabar AA is the highest grade for this coffee.
And trust me, I am not yet done. I have to tell you about the way we make our coffee, the places we grow our coffee, and the resorts where coffee lovers go for coffee tours and travel.
Wait for the next part of my coffee story, I will post it next week.