[carboy]

I am big coffee fan. I have tried various stuff right from most of the Indian varieties to the African Varieties to Columbian coffee to Hawaiin Kona to the famous Kopi Lupak. However I like any coffee as long as it has been roasted recently.

However, I prefer all these varieties in only 1 form - drip coffee. I don't like espresso. I also don't like any coffee which has milk/cream in it. I like drip coffee with just some Sweetex. Unfortunately, most coffee shops in India don't serve drip coffee, so I have make do with Americano (americano is espresso diluted with hot water).

In the US, every coffee shop sells drip along with the more expensive yuppy coffees.

My current drip coffee maker is Prestige (cost around 1200 or 1300 Rs). Earlier one was Morphy Richards (cost around 2000, but got spoilt in 3 years). In the US, I had a 10$ Mr. Coffee Coffee maker.

Coffee which has been roasted recently tastes the best. When the coffee has been ground is not as relevant as much as when it has been roasted.

I have easily found fresh roasted ground coffee powder in Pune, Hyderabad & Mumbai. You usually get Peaberry, Robusta & Plantation. Some shops also sell few other varieties like Premium Peaberry or Mysore Nuggets.

In Pune, you can get it at Kumardhara (they have 2 outlets - one in Aundh, & one in the City). In Mumbai, most of the suburbs have atleast couple of coffee roasting/grinding shops tucked away in some corner alley. For a drip machine, you need to get the coffee powder ground to a medium rough grind. It's very difficult to convince the shops to grind it to a rough grind. For filter coffee, everyone prefers a fine grind, hence you have to fight it out with the coffee shops to grind it rough enough for your drip machine. Not once, but everytime you go to them. They refuse to accept that people may want a rough grind.

Peaberry is a very smooth coffee. Robusta is harsh. I prefer a 70-30 Peaberry-Robusta mix - just peaberry is too light/smooth for me.

Some people also like to add a bit of Chicory to the mix. Chicory is ersatz or duplicate coffee - it looks & tastes similiar to coffee but isn't coffee. It was for adulteration of coffee or during war times when there was a shortage of coffee. However some people found that adding some chicory to real coffee improves the taste of coffee - so it's common to find Chicory-Coffee mix in both South India & the south of the USA.
I, however, don't like Chicory - one reason is that most of the local coffee roasting shops have pre-ground Chicory which is very finely ground - so doesn't go well with the medium rough grind I buy.

One of the most expensive coffees in the world is Kopi Lupak. Monkey swallow coffee berries which then goes into their stomach - the coffee beans remain undigested but it gets refined by the gastric juices in the monkey's stomach. The undigested beans are excreted by the monkeys. People in Indonesia collect these excreted coffee beans & package & sell them. This is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world. I have drunk it a couple of times - for free though.

The South Indian filter coffee is very similiar to drip coffee in method of preparation. In both these ways of making coffee, there is no pressure applied like in an espresso. It's all by gravity. At my parent's house where is there isn't a drip machine, I have a filter coffee decoction diluted further with hot water.

I don't think I can wake up & face a new boring day without the smell & taste of freshly brewed coffee.

That said, when I don't find brewed coffee, I can easily manage with instant :-)
Actually I can get by with any swill as long as it's black & tastes atleast a little like coffee.

Originally Posted by unoczar

By the way, i do intend to go n try the "real coffee". Anybody knows where i can get them in hyd???

http://www.coffeeday.com/freshngroun...LocatorNew.asp

It's been a long time, so my memory is fuzzy, but I used to buy coffee from a Fresh'n'ground store which was located at the end of the road you take to go from Srinagar Colony to Jubilee Hills.

There is also a different coffee roaster somewhere in Ameerpet.

[Jaguar]

I prefer tea over coffee but when through the entire thread just because its a Yetiguide

Originally Posted by bblost

One word of advice from me:
If you use milk in a tetra pack, then first heat some water in the milk pan.
Discard the water.
Add the milk to the hot sauce pan.
This will prevent the slightly burnt taste that tetra pack milk gets when you make coffee.
And dont over boil the tetra pack milk.

That's a good piece of advice bblost.

[akshaymahajan]

Originally Posted by carboy

One of the most expensive coffees in the world is Kopi Lupak. Monkey swallow coffee berries which then goes into their stomach - the coffee beans remain undigested but it gets refined by the gastric juices in the monkey's stomach. The undigested beans are excreted by the monkeys. People in Indonesia collect these excreted coffee beans & package & sell them. This is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world. I have drunk it a couple of times - for free though.

Came to know about this one when I saw The Bucket List. But I dont think I can enjoy it after knowing where it came from.
Where in Delhi can I get some coffee beans? And filters and stuff ? I have a machine lying around somewhere.
PS: The best coffee I have had was at this place called Belle Epicurean in Seattle. If anybody ever gets a chance, give it a shot. They have a huge, old school coffee machine and they make beautiful designs on the top.

[SS-Traveller]

Good to find another coffee-lover in you, Sam, and here's hoping you convert many more to the taste of real coffee!

I forego both milk and sugar in my coffee though, and I hate coffee that's modified with vanilla or cinnamon or (Heaven forbid!) Cadbury's cocoa powder... YUCK! For me, coffee's got to be black, strong and from beans, and tea's got to be light, golden and Darjeeling.

I do like my Cafe Coffee Day coffee too, until the day when a waiter took my order of black coffee and asked, Would that be with milk or without Sir? Barista hasn't done anything like that yet.

BTW, saw a decent new collection of good coffee at Big Bazaar a couple of days back - quite a sea change from Nescafe/Bru.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

PS: The best coffee I have had was at this place called Belle Epicurean in Seattle.

A chain called "Seattle's Best" used to have very good coffee. However they were bought over by Starbucks 7-8 years back, so now they serve the same coffee as Starbucks.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

The machine even crushes the coffee beans just before making coffee out of it (showing the importance of freshly ground coffee again).

I respectfully disagree here. Fresh Ground Coffee is mostly a marketing gimmick. When the coffee was ground isn't half as important as when the coffee was roasted.

Roast some green beans & split into 2 batches. Grind one batch immediatelly, don't grind the other. Keep both for 2 weeks. Now grind the 2nd batch. Make coffee out of the 2 batches. There isn't going to be a world of difference - there will be some difference, of course.

Now on the other hand, buy 2 batches of green beans. Roast one & keep for 2 weeks. Roast the 2nd batch of green beans after 2 weeks. Now grind both batches & make coffee out of both. The freshly roasted one will taste & smell far better than the other.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

If you're thinking of buying one of these babies for your office or home, be prepared to spend about 1 lac or more. Yes, you read correctly.

Another interesting thing is that people who buy expensive machines (2000$ or more) also mod them - just like our car guys. PID mods on a coffee machine cost 200$+. PID mods allow one to have very fine grained control on the exact temperature at which the coffee is brewed.

There also exists a cheap & popular machine which a lot of coffee enthusiasts swear by. It's a patented machine called the Aeropress - Aerobie® AeroPress(TM) Coffee & Espresso Maker
A lot of people who own 2000$ machines also own an Aeropress which costs less than 50$.
It doesn't make espresso, but makes a strong brew which is rather similiar to espresso.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by bblost

first heat some water in the milk pan.
Discard the water.
Add the milk to the hot sauce pan.
This will prevent the slightly burnt taste that tetra pack milk gets when you make coffee.
And dont over boil the tetra pack milk.

I don't ever heat or boil the milk in the tetrapak. I just make my coffee and add some (very little) cold milk from the box. Brings the coffee down a degree or two. Perfect for drinking.

[anku94]

Wow. This one goes into my bookmarks.

What I do is, take a glass of milk (yeah, I'm a Punjabi, you caught me), add two spoons sugar, 0.7th of a spoon of instant coffee, and boil it in winters, or put it in a blender in summers. It's somewhat like a latte, but when I tried one at CCD, it was kindda different.

So, is the coffee being talked about here bitter than my concoction ? How different does it taste ?

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by anku94

What I do is, take a glass of milk (yeah, I'm a Punjabi, you caught me), add two spoons sugar, 0.7th of a spoon of instant coffee, and boil it in winters, or put it in a blender in summers.

Somewhat like a latte? Lol. Sorry anku, I mean no disrespect but a glass of milk with 0.7 spoon of instant coffee is simply coffee flavoured milkshake.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Somewhat like a latte? Lol. Sorry anku, I mean no disrespect but a glass of milk with 0.7 spoon of instant coffee is simply coffee flavoured milkshake.

Err.. before the women up North raise an objection, let me clarify that anything with even a hint of the bitter stuff(read coffee) and only 2 spoons of sugar is indeed coffee.
A milkshake has to have drinking chocolate or better yet lots of Bournvita and at least 4 to 6 spoons of sugar 'Nahi to taste nahi aata na'

[anku94]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Somewhat like a latte? Lol. Sorry anku, I mean no disrespect but a glass of milk with 0.7 spoon of instant coffee is simply coffee flavoured milkshake.

None taken.

Ah, that means I'm a bigger noob at coffee than I thought. Gotta frequent CCD more often, I suppose, to gather some experience.

That's the only place you get real coffee in North India, albeit, at the cost of upsetting your pocket money budget.

Originally Posted by khoj

Err.. before the women up North raise an objection, let me clarify that anything with even a hint of the bitter stuff(read coffee) and only 2 spoons of sugar is indeed coffee.
A milkshake has to have drinking chocolate or better yet lots of Bournvita and at least 4 to 6 spoons of sugar 'Nahi to taste nahi aata na'

Lol, you got that right. =))

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by carboy

One of the most expensive coffees in the world is Kopi Lupak. Monkey swallow coffee berries which then goes into their stomach - the coffee beans remain undigested but it gets refined by the gastric juices in the monkey's stomach. The undigested beans are excreted by the monkeys. People in Indonesia collect these excreted coffee beans & package & sell them. This is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world. I have drunk it a couple of times - for free though.

I thought Kopi Lupak is picked from undigested berries eaten by civet cats rather than monkeys. In fact even in B R Hills, Karnataka, one of the estates have been producing these coffee beans.

[theMAG]

A running update- just sipping my favorite rich,strong filter coffee from a thermos.

[unoczar]

Originally Posted by carboy

There is also a different coffee roaster somewhere in Ameerpet.

but i thought Sam said that CCD does not sell beans.

That ameerpet shop you're talking about might be of some use. Thank you. Did you find an address or phone?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

I thought Kopi Lupak is picked from undigested berries eaten by civet cats rather than monkeys. In fact even in B R Hills, Karnataka, one of the estates have been producing these coffee beans.

A civet cat is not really a cat - i.e. it's not from the cat family. Actually it's not even a monkey. It's a seperate family of mammals. It sort of looks like a cross between a monkey & a cat.

[gavinimurthy]

Nothing beats the filter coffee made in the traditional way.

Always use fresh milk ,undiluted, for the best taste.

Murthy