Indian filter coffee
South Indian filter coffee is a coffee drink made by mixing frothed and boiled milk with the infusion obtained by percolation brewing of finely ground coffee powder in a traditional Indian filter. The drink known as Kaapi, is the South Indian phonetic rendering of "coffee". The drink is also referred to as Madras filter coffee, Madras kaapi, Kumbakonam degree coffee, Mylapore filter coffee, or Mysore filter coffee. Outside India the term "filter coffee" may refer to drip brew coffee, which is a distinct form of preparing coffee.
History
Popular Indian lore says that on a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 16th century Baba Budan, a revered Sufi saint from Karnataka state, discovered the wonders of coffee. Eager to grow coffee at home, he smuggled seven coffee beans from the Yemeni port of Mocha in his garments. Returning home, he planted the beans on the slopes of the Chandragiri Hills in Chickmagaluru district, Mysore State. This hill range was later named after him as the Baba Budan Hills. His tomb is near Chikmagalur.Rev. Edward Terry, chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe who was an ambassador at the court of Emperor Jehangir, provides a detailed account of its usage :
The British East India Company brought in fresh influences. David Burton, a food historian based in New Zealand writes in his book The Raj at Table
Indian filter coffee was popularised by the India Coffee Houses run by the Coffee Board of India since the mid-1940s. It became the drink of millions after the emergence of more popular Indian Coffee Houses in the mid-1950s.
Indian filter coffee migrated overseas in the early 20th century to Malaysia and Singapore, where kopi tarik is a close cousin of the Madras filter coffee-by-the-yard / metre, and was introduced at roadside kopi tiams run originally by Indian Muslims.
Beans
Coffee has been grown in India since the 1600s, when it was first brought to India from Yemen by Muslim saint Baba Budan. The most commonly used coffee beans are arabica and robusta. These are grown in different states of South India, such as in the hills of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The beans are usually medium-roasted and finely ground and blended with roasted chicory. The final coffee powder composition is typically equal quantities of Plantation A and Peaberry with between 10% and 30% chicory added, producing a distinct aroma, thickness and colour in the resulting brewed coffee.Preparation
South Indian filter coffee is brewed with a metal device that resembles two cylindrical cups, one of which has a pierced bottom that nests into the top of the 'tumbler' cup, leaving ample room beneath to receive the brewed coffee. The upper cup has two removable parts: a pierced pressing disc with a central stem handle and a covering lid.The upper cup is loaded with freshly ground coffee. The grounds are then compressed with the stemmed disc into a uniform layer across the cup's pierced bottom. The coarser the coffee grinds, the more one must tamp the coffee to obtain the same extraction. With the press disc remaining in place, the upper cup is nested into the top of the tumbler; boiling water is poured in. The lid is placed on top, and the appliance is left to slowly drip the brewed coffee into the bottom. The chicory retains the hot water longer, letting the water dissolve and extract more of the ground coffee.
The resulting brew is generally much stronger than Western drip/filter coffee, and often stronger than espresso.
Traditionally, the coffee is consumed by adding 1–2 tablespoons of the brew to a cup of boiling milk with the preferred amount of sugar. The coffee is drunk from the tumbler, but is often cooled first with a dabarah - "dabarah" : a wide metal saucer with lipped walls.
Coffee is typically served after pouring back and forth between the dabara and the tumbler in huge arc-like motions of the hand. This serves several purposes: mixing the ingredients thoroughly; cooling the hot coffee to a sipping temperature; and most importantly, aerating the mix without introducing extra water. An anecdote related to the distance between the pouring and receiving cup leads to another name for the drink, "Meter Coffee".
Culture
Coffee is something of a cultural icon in all the South Indian states of India like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. It is customary to offer a cup of coffee or tea to any visitor. Coffee was originally introduced by Baba Budan to South India in the 17th century and became very popular under British rule. Until the middle of the 20th century traditional households would not use granulated sugar but used jaggery or honey in coffee. Filter Coffee is currently famous in the Global 90's Culture.Name
- A traditional Kannada name for coffee is "Boondh Bisneeru". The term was popular about two generations ago, and has since lost favour in popular usage.
- A term often heard for high-quality coffee is Degree Coffee. Milk certified as pure with a lactometer was called degree milk owing to a mistaken association with the thermometer. It is claimed that coffee prepared with degree milk became known as degree coffee. Yet another possible derivation for the term is from the chicory used to make the coffee. The South Indian pronunciation of chickory became chigory, then digory, and finally degree. Another explanation is that when coffee is infused for the first time, it is referred to as the first degree or simply as the "Degree Coffee". This has the strongest flavour and the necessary strength to mix with milk without watering down the taste. In less affluent households coffee would be infused for a second or third time from the same initial load and would be called the second or third degree coffee respectively given its lower strength. Yet another explanation could be that coffee was mixed by pouring it from one cup to another cup, it has to be poured at a certain angle or "degree" for best taste.
- Filter Coffee has been chosen has been chosen as titles by "Dr.S.Karthi".