TEA. That’s what most westerners associate with India, not coffee. Exotic herbs and spices, elephants, the Taj Mahal, and maybe King Cobras, but not coffee.
India produces some of the world’s best and most well-known teas. Go to any major cafe chain in the world and you can order a “chai tea latte” or a diverse range of teas grown in the Indian hills. The few people who do associate India with coffee unfortunately associate India with terrible coffee. Indian coffee can be, and certainly has been in the past, pretty terrible. So terrible, in fact, that even hardcore coffee drinkers might actually turn down a cup because of our inability to stomach the stuff. For the coffee enthusiast, turning down a cup must mean it’s pretty terrible!
Walk into any Indian restaurant and order a “coffee,” and what you will get is a cup of mostly boiled milk and sugar with trace amounts of coffee hidden somewhere in the cup. On the other hand, if you order a cup of “black coffee” they will likely look at you like you are crazy. Most Indians would never dream of drinking coffee black. So, if you convince them to serve you what they consider a beverage-blasphemy, you’ll be handed a small cup of coffee decoction so thick, you could mortar a house with it.
But as India continues to develop and modernize, so does its taste for quality coffee. Although coffee has been grown on the Indian sub-continent for hundreds of years, it has not been until the last few decades that India has seen significant growth in its domestic coffee consumption. And with the increase in consumption has come a renewed desire for quality and care on the part of the farmers. Today, believe it or not, some of the most unique and rich coffee in the world can be found India…if you know where to find it.
Coffee first came to India in 1670, smuggled out of Yemen and into southern India by the Muslim Saint Baba Budan. He planted his stolen merchandise in the hills of south India known as the Western Ghats not far from Bangalore, the current Information Technology hub of India. For centuries coffee was a drink of the upper-class of society of India and was not widely consumed by the growing population. The British controlled India for several hundred years and their palates were much more concerned with the quality of the tea being produced than the coffee. But coffee was still grown and its popularity spread among the south Indian states. Coffee drinkers in India began flavoring their coffee with heaps of milk and sugar, and even today that remains the trend.
But, as the disposable income of the middle class began to rise, so did the interest in the “café culture” which had spread across Europe and the U.S. The historic Indian Coffee House was one of the first companies to capitalize on the rapid expansion of coffee popularity. They opened their first store in the 1950s, serving small cups of coffee, again, loaded with milk and sugar, for very low prices, along with traditional Indian snacks. But it wasn’t until the 1990s and the opening of the first Café Coffee Day (CCD) outlet that the café culture had truly secured a foothold in India.
With the rise of cafes, college students and youth could gather to drink coffee and spend time together. Instant coffee grew into much more of a staple in homes and gained a place at the breakfast table next to the daily newspaper.
After the initial breakthrough by CCD, it was not long before their competitors began popping up. Barista-Lavazza, Costa Coffee, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Gloria Jeans have all found a place in the modern coffee culture of India. More recently, international coffee giant Starbucks has made its grand entrance into India, quickly opening up many cafes in most of the major cities around India.
Today, go to just about any college, shopping mall, or trendy area of an Indian city, and you will find a variety of coffee shops not far away. Coffee has become the drink of the youth and the modernizing middle class. Students flock to drink coffee -still drowning in milk, sugar, and artificial flavors- while listening to upbeat music and socializing away from the prying eyes of mom and dad.
While most coffee drinkers still prefer to drink something other than straight black coffee or espresso, the appreciation for quality and craftsmanship is growing among both the producers and the consumers. Starbucks, and the fashionable image it displays, is one of the leading forces behind this shift. High quality coffee is seen as trendy and modern by the young middle class. The increase in economic development and international investment has created an India with more disposable income than any other time in its history. Coffee culture and appreciation has grown, as people are willing and able to spend more money on non-essentials. As the demand for western practices and culture grows in India, so does the appreciation for good coffee.
For a very long time, coffee plantations in India were focused on quantity over quality, but that is now changing. While most of the coffee grown in India is still low-quality Robusta, a few plantations are focusing on shade-grown, high-altitude, quality Arabica coffees. These coffees are quickly becoming some of the most unique and enjoyable on the market, even though they are fighting an uphill battle against ghosts of coffees-past. Today, there are a small but growing number of places where people can purchase this excellent product, and much of it is being exported to various countries across Europe and Australia, as well as the United States. Roasters are beginning to view themselves as artisans and the cups they create as masterpieces. The experience they provide is able to be enjoyed without the historically added crutch of milk and sugar.
It’s amazing to watch Indians who have grown up around inferior coffee try high-quality Arabica for the first time. They are astounded that there is actually a cup of coffee they can drink black! The stereotype of Indian coffee being inferior to its counterparts in South America and North Africa is still a battle that coffee farmers are fighting. But their product speaks for itself, and modern Indian coffee has a unique flavor profile that the average international consumer has never been blessed to experience.
Upon your first visit to the Arabica plantations of southern India, you will quickly see why the coffee they are producing is so unique and delicious. The Silver Oak trees used to shade the coffee have vines of peppercorn winding their way up the trunks. The jungle trees -planted to maintain biodiversity- have sweet jackfruit, areca nut, cardamom, vanilla, cocoa and cinnamon all growing in close proximity to the coffee. Not only does the shade create an ideal environment for full bean development, but the coffee itself takes on the ambient flavors of the vegetation around it and produces a mildly acidic, full-bodied and complex cup. For the first time in the history of Indian coffee, farmers are focusing on best practices instead of simply producing as much coffee as possible in a single season.
The future of Indian coffee is hopeful and bright! More and more consumers are willing to pay for quality in their cups and this is leading to a revolution in the Indian coffee industry. As the international coffee scene continues to place high value on the story behind the cup and the people involved, the plantation laborers’ lives will continue to improve. And as the West discovers the rich and unique flavor to be had in Indian coffee, the demand will certainly grow.
Indian coffee is a world unto itself. Each plot of land produces a unique cup that can be found nowhere else. The abundance of spices and fruits in such close proximity to the coffee plants produce a bean that is truly remarkable and complex. The conditions vary so much among the coffee producing regions that every cup is both a story and an experience in and of itself.
India is a land of stories. Everywhere you turn you will find a story that will take you down a rich and colorful path. The same is true with Indian coffee. From the plantation owners, to the laborers, to the consumers, everyone has a story to tell. You would do well to make yourself a part of the story of Indian coffee.