Coffee brewing on the rise

Many are learning the fine art of making everything from filter coffee to dalgona

October 1 is celebrated as International Coffee Day, where coffee enthusiasts and brewers come together to celebrate their love for the beverage. This year has been no different. In fact, the love for coffee has also increased since the pandemic.

In early April, when the lockdown was still fresh in everyone’s memory, many cups of Dalgona coffee took over social media.

That concept of whipped coffee isn’t new to Indians though. We first had the phenti coffee or as many would know it, beaten coffee. The only difference between the Dalgona and beaten coffee is that the milk is added to the beaten coffee mixture in the latter.

Having said that, the coffee culture in Bengaluru is a pretty old one. There are plenty of filter coffee places that coffee lovers love to frequent, but since they couldn’t do so anymore, many took up the challenge to learn to make it.

Easy methods

U S Mahendar, founder of Hatti Kaapi, leveraged the opportunity and introduced filter coffee that can be made within six seconds. He says, “Mastering filter coffee isn’t as easy as one thinks. It needs to be brewed in a certain way and mixed so that you get the true filter coffee experience. It’s also a time-consuming process for those who don’t know it too well. The powder will help in that process.”

Working professional Sajjad Anwar enjoys brewing his own coffee. He even collects coffee powders during his travels. He tells Metrolife, “I still have coffee from Columbia, the US and Vietnam stored in my fridge. I am particular about my brews and I have a few equipments at home to make them.”

Expert approach

Ashish D’abreo, partner at Maverick & Farmer, says many are seeking the help of experts to teach them the art of coffee making. “Since the lockdown started, we see a rise in people wanting to buy moka pots, French Press and espresso machines. So we made small videos on how to make a cappuccino style coffee using French Press. With a few techniques, it’s possible to make a simple to fancy coffee at home,” he says.

Cafe experience at home

Though not specific to pandemic, cafes across the city have increased their sale of coffee powders. Brand strategy specialist and founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, Harish Bijoor feels coffee has come a full circle since the pandemic.

He explains, “Right from the beginning, coffee was an in-home experience. From buying your own beans, roasting, grinding, filtering and drinking it, it was a very one-on-one centric consumption. That soon morphed into outdoor consumption with cafes opening up and slowly reaching office venues in the form of vending machines. That eventually came to a halt and back to in-home experience when the lockdown began.”

So when coffee coming back indoors, there are online courses available to learn coffee art. Consumption of coffee has also gone up.

A home touch

Gayatri Pillai, IT professional, says,“Our company has asked us to work from home till next year and what I missed the most about office was the coffee. iT was so much easier to just walk up to the machine, click a few buttons and get a hot cup of coffee.”

“But since we’re at home, for about a month, I had to just manage with the stove pot coffee but then I decided to at least get a French Press and learn a few tricks of brewing. Now I made at least two pots of coffee every day. Some flavoured coffees are quite good too,” she says.