Oh for a cup of fresh coffee!

Tamildownunder · Jul 18, 2007

Dear Ladies,

When I joined the laboratory in Washington, I was introduced to the 'Coffee club', where a cofee machine is installed and we take milk from the adjacent refrigirator in a cup, pass steam into the milk to heat it up, put roasted coffee beans in the machine and press a button marked 'fresh coffee' and the coffee decoction gets added to the milk, then we add sugar and drink.

My American colleagues asked me about the coffee we drink in India. I recollected my childhood days, when we used to buy 'P-berry' coffee nuts, roast it brown, grind the nuts in a small machine and prepare the decoction by packing the powder in a coffee filter. Milkman used to bring the cow and tie it in the front yard and we used to get fresh milk with froth. I think it is still an unsolved mystery about the milkman adding water to the milk in spite of him showing the can before milking the cow. In the end we used to have a fresh coffee with lot of sweet smell and taste. We used to have the taste of coffee lingering in our mouth for a long time.

In the modern 'instant food' world,as we do not have time for the laborious processes,the instant coffee has become handy. But, everyone knows that the instant coffee tastes bitter and has less aroma. The 'Starbucks' coffee also is bitter in taste.

Nearly all of the coffee out in the market is stale. The good news is that stale coffee is drinkable if you've never had truly fresh coffee. The bad news is that once you've tasted truly fresh coffee, you'll be forever hooked. It will make you giddy every time you go to make a pot. Tingle right down to your toes. Reverberate around your head like a funky aura. That's because coffee, just a few days out of the roaster, is nature's most flavorful drink - more complex than even wine - containing well over 900 flavor compounds to dance on your taste buds. But after a few weeks, you'd be lucky to see half that number.

Coffee today is almost always over-roasted to hide freshness and poor quality under a smoky, sometimes burnt taste. That's sad because, when different regional coffees are roasted too dark it becomes very hard indeed to taste the subtle difference between them. Coffee blends are better as they have more taste. But, it depends on the blender and his taste.

Decaf is no longer a dirty word in the coffee world. The decaf coffees are treated gently, leaving a majority of the bean flavoring compounds untouched. Traditional high grade coffee decafs (labeled simply as Decaf) that have been specially treated with a water-steam pressure to strip away chemical solvent or 100% chemical free processed decafs (labeled as Swiss Water or Organic). All decaffeinated coffee is processed to be 99.7% caffeine free.

Cappuccino and expresso are coffee varieties from Italy. The cappuciono receipe is: Combine coffee and water. Stir in milk and sugar. Pour into small cups. You may add either 1 tablespoon of brandy or 1 teaspoon ground chocolate, although neither is traditional.

Cafe latte is a coffee very similar to our coffee where coffee essence is added to lot of milk. Ofcourse, there is whole variety of ice coffees, flavoured coffees such as Almond Cappuccino, Brazilian Coffee, Caramel Latte, Cinnamon Caramel Iced Coffee, Coconut Coffee, Cowboy Coffee, Irish Coffee etc.

When I visited Vienna in Austria I found the city full of way side coffee stalls and the whole place lingered with smell of coffee. People sit on the paveements under umbrellas for hours together sipping slowly a cup of coffee.

Please share your coffee experiences here.

Regards,

TDU

Malathijagan · Jul 18, 2007

Great to read about the various varieties of coffee though I am not a coffee buff! I take coffee(Filtered) once in the morning and thats all. We have heard of storm in a tea cup. But in my house there is storm in a coffee cup! My m-i-l is from the native of the coffee famous town of T. Nadu, and however well I prepare coffee, it refuses to pass the test(taste) of her tongue! I do not know whether to feel sorry for her or to feel sorry for myself! Whether the coffee in my house tickles the taste buds or not it does makes the tongues wag!

Tamildownunder · Jul 18, 2007

Malathijagan said: ↑

Great to read about the various varieties of coffee though I am not a coffee buff! I take coffee(Filtered) once in the morning and thats all. We have heard of storm in a tea cup. But in my house there is storm in a coffee cup! My m-i-l is from the native of the coffee famous town of T. Nadu, and however well I prepare coffee, it refuses to pass the test(taste) of her tongue! I do not know whether to feel sorry for her or to feel sorry for myself! Whether the coffee in my house tickles the taste buds or not it does makes the tongues wag!
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It is there in every household I know that coffee is the bone of contention between mil and dil. In my friend's house, his wife used to get up early and prepare coffee and since the first decoction is thicker, she used to have a good coffee. But, her mil getting up late will get the second decoction which will be little watery and there used to be hot exchanges. Finally, poor dil had to give up. She used to put the first decoction in flask for mil and drink coffee from the next decoction to shut the mouth of her mil.

So Sure · Aug 8, 2007

hi Tamizha,
I would call it "Coffee! The killer of my marital blitz! “
I started working in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Boston</st1lace></st1:City> in Nov ’98. It was pretty cold! And, I was pretty scared! New place, new project, new people! I wanted to go with the flow. So, like everyone else, in the morning, I too would go to the break room and get myself one big cup full of black coffee. With a lot of sugar in it (I could not swallow the bitter liquid)! And drank all of it reverently! 2.00 pm repeat the ceremony! The Coffee Ceremony! At 4.30 pm, I took another cup in order to brave the cold.

Come weekend, I am very happy ‘coz my husband ( a software consultant ) comes home Friday night. By noon on Saturday, I would have a headache! this happened every weekend. The first few times I tried to convince my husband the headache was due to cold wind. And dehydration by the heaters, blah, blah, blah! Week days, he calls and I don’t have a headache. Weekend he is with me and I have a headache! And stinking of Amrutanjan! “Looks like you get a headache when I come here! Am I a headache?” he said. Oops! That was not nice. I stopped telling him that I had a headache. And started taking painkillers. This made me sleep. I was miserable. :-(

So, I asked an American colleague if she knew any good medicine for headaches. She said I should visit a doctor. What? Go to a doctor for a headache? She must be kidding! I told her everyone was unhappy with me. My husband was unhappy ‘coz I was moody, my son was unhappy ‘coz he was getting the brunt of my moods, my mother was unhappy ‘coz instead of waking up early morning on Saturdays and listening to Suprabatham, I was having Tea in the bed. :idontgetit: “Gotcha”, my friend said. “Your headache is the tea!” What? Tea is my headache? I did not understand. Not a bit. Then she started explaining about Caffeine withdrawal symptoms. If I have coffee at home too, I will not have the headaches. Oh my God! I was so ignorant. That moment I stopped having coffee.

When I didn’t go get my coffee, someone asked “So, you are off the wagon?” I felt like I was a drug addict. I smiled and said, “Yes. I am and intend to be so”! :yes:

Anything in the excess is no good. And I am So Sure about it.

Regards,
Sharada

sunkan · Aug 8, 2007

hi TDU,
great this is a wonderful subject after my heart, i love a generous cup of coffee early in the morning,but padupavi milk man comes by 7.45a.m and that is no time for the wake up coffee but then have to wait for such a long time to taste the first thing if i want, i remember my in laws from kerala always had only one cup and not any more for a day and it used to irk me, i love only coffee, that too a good brew is a good stimulater, the tea is not my subject but yes nowadays there are so many brands of coffee and tea that we have a choice to make,i love cotha's red here in bangalore and sometime my daughter go on a binge and get it from coffee day coffee damn good and thick, in this drizzle that is outside a good cup with the right flavour and right amount of sugar and milk is very welcome, pl can u serve....:tongue sunkan

Kamalji · Aug 16, 2007

Hi

I am a tea drinker,so dont know much about coffee.though i like the expresso.And i am a north indian,We are fond of Tea.

But when i was young in school, a south india n friend from school, i used to have coffee at his home, and the mother used to grinkd the coffee beans,and the whole building used to be filled with the aroma of coffee,and it used to taste wonderful.

Thanks and regards.kamal

mickeymouse · Sep 12, 2007

How do i search for ladies in vienna ?

Tamildownunder · Sep 12, 2007

mickeymouse said: ↑

How do i search for ladies in vienna ?
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You mean Indian ladies?. As I know of there are two ladies. One is my former collaegue in BARC and now working in IAEA, Vienna. Her name is Dr. Geetha Sadagopan. I think if you contact her she will get you other ladies in Vienna.

You can visit the site International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and put her name in search.

Nivedi · Sep 12, 2007

TDU - Me too a coffee fan! I take the traditional South Indian Filter to whichever part of the world I go. Nothing like the roasted aroma of coffee to wake upto in the morning. Black coffee is not for me. Neither do the branded coffee kiosks like Cafe Coffee Day or Barista or Star Bucks appeal to my taste. Costco's Columbian Coffee works fine for South Indian tastes.

Shanvy · Sep 13, 2007

hi tdu,

Coffee...fresh coffee...hmmmmmmmmm.....cant resist...the grinding, the smell, the milkman...all those old days...nostalgic....

I remember some years back..mil was sick..did not have much energy to do anything...but she used to feel so bad...so i would make the filter..boil the milk...and go and call her to make coffee for all of us...it was not that i could not make it...but it made her feel involved...and she used to do it happily.....