Coffee has long been a delicious drink that has inspired millions of people around the world. With its roots in ancient Ethiopia, coffee is today an acclaimed “world drink” that has captured the imagination of the masses and become an inseparable part of their daily lives. According to a Ponte Stefano study published in World Development magazine in 2002, more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world every day, and the numbers are only going to increase every day!
Kumbakonam is an ancient temple city in South India, known for its vibrant culture, unrivaled temple architecture, betel leaves, Carnatic music and filter coffee brew that has made it stand out with distinction. It is a coffee that has won the hearts, minds and souls of connoisseurs around the world simply because of its elegance, balance, intensity and finish. The beauty of coffee lay in the fact that it could announce its flavor without fanfare and at the same time make people click their tongues with a smooth aftertaste. Another specialty of the town lies in its presentation of the same coffee in amazing variations. There are a number of varieties available, from a watered down version to one with pure milk, sweet and sour, dark and everything, all customized to the consumer’s whim. However, it is a coffee that stands on its own, without mixing flavors, whether artificial or natural.
The specialty of Kumbakonam grade coffee lies in its purity, since very little chicory is mixed to give a strong aftertaste and in the high purity of the milk used in its preparation. The weird but cool fact is that the city where this cafe originated does not advertise or proclaim its signature fee in any way. Although there are imitations everywhere, Kumbakonam has nothing to do with any of them.
A great credit for founding and popularizing the concept of grade coffee and associating it with Kumbakonam goes to a gentleman named Panchapikesa Iyer. He was the owner of Lakshmi Vilas, a hotel that had a coffee club. The coffee flowed continuously from early morning until late at night and the milk came from dairy cows kept in a barn just behind the hotel. The story goes that the coffee club was so popular that no visitor left the temple town without stopping for a coffee from the coffee club.
The secret was not only in the milk but also in the preparation and roasting of the coffee beans. Coffee beans were roasted in clay pots over wood fires until a cracking sound was heard. The beans were generally of the peaberry, robusta or plantation variety from hilly areas in Chikmagalur and the rest of Karnataka. A visible lubricating sheen on the coffee beans was an indication that the coffee was roasted. Then, it was crushed in a manual grinder.
Today gas stoves have replaced wood stoves and milk is not obtained directly from the cows in the barn. Although modern technology has replicated many of these archaic processes and saved time, the flavor distinction still holds not only in the beans and roast, but also in the milk and brew. This is the true hallmark of Kumbakonam grade coffee.