What goes into brewing a perfect cup of coffee

In a previous avatar as a journalist, I once wrote a business story on coffee and thought an aside on how to make a perfect cup would add flavour. The planters I asked were less than helpful. ‘Ask the brahmins in Chennai’, they said. ‘Care for a whisky?’

So I asked around and was introduced to the intricacies of coffee bean types (Arabica, Robusta), grades (plantation, parchment, cherry), sizes (A is large, B is smaller), and roasts (light, medium, dark). Coffee gurus talked with passion about how everything depended on where the coffee was sourced from and how it was dried and roasted. All of this goes into making the perfect blend depending on your taste.

Making a cup of coffee begins with the blend. A standard approach is to mix equal amounts of Arabica and Robusta coffee powder roasted medium or medium-dark and ground coarsely. Add 20% of Peaberry powder for flavour. Peabury seeds are aberrant round single seeds, most coffee seeds split into two halves. 

There are others who shun the Robusta and swear by a mix of only Arabica and 20% Peaberry. Arabica is noted for its flavour and Robusta for strength.

Purists also shun chicory, a powdered root that is not coffee but is added for strength by many. If you'd like to experiment, start with 15% chicory in your mix.

Whatever your final mix, you can use it to make the decoction in any of three ways -- in a traditional South Indian two-pot, a French press, or an Italian espresso. The espresso extracts the most juice from the coffee powder and results in the strongest decoction. As your taste develops, experiment with the proportions and roasting.

You can have your coffee black of course, but traditional south Indian coffee, or "kaapi", is drunk hot, sweet, strong, and with buffalo milk, preferably undiluted.

Suitably educated, my wife and can now put this symphony together and make a good cup of coffee. But since we live in Bangalore, it is equally convenient to drop into a Darshini or a Hatti Kaapi for the perfect cup at very reasonable prices.

Tarry not, go find a good coffee shop and fall in love with the brew!

 -- 
PS. If you normally drink instant coffee, the recipe for a good cup is even simpler. Add half a cup of hot water to half a cup of hot milk (the 3% fat variety). Add one teaspoon of coffee powder and sugar to taste. Stir well. Enjoy your drink. (1 tsp = approx 4 g).

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