Monday, April 01, 2002


tea retreats. . .

as coffee makes inroads in places formerly associated with tea drinking, such as russia and southern india. when you say russian here in new york everyone automatically completes it with tea room. those famous russian samovars are for serving tea, after all. but now russia's got the coffee bug. which master roaster will be the first to introduce russians to the pleasure of truly fresh coffee? coffee drinking is still so new, there are no roasters yet operating there!

as for india, web guy extraordinaire madhu menon offers this eyewitness report on the coffee scene in bangalore:


. . . in the last couple of years, the country has seen a sudden burst in the number of coffee houses. These are typically a cafe-style place, much like a Starbucks(no, they're not here yet) and serve stuff like espresso, machiato, latte, cappuccino, cafe mocha, etc. Some even serve (supposedly) exotic coffee from Colombia and some African countries.

They're becoming a place where the upper-middle-class youth hang out. The coffee is usually not cheap, with the average cup costing anywhere from Rs. 25 - 50 ($.50 -$1), which is about 2-5 times more expensive than regular Indian coffee.

A prominent coffee chain in India is Barista.


although i have heard reports that indians will drink coffee with buffalo milk instead of cow's milk, madu says no:


While some Indians like their tea milky, this is not so for coffee. South India coffee especially tends to be served relatively strong. Cardamom in coffee? Goodness, no. And cow's milk is used more than buffalo milk in India anyway.


japan, russia, india. . .as coffee consumption is generally falling in the western world, it seems that the east is picking up on the beauties of our favorite beverage!

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