Coffee...Cafe...Cappucino..Kaapi...Call you what you like...Serve it hot or cold....Have it first thing in the morning or the last thing in the night....Take it from the traditional silver 'davara tumbler' or cup-and-saucer...Have it instantly or from the filtered decoction...Have it black or white or the typical Indian brown...If you can't survive a day without this magic potion in any of the above alters, read on, this blog is dedicated to you...
What makes this drink so indispensable everyday? Is it the taste that drives you crazy? Not exactly, I don't get to eat all my favourite dishes everyday..and am sure no one does either..there must be more to it than taste..
Is it then the aroma that can wake you up from your slumber? Maybe, but I wouldn't call it the reason for this drink to be so popular....Is it the pleasure of drinking something hot after a typical cold shower? Could be, but there are many lovers of cold coffee as well...Is it the caffeine that stimulates your nervous system and boosts your energy? Quite possible...Or is it the usual best answer - the right combination (in whatever percentages) of all of above?? Or is it none of the above??? Take your pick...its truly an objective answer..(in the Ayn Rand's truest sense of the word).
My pick is none of the above..To me, its more of a sort of Pavlov's condioned reflex. T
he very mention of kaapi (mind you, its kaapi not coffee) conditions an avalanche of chemical andphysical actions( and their reactions) in my body. I imagine my mom sitting near my bed (while I'm in my catnap or siesta) with a 'davara tumbler' of hot dark (not black) filter kaapi. I can sense the aroma and fathom the taste. I instantly pull myself away from bed (and the sweetest dreamz) and take my rightful share...Ah, those were the days.......
I became a kaapi addict at quite young an age.I was fascinated by the ads and the captions for coffee on TV. Remember this..."Kaapi na.. Narasus kaapi thaan..Baesh baesh...romba nanna irukku"....and the unforgettable sensual laugh that follows? I was drinking kaapi (I had too many specifications as well....twice as much as decoction as milk...right shade of brown, the right tumbler, davara.....) when my friends were drinking the much healthier Bournvitas and Boosts and Complans....Kaapi was an adults-only drink in my family..It was one of the first rules that I broke..
Well, today things are different...the reflex has been unconditioned...I am not a kaapi addict anymore...I drink kaapi's other alters as well - cappucino, dark coffee, cafe du lait and...... I drink tea as well..
Well, I call it growth....Call it what you like...
The prices have changed as well. A cup of coffee is good enough to be the main course rather than the appeasing drink after that....People are abandoning this all-time-favourite drink to its North-Indian-rival, tea due to health reasons..The world is going green..Tea could adapt itself to this...coffee retained its originality...and lost the race...well..not entirely...Health researches keep oscillating for and against a dish...Choclates that make you gain a few pounds today will prevent heart diseases tomorrow...Our dear kaapi is now being charged for a few heath risks today..but I'm sure time would prove it innocent, not only because kaapi is great and my intuition says so..but also because I firmly believe in the inconsistency of health researches....
Well, my head has reasons for me to drink tea this evening, but my heart is always with good old filter kaapi...Afterall I have reasons to believe that it is filter kaapi that symbolises the Java programming language...:)
Comments
I am probably the only person in the US who still boils milk and prepared kaapi (bru than.. no filter with me :-( ) and I read ur blog first thing in the morning with a cup of kaapi and got a couple of goosebumps! :-)
Very true that kaapi was an adult only drink even in my home.. Leo coffee ad starring Arvindswamy and Usilamanai's narasus coffee certainly wanted me to take a sip..
Coffee has taken a backseat in recent times but i still have a gut feeling that when taken in the right quantities, it doesn't really matter :-))
Keep blogging on your area of interests (I don't think you follow pongal, thayir saatham etc :) ).
Of course I am also a die hard fan of kappi(both filter and bru) though I hate cappuchino and black coffee.!! Your post is now compeling me to start a blog on thayir saadham, puri masala and perhaps basandhi :-)
I would start driking kaapi from today...
Nice posts..continue the good work!
Looking forward to see more such write-ups....
Piyush
that was a very good article, it was all around kappi kappi. you know what it was 2 years since i had a proper kappi, thanks to my MIL, she bought some "SOUTH INDIAN" coffee powder and i have again started coffee. good , keep writing our good old MDU days.
Balaji
I dnt drink coffee at all:-)
but i like the aroma of coffee.Seri namba ponnu evala solralnu let me try to drink filter kaapi(not coffee)
missing amma, coffee india and everything
and regarding this blog...i am not much of a coffee drinker till i came to US...so i got addicted to this drink courtesy to starbucks....and i used to and still think that it is the best coffee till.......
My dad came to US and i ket sngign praises for Starbucks and since he is an avid drinker...i wanted to introduce him to the "unparalleled" taste of this coffee place....forced him to come to Starbucks and he had hardly taken a sip of the cappucino when he said...ithu thaan worlds best coffee ya.....veettukku vaa...i will mke filte kaapi for u...and then truth prevailed:).....if h thinks so, i ahve to agree with him that kapi is the more authentic one...but neevrtheless i remained loyal to cappucino and to this day...the rivalry between me and my dad reg kaapi and cappucino continues.....its his favorite subject of tesing me.....but i guess u have to give it to kaapi for its unique flavor and authenticity:)
As I said, I love Starbucks as well (I gree up u see)...but amma kayaala podra filter kaapi .......that is one of the treasures of life...