Coffee in Heaven
You’ll be greeted
by a nice cup of coffee
when you get to heaven
and strains of angelic harmony.
But wouldn’t you be devastated
if they only serve decaffeinated
while from the percolators of hell
your soul was assaulted
by Satan’s fresh espresso smell?
— John Agard
I love coffee. Always loved the Bru instant coffee brand that my Mom made better than the age-old Nescafe. I wonder what’s the big deal about Nescafe; never liked it much. Another brand which I first came across in Kerala, was Sunrise which had a predominantly chicory mix. Hmmm… love that smell of fresh coffee, instant or brewed!
One place where I LOVE the coffee is Prithvi, the cafe in Juhu, B’bay. It’s next to the Prithvi theatre which is run by Sanjana Kapoor. They serve coffee with Irish cream and I have lost count of the number of people whom I’ve taken there. The Irish cream leaves a trail of warm fire all the way down your throat as you sip the coffee. Divine and I still think so!!! Ghasitaram Halwai Karachiwala had an outlet opposite Shoppers’ Stop, Andheri and they used to serve lovely espresso with a topping of chocolate flakes. Pinch and I were regulars and the waiter didn’t even bother to take our order. I recall remarking to Pinch once: we must invite these guys to the wedding, whenever it happens! Unfortunately, it shut down a long time before we got married.
The *bestest* coffee used to be served in the train en route to Kerala. The Jayanthi Junta express which ran all the way from Churchgate, B’bay to Trivandrum, Kerala in a nearly 40-hour journey used to be frequented by these vendors who served amazing coffee for a paltry 2 bucks.
Amigos, the most heavenly coffee is made in Andheri by my Mom and she makes it for everyone (almost) who comes home… Sweet, frothy and milky; it’s sheer delight to the senses! And if one wants to develop detachment from the wordly pleasures a la Siddhartha, one HAS to give up drinking her coffee…:-)
lalunadiosa says:
I am reading this post while sipping my daily large cafe-au-lait….ummmm heaven….to paraphrase and misconstrue what one old poet said “if there is heaven on earth, it is here and now, it is here and now!!!” 🙂
PS: I used to love coffee at your place as well…the Bru your Mom made tasted as good as filetr coffee to me!!!
August 13, 2004 — 9:14 am
arunshanbhag says:
Ditto with Bru. now we get some Indian mix with chicory, blend it in with a local Maxwells tasteless and run through my Expresso maker. Then,….
ultimate indian style, use a stainless steel tumbler and mix it well like in the old indian restaurants – from about 1 ft above. The froth should nearly overflow. The first sip is heavenly. Daily ritual after the Suprabhatam!
btw, one more reason to aspire for Hell!
🙂
August 13, 2004 — 10:17 am
arunshanbhag says:
Does the JJ start from Churchgate? or did you mean CST? or Bombay Central?
August 13, 2004 — 10:18 am
Lakshmi says:
Hmmm, Bombay Central, I think…. Messed up!
August 13, 2004 — 10:29 am
arunshanbhag says:
don’t agonize over it.
your enlighten us with your writing anyway!
August 16, 2004 — 9:31 am
Lakshmi says:
The pleasure is mine….:-)
August 25, 2004 — 1:43 pm
tomlinsonian says:
The problem with having good friends on your LJ..
is that someone is bound to have the same idea for a post as you do:)
i’ve wanted to post a coffee related one…for a different reason though..
In my house, we are pure coffee freaks – no chicory for us…we (dad,mom,I) go through half a kilo of coffee in about 5 days….because pure coffee doesn’t lend itself well to second round, third round, ad nauseum…
however,on one of my treks in chickmagalur,karnataka(Heart of coffee country in Kar), I asked a shopkeeper to give me half kg pure, and he said, “Sir, thats not good for you, causes too much body heat(ushna)”!
and here in the US, i have totally gotten addicted to black…I found out that paper filters are important since they capture some of the acids in the coffee…
Some recent research(spurred by the 30% chicory label on Bru) tells me that chicory is a radish/carrot like root!!!!!And it might have health benefits..Anyone knows more about that??
August 13, 2004 — 10:42 am
Lakshmi says:
Re: The problem with having good friends on your LJ..
You know, Manu, that shopkeeper is right. Coffee can REALLY cause an imbalance in your body. And black… don’t you get incessant burps? Plus the strong smell which your mouth emanates.. I can’t understand the obsession with black coffee; when I worked in B’bay, I preferred the tiny cups with milk and sugar.. the idea of black coffee is… almost burpefying!
August 13, 2004 — 12:42 pm
tomlinsonian says:
Re: The problem with having good friends on your LJ..
almost burpefyingHAHAHAHA..
I used to say exactly the same when i first came here….after all, i was used to a propa cuppa every morning, nice froth on the top included….
After coming here, a couple of things changed….I started using fat free milk, and belive me, coffee is just not the same …i religiously brought a filter from india that i’ve used all of …lesse..two times…
however, black coffee works like this…no sugar, very little coffee powder,and fresh(this is a must)..
and though i am connoisseur, i am not a regular guzzler…one cup a day is just fine..so no burps 😀
and no smell either….very light coffee, almost like tea, and paper filters to absorb the acids…not the Wendy’s and McD kind of sitting-in-the-bottom-all-day coffees…gevalia, made at home, for one 8 ounce serving….aaahhhh…
If(when) i go back to india, i will miss this…
August 13, 2004 — 1:14 pm
hariputtar says:
am not averse to an occasional coffee 🙂 and a verse from Vikram Seth:
Sit, drink your coffee here; your work can wait awhile.
You’re twenty-six, and still have some life ahead.
No need for wit; just talk vacuities, and I’ll
Reciprocate in kind, or laugh at you instead.
The world is too opaque, distressing and profound.
This twenty minutes’ rendezvous will make my day:
To sit here in the sun, with grackles all around,
Staring with beady eyes, and you two feet away.
August 13, 2004 — 11:07 am
Lakshmi says:
Ooh, love that poem called ‘Sit’. Elegant piece.
August 13, 2004 — 12:42 pm
tomlinsonian says:
dude……
i was gonna post this in 9 days….
i will be 26 then 😀
and i just bought his collected poems…i am impressed with him…i truly am…
August 13, 2004 — 1:15 pm
hariputtar says:
Re: dude……
its one of those things .. vagaries of chance … sincere apologies.
August 13, 2004 — 3:51 pm
tomlinsonian says:
Re: dude……
HAHAHAHA…no apologies needed at all….
its a small world as far as tastes go…
August 13, 2004 — 4:17 pm
hariputtar says:
Re: dude……
recognizing this fact – i have often wondered about the futility of *assertions of being different*. like, how different fundamentally – ppl can be anyway.
August 13, 2004 — 6:59 pm
deelight says:
Nice! Love Seth!
August 16, 2004 — 1:01 am
shri says:
Hmm….Coffee! I LOVE Coffee, but I like my first morning cuppa of tea just as much. 🙂
Looks like a visit to your home is in order. 😉 🙂
August 13, 2004 — 9:35 pm
Lakshmi says:
It always is; for the lightest of dosas, fluffiest of idlis and bestest of coffees..:-)
August 15, 2004 — 2:24 pm
kookygoblin says:
Amen!!
“Amigos, the most heavenly coffee is made in Andheri by my Mom and she makes it for everyone (almost) who comes home…”
I was there a couple of days ago and she has a variation in which she puts a little drinking chocolate………bliss….apparently she got the idea from you!
August 14, 2004 — 4:22 am
Lakshmi says:
Re: Amen!!
Me??!!! Don’t recall telling her that..
August 15, 2004 — 2:22 pm
kookygoblin says:
Re: Amen!!
Apparently you and Pinchu went to this restaurant where the waiter always served you coffee with a sprinkling of chocolate.
August 15, 2004 — 7:21 pm
quizling says:
Jayanti Janata used to run between CST and Trivandrum in the 70s and 80s. The earliest I can remember (late 70s), coffee was all of 50 paise per glass.
Now, did someone mention Andheri? 🙂
August 14, 2004 — 7:20 am
Lakshmi says:
I did; lived there 24 years out of 25..:-) With occasional trips to Kerala!
August 15, 2004 — 2:18 pm
vote_sobriety says:
And if one wants to develop detachment from the wordly pleasures a la Siddhartha, one HAS to give up drinking her coffee…:-)
Sahi farmaya.
August 14, 2004 — 9:52 am
rileen says:
Another coffee lover here – the friends i’m visiting right now keep coffee at home just for me 🙂 !!
Nescafe is for people who like weak coffee :-p
August 14, 2004 — 12:12 pm
thefirstidiot says:
Lakshmi, don’t remind me of your Mom’s coffee. THe first thing I used to have at your place when I came over was the coffee…aaah. Wonderful memories.
Here in America, we have a coffee machine, and that sucks. Know of any method/brand for great coffee? I need my daily dose now :):)
Ashwin
August 15, 2004 — 1:54 am
Lakshmi says:
Buy Bru from any Indian store; nearly as good. Besides my Mom uses it too!
August 15, 2004 — 2:18 pm
sat_chit_anand says:
Anybody ever tried the filter coffee @ Ramkrishna in Vile Parle (E). That along with their Dosas was really good….didnt go there though on my last visit to Bbay …
August 16, 2004 — 7:08 am
sat_chit_anand says:
Some coffee facts as per TOI
For those who enjoy their coffee without knowing much about it, take a sip Coffee is the most popular drink worldwide with 1.4 billion cups consumed every day. It takes 42 coffee beans to make an espresso. On an average, men drink more coffee than women (1.7 cups per day vs 1.5 cups). The USA is the world’s largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20 million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing onethird of all coffee exported. The first European coffee was sold in pharmacies in 1615 as a medicine. Cappuccino is so named because of the drink’s peak of foam which resembles to the cowl of a Capuchin friar’s habit. Espresso contains less caffeine than other roasts. Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine. Bach wrote a coffee cantata in 1732. The heavy tax on tea imposed in 1773 on the colonies that resulted in the Boston Tea Party, resulted in America switching from mainly drinking tea to coffee.
Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time.
In Greece and Turkey, the oldest person is almost always served their coffee first.
Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.
The Europeans first added chocolate to their coffee in the 1600s.
With alcohol forbidden by the Koran in the early 1400s, coffee emerged as a replacement drink.
The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day.
Regular coffee drinkers have about one-third less asthma symptoms than those of non-coffee drinkers according to a Harvard researcher.
Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.
August 18, 2004 — 6:51 am
Lakshmi says:
Re: Some coffee facts as per TOI
And after oil, coffee is the most heavily traded commodity worldwide.
August 18, 2004 — 7:05 am
srusrid says:
Aunty’s coffee is the BEST!!!!Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh..miss it so badly..its been over a year..in fact more than that since I had that heavenly elixir:(
August 25, 2004 — 1:39 pm
Lakshmi says:
You’re back! Howz life?
btw, I miss Mummy’s coffee too; feels like I had it YEARS ago..:-(
August 25, 2004 — 1:45 pm
srusrid says:
Iam back..when was i ever gone??
August 25, 2004 — 1:50 pm
Lakshmi says:
Back on LJ, I mean… You haven’t blogged or commented in a long while, have you?
August 25, 2004 — 1:53 pm