Tag: Coffee

Some Of The Must Visit Cafes In India!


When you have lived In a city like Mumbai for a long time and have had the opportunity to enjoy some of the best Yum food in the city and also get equally good food at home, It
becomes difficult to find food that tastes just as good in the city or town you travel for vacation or Work.
While travelling around the country, there have been some amazing cafes for Food, Coffee or The View and occasionally all three elements.
Here are some of them I have visited and recommend

Goa: The La Plage Cafe in Goa.
The beach view is amazing, The Coffee is good too and the seafood options are Yum.
Babka in Anjuna has the best Eclairs, Coffee and Pasta.

Kolkata: The Roastery House location, The White & Yellow colours on the walls Definitely make you feel you are in Kolkata the cold brew options In coffee and the Baked fish in mustard is amazing!

Bengaluru: Araku’s Orange Cold Brew and the savoury Waffles have been two of the best things from the cafe. The Roastery within the cafe, The Mod Bar Espresso machines, and the Coffee table Books at the cafe does not make you get enough of the cafe.

Lavonee Cafe’sAcademy has been the Foundation for many patisseries and Pastry chefs in the city and in India and no wonder the Cafe Gets the Bake and the coffee right! The breakfast menu has been one of the most beautifully presented and filled with Taste and texture in the Bengaluru city.

Conoor: The Culinarium cafe en route to Ooty has one of the most breathtaking views. The coffee option, The Bakes( Lemon Cake) was one of the perfect ones I have had not too sweet or not too sour.
The pizzas were amazing too!

Dharamshala:
Moonspeak Deli Cafe – A tiny cafe near the main market is a hidden gem!
The coffee Ricotta Cake has been one of the most delicious Tea-cakes I have ever had!
The coffee was also well-balanced and the Ham and Bacon sandwich was very good too!
The Cliffs In Palampur is a cute little cafe that’s like a cottage in the woods, with a small corner filled with books.
The Marble Cake, Filter Coffee, and Mutton Kheema Dosa were the highlight of our meal

The Other Space: There wasn’t any other space like this one in Dharamshala!
The day we visited this space, we witnessed Hail and Rain from the balcony of the cafe while sipping our Coffee and enjoying Spaghetti at this cafe.
You just can’t miss this for the view!

Varanasi:
Vatika – A cafe Overlooking the Ghats of Varanasi and you are enjoying the most delicious pizza, you could not imagine you could get here! For desserts, you must have Apple Pie with Ice Cream and try their Saffron Milk and Paan Stuffed With Rose Petal Milk.

The Roastery Tour -Blue Tokai

Having been a home brewer for years, and enjoying a good cup of coffee daily!

The Roastery tour was fascinating.

The effort, that goes into the brew of a single cup of coffee is huge, and within a few sips/Slurps, we have our verdict of liking or disliking the coffee.

The tour began with all those interested in assembling in a room and introduction of themselves, and what interested them about coffee and the tour.

We then moved to the storage room, where 1000 Kg gunny bags of green coffee beans were stored.

Each bag had a variety of green coffee beans which is sorted manually for good, bad and damaged beans.

They are then collected into a storage box before they go into roasting.

Each day 180 Kgs of green coffee beans are sorted manually at the Roastery.

There are a couple of green coffee varieties. They are Natural, Washed, Honey Processed (Red/Yellow) Malabar, and anaerobic fermentation.

Each of these beans have their own texture and size.

Natural: They are the natural ones. No Water or machines used to remove the coffee beans

Washed: They get washed away by water and then dried.

Malabar: A variety that’s popular in India. Is salt-panned coffee beans.

Honey Processed: A Process where coffee beans are de-pulped and dried without being washed. The golden sticky substance that remains is something like honey, which is why it’s known as honey processed.

Anaerobic fermentation: This is when the coffee cherries are locked into an airtight fermentation tank after being harvested, to stop any Carbon -dioxide from escaping.

The second room was the roasting room. 

The green coffee beans that has to be roasted are thrown into a hopper then a roasting profile is set ,that the roasters thinks  is the most appropriate for the coffee beans and then the coffee is roasted into the roaster. There are three drums within the roaster. 

And the coffee once roasted is flushed out in a section and spun over a few minutes where it cools down, before it can be taken into production for the cafés brewing, for cafe retailing, for E-Commerce purchases and other outlets that source beans from the Roastery. 

The packaging is done within minutes and ready to be sent all over.

The beans Preferably should be consumed within a month from the date it has been roasted to enjoy the flavour profile and taste of the coffee.

Post our Tour we also tried the coffees at the Roastery.

We brewed the pour over method and tried the drip bags too.

Oh! Please note before the Roastery brews a large batch of coffee, they have a portable roasting machine, that they use to sample beans.

The Roastery has to choose coffee from about 800 odd samples from which they choose about 40 odd samples they would produce under their Roastery.

Hampiness – An adventure in the waiting!

Virupaksha Temple

A journey that had been on the bucket list for the last few years.

And having explored India from the north and west.

South had a been little unexplored and was waiting to be explored.

Hampi is a city full of temples that have references not just mythology ( Ramayan) Hanuman’s Birthplace. But, also with Shiva- A single monolith statue that’s one of the most visited sights of the city. To the Dynasties battles Kilji, Chanayaka and later the British coming to existence.

No Wonder a city filled with so much history and mythology feels like one place with many world heritage references that the The Ministry of Tourism, on 29th September, declared Karnataka’s iconic destination as the Best Tourism Village of India-2023.

Hampi was selected one among the 795 applications received from 31 states and UTs.

Some bits of Hampi feel like you are in Macchi- Picchu to some feel like you are in Greece. While some truly belong to India.

The city has many world heritage sites.Think your ₹50 currency and you will observe the chariot stone. Hampi is also referred to as India’s Rome with so many ruins and history to the sights.

The historians at Hampi, also mentioned to explore the whole of Hampi that has 80 monuments worth exploring would take you an ideal 45 days here! So much history!

And if you would like to travel to Hampi some of the most important sites are Vitthala temple, that’s full of interpretations of history and the home to the stone Chariot. To the Virupaksha temple an active temple that has rituals performed daily including feeding of elephants as an experience of lifetime.

Elephant Stables a monument that was built for the kings elephant many centuries ago is another site worth visiting.

At times Hampi makes you believe you are In Stonehenge with the rocks here beautifully placed naturally or makes you believe you are In Grand Canyon with trekking around on rocks that are placed with boulders for support.

The sunset and sunrise view points of the city, give you an overview of the lush green landscapes covered with sugarcane’s and Banana plantations.

With so much to offer for history & nature buffs.Hampi still has the rawness and beauty of India.

Hampi is still not considered a tourist destination, with only one flight to Mumbai! And limited advertising for tourism in Hampi.

Stay: Evolve Back Resort

Did You Know?

Karnataka once served as the capital of one of the largest kingdoms of India the Vijayanagara Empire around the 1500 AD. And during that time it was known to be one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world.

The Virupaksha temple dates back to 7th-century, which makes it one of the oldest functional temple in the country is dedicated to Virupaksha, an incarnation of Lord Shiva, built with a pillared hall, three.

One of the must things to do before you leave the temple take blessings from Lakshmi elephant

The pillars in the Vittahla temple would also be used as musical instruments by the locals. Each pillar would have a different sound and rhythm.

Elephant Stables
Vitthala temple

Reading and Being a Reader!!

It’s always exciting to start with a new hobby! The moment you begin something, You are hungry to know everything about it. The Rules, The loopholes, the prize, the strength, the weakness, the opportunity that lies and the threats you face in continuing your hobby.

And then there comes a point, in persuading your hobby, where you don’t enjoy it anymore and you start thinking about how time flew by all these years.

Reading was an accidental hobby, I came across right when I turned 18.

It was only after reading a couple of books, that I realised what I enjoy reading and explored more on those genres and topics.

When I was looking to read more newer topics and stories, I came across the prestigious award that have been recognising talent.

While reading about all the books, that had been awarded or had been nominated.

I picked up a book. I genuinely loved the way it was written and narrated.

After that moment, I waited every year for the announcement to read more of these nominated and award-winning books. This I did for about a couple of years, and then moved to some of the other prominent awards and so on…

Then I realised, these book awards were representing a certain style of writing, and storytelling and were very depressive and emotional.

Also either, they wanted to reach a new audience or wanted to market a newer country, when they awarded books to a writer belonging to that region or country.

These book awards were also biased towards authors from certain countries and not equal to the rest who had equally good writing talent.

The book awards, too were very inclined and favouring genres that represent political views, Race, Gender and a cultural movement, which they believe were more important than voicing one’s story.

Similarly same goes for Academy awards… That is considered a landmark of success!

They too seem to have similar criteria, since these awards are reviewed and judged by selective jury members, who believe are the only voice that matters in making decisions.

There have been films and books that have been better than the ones that have been nominated or awarded but are given little importance too.

It was a couple of years ago when I decided to move past these book awards and read books for the stories, they want to tell and to my surprise, there are so many stories in each country in the world, that are worth reading and investing your time into, than to read books that have either been awarded or read by certain nationalities.

Now, looking to read my next book, I either visit the local bookstore in the cities or go through the most-read books in the country and read the synopsis and see what I would like to read next.