Brew me silly!

The one true-blue craze I have had from childhood was for coffee and tea.

A South Indian family meant a flow of filter kaapi every morning(and The Hindu paper, of course). Visits to families also resulted in coffee. Even as a child, I used to glug down strong coffees of every kind.

Amma is an expert at making elakkai chai(cardamom chai)- my friends going silly over it always and finding excuses to come home for it. My friends used to tease me for the copious amounts of coffee-tea I drink saying "Sandhya drinks and bathes with the same mugs"!

Having had my share of various Sri Lankan teas (thanks to a friend's father who was a tea taster there), and my own visits to hill stations resulting in experiments of chocolate tea and various masala chais, I was a reasonable chai taster myself.

However it was Lalu's chai at NID that made me an addict to the brew. Not that it was great. It was passable. But you drank chai for Lalu- the affable chai wala at 'chai gate' who had a plate of bhajiyas and bina-adrak-waali chai ready for me. Atleast seven cups a day, apart from maybe an occasional cup from Kaka's, was my routine.

There was also Chiraag coffee- a must a day. I was such a regular that the staff recognized me and assumed my order for a cuppa, soon as I entered. I saw the prices escalate from Rs.10 to Rs.40 in my three and a half years there! There were occasional visits to Natrani and Zen Cafe for better coffees according to cravings.

Having a best friend who was equally crazy about everything coffee and chai only made my weakness worse. We drank everything from black coffee to Nido-powdered milk-chais in the room. The constant sound of kettle boiling is what I'll always remember from our days in the hostel.

I made coffee friends everywhere I went. There were hours of coffee talk and bonding over tea as well.  The Arabic coffee I had at Dubai, the chai near Kalpesh's, the coffee that a friend Siddharth Tripathi made, the cinnamon coffee Aparna Rajagopalan used to make every once we went home- there are unforgettable tales associated with every cup and sip.

Today I had a Turkish coffee at Azulia. A strong black coffee brew. Despite the fact that I'd have liked a lot less sugar, the coffee tasted wonderful. Chef Ethem sweetly let us smell the coffee. I cannot express how wonderful it was!

The Madaras Kafe coffee and the Coffeetales coffee are two other coffees I have recently thrilled over. There is thyme tea lying in my house, waiting to be tried- I am still gulping down Wagh Bakri Chai that I bought from Amdavad.

I may not find many things I am searching for in life- like true love, endless travels and contentment amongst others- but I sure hope there is always a cup of coffee around. If not, then tea!

Please lord, 'Amen' to that!

PIC: (from top to bottom) Coffee from The Madaras Kafe, Coffeetales, Azulia. Below: Lalu's chai at Chai Gate