This is more like a blog than a recipe. There are several nuances you need to know before you can succeed in making that perfect cuppa! Almost like an instruction manual with many do's and dont's!
Every Tamil Brahmin household swears by coffee. Making filter coffee is an art and it has to be mastered or you will end up with a 'sora vellam' (watery mess) which is a blasphemy. Meaning your coffee will not be thick and thus it will become 'inedible'!
Coffee, boiling water, sugar (optional) and freshly boiled milk* are the only ingredients required to perk your day. (*If the milk is reboiled, the coffee does not taste the same.)
Coffee beans used to be roasted to the right degree of brownish black and ground at homes. My cousin sister's (Leena Balsubramaniam) mother-in-law, (late) Mrs. Jayalakshmi used to do it until recently! But now, we use coffee powders from various brands like Coffee day, Cotha's and even Bru 'roast and ground'.
Please do not use instant coffee to put decoction.
Coffee grinder
Image source: Google images
There are two heroes while making filter coffee. One is the obvious - coffee powder. Coffee powder can be either pure or can have Chicory. The amount of chicory in your coffee powder affects the taste. Here in India, we use either Plantation coffee or Peabury coffee. This is roasted and ground and a certain percentage of chicory is added to it. The ratio starts from 60:40 (60% coffee to 40% chicory) to 90:10. The more chicory, the thicker the decoction and also lesser cost. At home, we prefer pure Plantation coffee without any Chicory.
The other hero of filter coffee is a special apparatus - the coffee filter. Typically made with brass, now it is available in stainless steel. It comes in various sizes - from holding 1 tbsp to much more. Mine can hold 3 tbsp of Coffee powder and that makes around 2 1/2 cups of coffee.
If you notice that the holes through which the coffee decoction falls is getting clogged, hold this vessel over fire with tongs. This will expand the metal and you can easily remove the coffee grains embedded. You might have to use a pin to poke out the more persistent ones! But usually a mild thumping of the heated vessel, does the trick.
Always keep the container having coffee powder tightly closed to prevent it from losing it's aroma.
Roasted Coffee can be ground in two ways - either coarsely or finely. Once you buy your coffee powder - feel it, to see if it is very powdery or has slightly bigger granules.
Finely ground
Coarsely ground
After placing the coffee powder on the top container, it must be pressed down.
If your coffee powder is too finely ground and you press down hard, the water will not be able to seep down.
If your coffee powder is coarsely ground and you don't press down enough, the water will just flow down without extracting the full coffee flavor.
So it is a balancing act. You will know the force to be applied to press down the powder only through trial and error.
Use a spoon like the one shown below to press down the powder in the top container. Usually when you buy coffee filters, an apparatus which looks like 'an umbrella hit hard by the wind' is available. But I find it useless. I prefer this bent spoon!
The water to be used has to be rolling boiling. Use filter water.
Now pour the BOILING water over the pressed coffee powder.....not from a height, but from a minimum height...pour slowly...along the edges and try to not pour at the same point; or else a small 'kuzhi' (depression) will form and then the coffee decoction will not fall evenly.
If your coffee is coarsely ground, and the decoction falls quickly and has almost no flavor, then you can try this trick. Use a wide spatula to ease the flow of the boiling water over the coffee powder.
Now cover the top container with the lid and wait for the decoction to accumulate in the bottom one. Typically this takes around 7 - 10 minutes.
Do not attempt to open the lid or the top compartment without tongs or a thick cloth.
Once the decoction falls, use this to make the most aromatic coffee; either with milk (yes!) or with hot water (why??). Do not keep the decoction open, as it will lose it's aroma. Keep it covered always. And never heat the decoction.
This picture explains very well, what I have tried to explain with one mistake. We NEVER add coffee to boiling milk, but the other way round. Always add boiling milk to decoction.
And NEVER BOIL prepared coffee. Place in a vessel having hot water, if you must.. but don't boil!
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| #7 is WRONG |
We have special vessels for our coffee - tumblers and davarai.
We never drink from glass containers / mugs / paper cups. Always from a pair of tumbler and davarai!
Preparation of coffee:
Boil milk.
Add sugar to Tumbler (glass).
Pour required decoction on top of sugar. (Cover the extra decoction in the filter.)
Pour the boiling milk over the sugar + decoction.
Make a froth by pouring the coffee simultaneously between the davarai and tumbler. This also helps in mixing the sugar. The more the distance between the tumbler and davarai, the more the froth.
Now find a nice place to sit. Relax...
And enjoy the best coffee of the world!
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