An Ode To Coffee!

 

I have always declared myself as a coffee-lover. For me, it is the panacea of all evils, this delicious hot-drink called coffee. It is the thing that I look forward to most in the morning. It instantly brightens up my mood, and turns a bad day into an adventurous one. Somedays it is the only reason to wake up!

It all began somewhere in my teens, when I started preparing coffee for my father, who is another coffee-holic. Every time he told me to prepare coffee, I would end up preparing much more than what he wanted. So I would drink the extra coffee. And thus began my love affair with this divine beverage.

Be it summer, rainy or winter season, I never could say 'No thanks' to coffee. In the noon of the scorching summer, I drank coffee. In the gloom of the rainy evening, I drank it. In the chilly misty morning of winter, I devoured it! I loved it with a passion. The aroma of the decoction prepared for filter coffee, the colour (somewhat a golden brown), and the kick, oh the kick! The stronger the coffee, the happier it made me! 

I always inched more towards filter coffee. I still am partial to it. It is all the more special because of my grandma. She would roast coffee beans in the morning, grind them finely and use them to prepare the decoction. The aroma of roasted coffee beans cannot be described in words. Almost half of the people in my building would come to know that it was coffee-powder-making day in my house.

After my grandma passed away, I started purchasing coffee powder from a South-Indian store. I would wait outside and chit-chat with the kind shop-owner while his assistant would grind the roasted coffee beans. The aroma brought in sweet memories of my grandma. (Come to think of it, it has been a while since I smelled this!) While I waited, the shop-owner would show me the new books arrived in the week and I would purchase copies of my favourite Twinkle and Gokulam (a delightful book for children that was very popular in those days; I am not sure whether it is still in circulation.) Of all the tasks I did, this was my favourite, purchasing coffee powder from this particular shop because it combined two of my loves - coffee and books! 

No offence, but CCD pales in comparison to this. To be honest, I have visited a few branches of CCD. And I hasten to clarify that I have found the coffee here to be absolutely delicious. Be it Cappuccino, Mochachillo, frappe or any of the numerous delicacies that CCD offers, I have loved each and every one of them. But for some reason, the simple filter coffee touches the heart like nothing else. Maybe because it has many special memories associated with it. 

The best place to have coffee is obviously the south of India. Tamil Nadu takes the cream when it comes to coffee. It is something else when taken there. It becomes an unforgettable sensory experience, having coffee in the South. I am yet to find out what makes south-Indian coffee so delicious. Is it the air? The soil? The people for whom coffee is the elixir of life, who make it a point to drink it at night before going to sleep, who serve ‘unlimited’ coffees at weddings and functions and who literally worship this divine beverage? I am baffled!

Life went on, with five or more cups of coffee in a day.

Until one day, I took in some tea that was left-over after all my family members had it. For reasons unknown to me, I added some pepper powder and sugar in it. (Okay, truth - some pepper powder and lots of sugar!). And it felt - right. Not good, not delicious, but somehow it felt right. 

Also, the constant knee pain demanded that I take in some calcium every day. So the second cup of coffee in the morning and in the evening was gradually replaced by Horlicks.  From five cups in a day, my coffee intake reduced to just two.

Now, as on date, I just have two cups of coffee in a day. It feels unbelievable, it feels sad. But somehow, the health constraints replaced the cravings for coffee.

But this had made my bond with coffee stronger. The first coffee of the day has become all the more precious now. I savour the moment; I treasure the moment when I drink coffee in the morning. It has become the most anticipated moment of the day. I spend over ten minutes on the same, and these ten minutes are my personal mini-session of Spa For My Soul. The second cup of coffee in the evening is a mood-booster. It drives away the blues that evenings typically bring. A cup of coffee, a good book in hand and I am lost in my own mini paradise!

Dear Coffee, don’t worry! Even though I have drastically reduced my intake, I still want to be known as a Coffee-holic and as a Coffee-Lover. And no matter how many beverages I drink, you will always be special!