psychoactive addictive stimulant of choice – filter kaapi

I love coffee. I am addicted to coffee. On a normal day, i drink upwards of 5 steaming cups. But do not misunderstand me. I am not one of those people – who frequents cafes* and believes that if one goes to a cafe often enough and orders every type of coffee on the menu, one will eventually find a favourite.

Remember Joe Fox’s line from You’ve got mail?

The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.

Being born into a tamil brahmin family in Kochi, South India, this “defining” choice was made for me at birth and I probably started drinking south indian filter kaapi at the age of 2 or 3. Thats right folks, i was hooked to a psychoactive stimulant drug at a very, very young age. It probably explain a lot……. anyway……..

I was very surprised recently, when friends in kerala didn’t know what a coffee filter was! For, in my family, making kaapi is a day-to-day ritual**. (Especially with my grandmum who gets really offended if you walk into the house around 4 in the afternoon and dont go straight to the kitchen looking for your kaapi).

It is my personal opinion that if there is a heaven, its probably coffee brown in colour, smells like freshly roasted and ground coffee. And everyone only drinks filter kaapi, of course.

(Singing the beatles tune – Kaapi in the Sky with Murukku).

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* – Yes, I do visit coffee houses and cafes, but never for their coffee. (I’m sorry – not a fan of ridiculously expensive but equally ridiculously insipid coffee). I always go for the company. Never for the coffee. NEVER.

**-Recipe for Perfection:
We buy freshly roasted and ground coffee poweder (with ZERO percent chickory – i HATE chickory) and prepare decoction using a filter. The filter is usually made of stainless steel and looks like this (these are my grandmum’s):

The scientist in me is itching to explain the workings of this apparatus, so here goes:
The coffee powder (around 3 spoons full) is added to the upper perforated cup of the filter apparatus (which rests on the lower cup). The plunger is places on it gently and then boiling water is added over it. The whole setup is allowed to stand while the piping hot water percolates – slowly and solely by the action of gravity – through the coffee powder. The decoction collects in the bottom cup in about 20 minutes. The decoction is mixed with milk and sugar.
Result – Heaven in a Cup.

Filed under: coffee, kerala, my li'l life