Coffee Lovers Magazine | Page 30

Coffee first came to India in 1670, smuggled out of Yemen and into southern India by the Muslim Saint Baba Budan. He planted his stolen merchandise in the hills of south India known as the Western Ghats not far from Bangalore, the current Information Technology hub of India. For centuries coffee was a drink of the upper-class society of India and was not widely consumed by the growing population. The British controlled India for several hundred years and their palates were much more indian coffee culture concerned with the quality of the tea being produced than the coffee. But coffee was still grown and its popularity spread among the south Indian states. Coffee drinkers in India began flavoring their coffee with heaps of milk and sugar, and even today that remains the trend. But, as the disposable income of the middle class began to rise, so did the interest in the “café culture” which had spread across Europe and the U.S. The historic Indian Coffee House was one of the first companies to capitalize on the rapid expansion of coffee popularity. They opened their first store in the 1950s, serving small cups of coffee, again, loaded with milk and sugar, for very low prices, along with traditional Indian snacks. But it wasn’t until the 1990s and the opening of the first Café Coffee Day (CCD) outlet that the café culture had truly secured a foothold in India. With the rise of cafes, college students and youth could gather to drink coffee and spend time together. Instant coffee grew into much more of a staple in homes and gained a place at the breakfast