With the rise of cafes, college students and youth could gather to
drink coffee and spend time together...More recently international
coffee giant Starbucks has made its grand enterance into India.
table next to the daily
newspaper.
After the initial breakthrough by CCD, it was not
long before their competitors
began popping up. Barista-Lavazza, Costa Coffee, Coffee
Bean & Tea Leaf, and Gloria
Jeans have all found a place in
the modern coffee culture of
India. More recently, international coffee giant Starbucks
has made its grand entrance
into India, quickly opening up
many cafes in most of the
major cities around India.
Today, go to just about any
college, shopping mall, or
trendy area of an Indian city,
and you will find a variety of
coffee shops not far away.
Coffee has become the drink
of the youth and the modernizing middle class. Students
flock to drink coffee -still
drowning in milk, sugar, and
artificial flavors- while listening to upbeat music and socializing away from the prying
eyes of mom and dad.
While most coffee drinkers
still prefer to drink something
other than straight black
coffee or espresso, the appreciation for quality and craftsmanship is growing among
both the producers and the
consumers. Starbucks, and the
fashionable image it displays,
is one of the leading forces
behind this shift. High quality
coffee is seen as trendy and
modern by the young middle
class. The increase in economic development and international investment has created
an India with more disposable
income than any other time
in its history. Coffee culture
and appreciation has grown,
as people are willing and able
to spend more money on
non-essentials. As the demand
for western practices and
culture grows in India, so does
the appreciation for good
coffee.
For a very long time, coffee
plantations in India were
focused on quantity over
alex dyer