Kumbakonam Filter Coffee

The Rich Heritage of Kumbakonam Filter Filter Coffee


Coffee is something of a cultural icon in Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is customary to offer a cup of coffee to any visitor. Coffee was originally introduced by Baba Budan to South India in 17th century and became very popular under the British Rule. Until the middle of the 20th century traditional households would not use granulated sugar but used jaggery or honey, instead in coffee.

South Indian Kumbakonam Filter Coffee, also known as Filter Coffee is a sweet milky coffee made from dark roasted coffee beans (70%-80%) and chicory (20%-30%), especially popular in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh. The most commonly used coffee beans are Arabica and Robusta grown in the hills of Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris District, Yercaud and Kodaikanal), Karnataka (Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan), and Kerala (Malabar region). Outside India, a coffee drink prepared using a filter may be known as Filter Coffee or as Drip Coffee as the water passes through the grounds solely by gravity and not under pressure or in longer-term contact.

Kumbakonam Filter Coffee is brewed with a metal device that resembles two cylindrical cups, one of which has a pierced bottom that nests into the top of the "tumbler" cup, leaving ample room underneath to receive the brewed coffee. The upper cup has two removable parts: a pierced pressing disc with a central stem handle, and a covering lid. (A similar device is used to brew Vietnamese coffee.)

The upper cup is loaded with fresh ground coffee mixed with chicory (~2 tablespoons of mixture per serving). The grounds are gently compressed with the stemmed disc into a uniform layer across the cup's pierced bottom. With the press disc left in place, the upper cup is nested into the top of the tumbler and boiling water is poured inside. The lid is placed on top, and the device is left to slowly drip the brewed coffee into the bottom. The chicory sort of holds on to the hot water a little longer, letting the water extract more flavour from the coffee powder. The brew is generally stronger than western "drip style" coffee.

Traditional Kumbakonam-style Dabarah (or) Davarah and tumbler placed with the open end facing down as customary. The resulting brew is very potent, and is traditionally consumed by adding 1–2 tablespoons to a cup of boiling milk with the preferred amount of sugar. The coffee is drunk from the tumbler (although a word of English origin, it seems to be the most commonly used name for this vessel), but is often cooled first with a dabarah - "dabarah" (also pronounced in some regions as 'davarah'): a wide metal saucer with lipped walls. Coffee is typically served after pouring back and forth between the dabarah and the tumbler in huge arc-like motions of the hand. This serves several purposes: mixing the ingredients (including sugar) thoroughly; cooling the hot coffee down to a sipping temperature; and most importantly, aerating the mix without introducing extra water (such as with a steam wand used for frothing cappucinos). An anecdote related to the distance between the pouring and receiving cup leads to the coffee's another name "Meter Coffee".

• A term often heard for high-quality coffee is Filter coffee. Milk certified as pure with a lactometer was called degree milk owing to a mistaken association with the thermometer. Coffee prepared with degree milk became known as degree coffee.
• Another explanation for Filter coffee is that chicory beans were used to make the coffee. The South Indian pronunciation of chickory became chigory then digory and finally degree.
• Yet another explanation is that, when coffee is decocted for the first time, it is called as the first degree or simply as the "Degree Coffee". This has the strongest flavour and the necessary strength to mix with milk without watering down the taste. In less affluent households, in earlier days, coffee was decocted for a second or third time from the same initial load; this became the second degree coffee and naturally, is not as strong. Affluent households drank first degree or the famous "Degree Coffee" only.
• Interestingly, there is a Kannada name for coffee "Boondh Bisneeru". "Bisneeru" sounds a great deal like "bisi neeru," or "hot water," thus leading to speculation that the terms are connected. Although not used currently, this was used by ladies two generations ago. The Srilankan Tamil name for coffee is "Kottai Vadineer".