Is coffee India’s new Garam-Chai..

India’s youth in suburbs belongs to that decade(s), when the white revolution was at its helm, and parents had decided to give their little ones the best education, without compromising on quality of life. As a result, the “bread-chai” breakfast was soon replaced by “bread-butter and milk”. So we all grew up watching Sachin Tendulkar hitting tones just by the virtue of sipping Boost. The system of parents sipping tea, and kids frowning at the glass of milk had strongly ingrained itself in the middle class homes. Juice was still for the elite. And, then a strong wind blew, bringing with it the fragrance of caffine, which was soon going to challenge the mother of all beverages, the Indian Chai. The youth never really got the chance to get their palettes addicted to tea. The college stalls were soon embracing vending machines, which oozed tea, soup, and coffee. Coffee could easily make itself sell more, considering it shared physical attributes, like colour and texture with cocoa. Cocoa had made itself indispensable in the generation, as their parents disposable income soared. So coffee was the new milk for the young. Parents opted for a cup of hot tea, and the young ones sipped on a cup of well foamed, milky and sweet coffee. Coffee was always there in South India, but that was filter coffee. Cappuccino was that decided to bury its ancestral versions and leafy drinks. The IT sector was booming, and with more and more habits of US and Europe illegally immigrating to the country, the taste buds were exposed to varieties of coffee. Since coffee didn’t require strainers or boilers, was neat, and not so Indian, IT companies parked vending machines all over to ensure the employees had enough caffeine in their veins to last them a week. One man’s loss is another’s gain. The quality of tea was fast deteriorating, and you found that outlets that served kadak chaiout of the pout with khari, were getting electronic vending machines that served freshly ground coffee, along with the much disliked dip-dip chai. Office hours had morphed from 9 - 5 to 9 to forever. More and more youth moved to IT hubs and weekends meant catching up with friends over a cup of coffee. Never heard anyone say, “Chai par milte hain”. Sounds more like a marriage proposal than anything else. Coffee has a different undertone altogether, with Rahul Bose dreaming of taking Sophie to bed, in Pyaar ke Side Affects flick. So while coffee culture was spreading fast, Café Coffee Day hooked the trend and booked the beverage as the affordable and the only hot beverage, fit for the youth drink. Till now, in mid 90s, coffee shops were always associated with glamour and business big-wigs. CCD with its affordable pricing and ambience, made itself available for the budding Indian population, who didn’t mind spending a couple of hundreds to spend some hours in the AC, chilling with friends. I remember my grandfather sipping countless cups of chai, discussing politics with his friends. They were the generation that had started their journey from Coffee House, Kolkata and settled at Red Label. I just spent my last weekend, at 3 different CCDs, each of them for a different reason, like using free wi-fi, meeting an old friend whom I can’t get home, if I want to stay peacefully with my landlady and lastly to finish my office assignment. I was just too lazy to do it at home. Cheers! I mean “Ccinos!”