South Indian filter coffee 

The South Indian filter coffee is a speciality coffee drink made in parts of South India. It’s made by adding coffee decoction extracted from a mixture of coffee blends (such as Plantation A and Peaberry with added chicory for reducing bitterness) with boiled milk and sugar. This mixture is then poured vigorously from a tumbler into a davarah and back again into the tumbler. This process creates a froth, cools down the coffee just enough to sip, and dissolve the sugar evenly.

The decoction for South Indian filter coffee is extracted from a traditional Indian coffee filter. The ground coffee powder is first pressed into the upper compartment of the coffee filter with a perforated bottom and pressed compactly. Piping hot water is gently poured on top of the pressed coffee power. The hot water percolates through the compacted coffee powder and the decoction

The south Indian filter coffee is not just a drink!

If you are wondering what’s the fuss about the south Indian filter coffee, you will be surprised at the lengths people go to make sure they have a great cup of filter coffee first thing in the morning.

The history of filter coffee in South India

Until the end of the 19th century, the practice of drinking coffee or tea was absent in India.

The book titled “In Those days There Was No Coffee – Writings In Cultural History“ by AR Venkatachalapathy from the Madras Institute of Development Studies, has interesting insights about the proliferation of coffee drinking habits in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu.