Coffee mornings
The early 1990s, summer holidays meant staying at a beautiful Boston suburb with my Maasi and her family. She used to brew a pot of an aromatic fresh coffee everyday. Occasionally we would drive to a local Dunkin Donuts for a quick takeaway. A trip to Montreal and Quebec with my cousins was an eye opener, so many cafes! The brewed aromas of these coffees have stayed with me through my adult life. Who knew that coffee could have an emotional effect?
1995, Starbucks had opened coffee kiosks all over Boston. I have this vivid memory of picking my sister from Logan and driving to Starbucks to try the newly introduced Frappuccinos! The icy, sweet milkshake barely had any coffee, but the excitement was real! Moving to Los Angeles shortly after, the local Coffee Bean on San Vicente and Bundy was walking distance from my apartment. Now that I had some disposable income, getting a cup of coffee with friends seemed like a well deserved luxury. New York city had so much to offer in terms of food and drink, that coffee took a back seat.
Hyderabad, ISB was my first introduction to filter coffee. I was hooked! The early 2000s in India, we were now spoilt for choice. Coffee Bean, CCD to name a few and of course Starbucks.
My coffee journeys have extended from Nescafe's at the club house in Mandwa (where one can see Bombay's skyline on a clear day, ten nautical miles), filter coffee from the YMCA at Veppery in Chennai, innumerable Starbucks and CCDs at Nariman Point and Colaba, at friends houses and now my own home in Bangalore. The emotion has stayed the same all these years. Excitement, a sense of calm and realization that everything is going to be all right.