It's Coffee Time: A Quiet Revolution Brews In City
News Paper – The Times of India, Bangalore
Published on - November 29, 2000
Author - Allen J. Mendonca
BANGALORE: Amalgamated Bean Coffee has just opened its tenth up-market Cafe Coffee Day in Bangalore; Raj Madnani's Java City with two outlets is set to multiply in geometric progression and big time coffee producer Tata Coffee is studying the Indian market to start its own version of a coffee bar in the new millennium in Bangalore and other metros.
Roasted, freshly-ground coffee beans, the aroma wafting gently across the street. That was the image of Bangalore and its steel tumblers of filter coffee.
That seemed to fade away in the hurly-burly of the Boom Town of the 70s. Now in the age of the cybercafe and Starbuck interludes in the smallness of the global village, Bangalore is witnessing a quiet coffee revolution.
From the plantations of Kodagu, South America and Africa, coffee beans are finding their way to the city to whet the connoisseur's appetite in a string of coffee bars.
Amalgamated Bean Coffee. founded the country's first cybercafé- Cafe Coffee Day on the up-market Brigade Road a couple of years ago and introduced the hip set to the pleasures of Macchiato, Cappuccino, Cafe Latte and Caffe Mocha. Now people of all ages step in to order a big cuppa of Colombian Juan Valdez rich well-balanced coffee with the clear flavour notes of fruits; Ethiopian Qahwah, delightfully flavoured and aromatic with mysterious dark chocolate notes; or Kenyan Safari with its bright and unmistakable notes of blueberry.
Tata Coffee vice-president Harish Bijoor, just arrived from Paris and its sidewalk cafes, "There's a new coffee culture brewing. The demand for coffee vending machines is growing across the country.
Three of the biggest players in branded coffee- Tata Coffee, Nestle and Hindustan Lever have installed over 500 vending machines in Bangalore and are slated to have over 10,000 machines across the country by December.
Says Madnani: "Coffee Bars, a part of American culture are becoming de rigeur from London to Bejing, Dubai to Bangalore, Singapore to Sydney. Youngsters who thought coffee was for the conformist kind now look at the cuppa with a new wisdom."
