How To Make South Indian Filter Coffee And A Product Review of Tsakafi

Every Indian household wakes up to a cup of tea or coffee in the mornings. Most of the people in India are so much used to their cup of tea or filter coffee that if they do not have it as their first drink early morning, their day does not go well. I myself grew up to having a cup of tea 2 times a day.

Method of making tea varies from one house to another. Some people boil water first, add tea leaves and then add sugar and milk whereas some people first boil milk and add tea leaves directly to it. Some people even add ginger, cardamom and spices to make a refreshing masala tea. In short they all cook tea in different ways.

In Assam, tea is served without milk and sugar. They call it Tsa. Lime or honey or sugar comes only if requested. In Ladakh, they add lard and salt. They also call it Tsa, but it tastes like soup. In London, people add a spot of milk to their cup of tea or have it plain.

Boiling tea with milk tastes great, but there are no health benefits. All the antioxidants get lost by “cooking” tea.Brewing tea is the best way to reap all the health benefits of it. Have you ever brewed your tea? In Goa, we make “futi” or “khuti cha” meaning tea to which milk is not added. This brewed tea without milk or black tea is very good for health as it is rich in antioxidants and accelerates metabolism. Same is the reason why I love having green tea everyday. I will be coming up with a separate post on Tsakafi green tea soon.

In many South Indian homes, people brew coffee early morning. I remember a colleague telling me, that her father in law gets up early morning and brews filter coffee every day. She wakes up to the smell of filter coffee. Today I will be sharing with you all, the method of preparing filter coffee. Believe me, filter coffee tastes much better than instant coffee.

I received some samples of Tsakafi Tea and Coffee for review. “Tsa” means tea and “Kafi” means coffee. Their idea is to spread awareness on brewing tea and coffee and reaping maximum health benefits from these.

I received the following samples of tea:

Green Tea – I loved this tea. It is packed with medicinal properties. Rather than using sachets of tea which are loaded with preservatives for a long shelf life, I prefer to brew and drink this tea. This is ideal even for losing weight and promotes health.

Jasmine Leaf Tea – This is one of the best tea. Just brew it by adding few leaves in the infuser and add it to hot water. Drink it after 2 or 3 minutes. The divine smell of jasmine spells a magic. Ideal to serve along with a Chinese meal.

White Tea – Considered as the Kohinoor of teas. Simply seep it and have it without milk. The used leaves can be reused for eye pads to relieve stress.

Nilgiris Leaf Tea – The best leaf tea from the Western Ghats. Tastes best without milk.

Chamomile Leaf Tea – Another sophisticated stuff. Very refreshing when had without milk.

Nilgiris CTC Tea – CTC means cut, twist and twirl. You can add milk and sugar to this. Ideal for making your favorite masala chai.

Assam CTC Tea – Tastes best when had with milk and sugar. This is also ideal to make ginger tea or cardamom tea.

Darjeeling Tea – Known as Champagne of teas. Tastes best without milk.

I also received the following coffee sampless:

Organic Coffee – This has 70 % coffee and 30% chicory. This coffee is ideal for making the traditional South Indian Coffee.

Afficianado (coffee) – This is light, flavourful and aromatic. Tastes best without milk.

KITB – KITB means Kick in the Butt. This coffee is strong. Extremely strong. It contains a blend of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans. This coffee is ideal to make cappuccino, latte or even cold coffees where you make it with milk.

They also sent a filter coffee stainless steel filter, plastic filter and steel filter for brewing tea. I really loved these filters. Brewing green tea directly is much healthier than brewing it from sachets. I would prefer using the metal infuser for hot teas and the plastic infuser for cold teas like ice teas.

The South Indian coffee filter looks like the following. It has a filter in the upper container where you add coffee, an umbrella like cover for the filter over which you add hot water and a lower container where the decoction gets collected.

You can purchase all these products, teas, coffees and infusers from their website – www.tsakafi.com They also have an android app from which you can make your purchases. The tea and coffee products have a shelf life of 6 months as they are chemical and preservative free. Just store it as mentioned in air-tight containers. The tea and coffee products do come in resealable pouches.

Now let me to the recipe to make the famous South Indian filter coffee. This is what I learnt from my South Indian friends and neighbours.

2 tablespoon filter coffee powder (I used Tsakafi filter coffee)
½ cup water
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar

Procedure:
1) Add coffee powder to the filter in which coffee will be made in the upper container.
2) Add hot boiled water in the upper container above the coffee powder and close the lid of the filter.
3) The coffee decoction will seep in the lower container. This will take around 15 to 20 Minutes.
4) In a cup, add 1 cup of boiled warm milk and to this add 2 tablespoon of the decoction or as needed. Add sugar and stir.

Note: If you need strong coffee, add more decoction.