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A new culture is brewing

With their music, crowd and ambience, coffee houses are hardly about coffee any more

CATCHING UP With friends over a cup of coffee Photo: K. Ananthan

Walk into a new-age coffee shop and you will almost relive your college days. The roundtable of backslapping college goers has entered its second hour and the voice of the leggy Mariah Carey gets drowned in their cackles and squeals. A forlorn one sneaks out to send up a spiral of smoke and the dating couples inside never seem to tire of holding hands. Meanwhile, a few not so young ones are struggling hard not to see anything they should not be seeing. Amidst all this enters coffee in a fanciful style that would make conventional coffee drinkers cringe.

From the roadside kaapi kadai, of steaming filter coffee and steel tumblers, to the bustle of the coffee houses, chipped porcelain cups and debates on Cuba and Communism, to the surreptitiously lit, synthetic coffee shops, of creamy cappuccino, latte, and kaapi nirvana, coffee and coffee joints are at yet another turning point.

Coffee shops have always revelled in their cerebral aura, be it the 17{+t}{+h} century English coffee houses synonymous with literary and political gossip where aspiring and established writers read out verses and allowed them to be torn apart, or our own desi ones where cinema, art, music and politics came alive.

Coffee shops today are grappling with their new identity. Cafe Coffee Day, Barista, Java Green and the like are the haunt of cool dudes and gals, who are here to chill out.

Coffee has never been so much about waiting and dating and coffee shops are hardly about coffee anymore.

"Coffee shops are a complete package and about the experience they sell," says 26-year-old Vipin Madhavan, who works in an MNC.

"It is not about the coffee alone but about the ambience, the music, the service and the people," he adds.

For those still going through the rigours of college, where life is still about rules and restrictions and projects and presentations, coffee shops spell the freedom "to be ourselves."

"It is the place to hang out after a tiring day at college," says MBA student Anand Saluja.

"The people here are mostly our generation," he adds. Apart from the banter, the gossip and the "checking-out", "serious talk" too does take place at times. Lest you should think it is about Chomsky or even Chetan Bhagat, rest assured. "Sometimes we discuss our project here and walk out with new ideas," says Saluja.

Software professional Anoop, who'd rather have his coffee from the vending machine, sees coffee hubs as "transit points" where you can meet up with friends if you enjoy the music, the theme and the colours.

"I don't particularly enjoy being there and tend to get fidgety after 15 minutes," he says.

In a lighter vein they all add that this is the place to be if you have to treat your girl without splurging and be away from prying eyes.

For thoughts profound

Though believed to cater to the young, families and businessmen too walk in to "reminisce" over a cup of coffee. For professionals and businessmen, it is quick discussion over coffee and croissants.

"In a way, it is better than a club, which is exclusive by nature. If you want to haggle over something, it can be here," says 37-year-old businessman Rajesh Govindarajulu. In a restaurant, coffee is gulped in five minutes, he says, while at a coffee shop, "it is about sitting down as long as you want" and soaking in the atmosphere.

He would rather the youngsters spend late nights here "more purposefully" than over `hard' drinks.

"Though seniors may look upon coffee shops as an invasion, they will reconcile to it in course of time,' says Rajesh.

No big deal

"My parents think it is not worth spending so much on a cup of coffee," says Lavanya, a student, who swears by the exotic Devils Own — a blend of coffee, cream and chocolate — but believes there is no replacement to her mother's decoction.

But at a time when IT and a booming economy have rewritten the rules of the game, spending Rs. 50 on a cup of coffee is no big deal. "I would say the price is relatively high, but not prohibitively so," says Anoop.

Waiters at these shops vouch that in spite of the bustle, there are regulars who never go beyond the cappuccino and just sit reading novels, one after the other.

But with more coffee joints and bookstores sharing space of late, the brew, books and book talk may be in again.

But for those who have spent time in the musty, old coffee houses, coffee will never be the same again!

ANIMA BALAKRISHNAN

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