Foods of South India: Madras Filter Coffee, or Kaapi

I recently moved to India and have decided to go back to my blogging roots and write about food, at least until the novelty of South Indian cuisine wears off. Enjoy!




Madras filter coffee, also called kaapi, is a small cup of coffee with hot milk, and usually some chicory, served in two nested stainless steel cups. One cup looks like it's meant to catch the drips, but as with pulled tea, you actually pour the coffee between the two cups to aerate, mix, and cool it.

Any time of day, you can see people drinking kaapi from sidewalk vendors in little white paper cups that only hold maybe four ounces at a time.

Madras filter coffee is strong in coffee flavor but not a dark roast (roasting dark dissipates the caffeine level) and mad sweet. You can ask for "sugar separate" to sweeten it to taste, or add some water to adjust the strength. Most importantly, you always wait until the end of a meal to order coffee, even at breakfast.