Tea Persons and Coffee Persons

Last week I was waiting for my daughter near her friend’s house around 6 pm. The second test match between Sri Lanka and England was on TV. The friend’s grandmother saw me listening to the commentary and invited me inside the house to watch the match. I very gladly accepted her invitation. Then she asked, … “Are you Sri Lankan?” I answered, … “certainly”. Then she asked in Sinhala, … “ලංකාවෙන් ගෙනාපු කෝපි තියෙනව. බොමුද ටිකක්? (There is some coffee brought from Sri Lanka. Would you like to have some?).  It was within few seconds into our conversation that I accepted another invitation from her very gleefully. She went inside the house and brought me a steaming cup of black coffee. Its aroma and taste reminded me my beloved mother.

My mother used to make her own coffee powder. She had planted few coffee bushes in our back garden. She picked coffee berries when they were ripe and then sun dried for few days before taking the shells off. Then she stored the dried and split berries in a jar and took batch by batch for roasting. She roasted the coffee in an old frying pan heated on a firewood stove and then powdered it using a stone mortar and pestle. The coarse powder was kept in an air tight glass jar. It was sufficient for about a month. Around the time of sunset she prepared black coffee and served with pieces of juggary. The taste was very unique and divine. Even if they come as a team, Gloria Jeans and Costa could have never beaten the taste of her coffee.

We Sri Lankans are generally tea drinkers, not coffee drinkers. We are famous for producing the best tea in the world and selling under the famous national brand “Ceylon Tea”. We fondly say that ‘any time is tea time in Sri Lanka’. That means coffee is a drink for only special times. My mother’s special time was around sunset. Weddings and homecoming receptions are some others special times for serving coffee in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan version of iced coffee is usually the choice of welcome drink in such occasions. When I moved to Middle East I found that Arabs also use coffee as a welcome drink. Arabic coffee is bitter and spicy tasting for me. I have not got used to Arabic Coffee yet.

Coffee drinking is deeply rooted as part of the culture in some other Asian countries. Laotians are very proud of Lao coffee. They use coffee as a gift as we Sri Lankans use tea as a gift. The Vietnamese use coffee as an interface to socialize with friends and guests. Drinking coffee is part of the everyday life in Vietnam. Probably there is no other culture in Asia that use coffee for leisure, gossip, romance, business, entertainment and just simple conversation as the Vietnamese do. There are a large variety of coffee shops to suit different times, moods and purposes. The architecture and ambience of coffee shops also vary accordingly. They range from chaotic street cafes to very romantic venues with cozy and intimate ambiences. 

The Vietnamese coffee belongs to the Robusta family of coffees. Drinking the traditional Vietnamese drip coffee is an experience itself. It is a perfect aide for conversation. While the hot brewing coffee drips drop by to the cups or glasses partly filled with condensed milk, the conversation can go on and on. It takes quite some time for the dripping to stop. Then you have to thoroughly mix the coffee with sweetened condensed milk to produce that uniquely Vietnamese taste.  You can either enjoy it as a hot drink or pour over ice to turn it into a cold drink. The blended and stylized coffees like Cappuccino, Americano, Latte, and Mocha in upmarket coffee shops are no way comparable with that heavenly taste. 

Every time I visit Vietnam I make sure that I drink at least one cup of drip coffee per day.  I was first introduced to its wonderful aroma and flavor by my good old friend Nguyen Nam Son. Later some architect friends like Hai and Thong accompanied me to several coffee shops in Saigon and Hanoi cities. Those places gave me a complete sensory experience of sights, sounds, aromas, flavors and feelings in a variety of architectural ambiances. I brought with me the necessary equipment and coffee powder to emulate Vietnamese drip coffee but never succeeded in doing so. You have to taste a cup made by a Vietnamese girl and enjoy it in a Vietnamese coffee shop to experience that wonderful sensory experience. When I visit Ho Chi Minh City, I really like to sit in the Highland Coffee shop located in the top floor of a shopping center and observe people in the little garden in front of the Saigon Opera House. How wonderfully well the sight of classical architecture and taste of traditional coffee flavor blend together. 

Coffee drinking is becoming a lifestyle trend in some Asian countries. Thailand got into that trend several years ago. Very cozy little coffee shops have sprung up in many cities and towns. The Amazon Coffee chain is one of my favorites on the go. I guess Amazon Coffee is a franchise now. No two Amazon shops are similar in architecture but all of them have a common architectural language. They are mostly located in the travel service stations. The transparency of the shop core and the openness of the sitting area and the landscape design of the surrounding encourage travellers to come in and relax while sipping coffee. I dream of owning a place like that one day.

If that dream comes true, I will serve the Sri Lankan versions of black hot coffee and iced coffee.

Sri Lankan style Iced Coffee

Ingredients

1 small can sweetened condensed milk

3 tbsp freshly roasted Sri Lankan coffee powder

1.5 tbsp white sugar

1.5 liter boiled water

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp brandy

Method

Pour condensed milk into a jug and pour half the quantity of boiled water into it. Stir it to form the milk solution.

Put coffee powder in another jug and pour the remaining quantity of boiled water. Stir well and keep it covered for 2-3 minutes.

Mix the above two solutions and add sugar, vanilla and brandy and stir well.

Strain the mixture twice using a fine cloth or a coffee filter and then refrigerate it.

Serve without ice in cold glasses. 

(All the pictures in this post were obtained from internet. I thank the unknown owners of those pictures.)