But on to the subject of this post - my refuge when I want a good and relatively inexpensive cup of coffee is India's answer to Starbucks - Cafe Coffee Day. There are three Cafe Coffee Days in Trivandrum - the one I frequent is in Kowdiar, an upmarket part of town, the other two are at the Technopark (a high tech, high security "campus" with several major American and other foreign companies) in the Ginger Hotel there and a newly opened branch in a hotel near the Medical College (not quite sure what the impetus was to put one there as it isn't a particularly posh part of town).
You can get an equally good cup of coffee at the fancy Chesterfield Lounge at the Muthoot Plaza Hotel (and not so far from the city centre) but it'll cost you at least twice as much. And at the Muthoot you'll be served by a rather sombre staff of aproned young men instead of the delightful Sujithra, pictured below, who now knows my order without even asking and also has learned that there is no need to bring me sugar to add to my coffee!
So who else goes to Cafe Coffee Day besides us expats craving espresso? The young and affluent and Indians from elsewhere in India. You can see the type of young people I mean in the photo below - I've cut off their faces just in case they aren't a couple and showing them would incur some parental wrath :). They are fashionably dressed although the girl is still wearing "traditional clothes" and he boldly has his arm around her (I've often wondered why it is that women almost always continue to wear traditional clothing long after most of the men have transitioned to wearing shirts and trousers or even jeans - surely uncomfortable in Kerala's climate). He is wearing a wedding ring but I don't think he is married - it's probably just a fashion statement. You can see the expensive cell phone on the table in front of them. And these young people rarely drink black coffee/cappucinos like their older foreign and local counterparts. Much like kids at home they drink the horrendously expensive cold smoothie drinks (most of which don't feature any coffee at all).
So what are the prices? A black coffee (which is what I have) - which is basically an Americano, there is no filter coffee made here, it is all espresso based, is 37 rupees or about 5 times the price of a Nescafe from a cheap teashop or 3 times the price of a filter coffee (which still isn't a patch on the filter coffee I had in Chennai, Tamil Nadu) in one of Trivandrum's upper middle class family vegetarian restaurants. The stuff the kids drink - the smoothies - are about 77 rupees. As much as some rural people in India might make in a day - if they were lucky. Frightening.
I usually go once a week for coffee but that may stop soon as I am going to receive a Melitta cone and filters from someone arriving from England on Monday and may start having coffee every day in the comfort of my room. But I'll probably go and visit Sujithra anyway just for fun.
