Delhi gets its first roasterie-cum-cafe

If you're a lover of coffee, head to Blue Tokai, a roasterie-cum-cafe here. It aims to change the coffee roasterie culture in the country and give customers a chance to see the roasting process.

The customers can see the roasting and packaging process and can get an opportunity to participate in brewing and roasting workshops.

"A lot of roasters work in secrecy and are afraid to share information. Our roasterie strives to do just the opposite by getting our customers to engage with their coffee from the moment it's roasted," Blue Tokai co-founder Matt Chitharanjan told IANS.

With its name referring to the old Malabari term for the tail of a peacock, Blue Tokai sources its coffee from estates in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Stating the difference between instant coffee and roasted coffee, Chitharanjan said: "Instant coffee is just dried-up brewed coffee crystals which get dissolved in hot water. The process of drying brewed coffee into instant coffee and then back to drinkable coffee results in the loss of true coffee flavours and aromas."

"Instant coffee manufacturers try to make up for this loss by infusing aroma gases into dried crystals, but while the resulting cup smells a bit like real coffee, it never tastes as good as brewed coffee," he added.

The packaging of the coffee features different sketches by artists, reflecting art work of life at coffee farms.

"If you take a look at the artwork behind our bags, you see that each piece of art highlights either the bio-diversity or the daily nuance of life in a coffee estate," co-founder Namrata Asthana, who also happens to be Chitharanjan's wife, said.

Blue Tokai opened its roasterie in south Delhi just last month, and they also have a three-year-old outlet in the capital's suburb of Gurgaon. The couple ships the coffee all over the country and they even offer a home delivery service.

"While Delhi is our home, Mumbai and Bengaluru also have a large population of people eager for a better coffee experience. We ship our coffee all around the country and most of our customers, after Delhi, are based in these two cities," Chitharanjan said.