From Craft Gins To Nostalgic Containers, Indian Filter Coffee Is Everywhere, All At Once

The cat's out of the bag, folks. We knew it, and now the world knows it too: South Indian filter coffee is the best-rated coffee in the world according to TasteAtlas.

A distinctly homegrown brew with a storied origin dating back to a 16th-century Sufi pilgrim from the Deccan, filter coffee or 'kaapi' is the result of a brewing technique in which coffee is brewed with the use of a traditional South Indian coffee filter. This filter consists of two chambers — the upper one with a perforated bottom used to hold ground coffee, and the bottom one in which brewed coffee is slowly dripped. The result is a richly-flavoured, full-bodied coffee that is usually mixed with milk and sweetened with sugar to taste, traditionally served in a tumbler with an accompanying saucer together known as 'davara'.

"Filter coffee is now so closely intertwined with Indian culture that its absence for even a day in most households is out of the question," Meghna Matthew wrote for us in 2022. "Groceries may run out, but coffee? Never! It is an imperative piece of the culinary heritage of South India and continues to remain one of the many charms of the region."

Take your filter coffee obsession to the next level with these Homegrown products:

Inspired by the all-too-familiar Kaapi rituals of Udupi Darshinis, FILTR — a small-batch coffee martini from Stranger & Sons and Subko Coffee — takes a page from the bustling South Indian eateries where baristas serve up davaras of filter coffee brimming with rich flavours and aroma. With this inspired collaboration of craftsmanship, Stranger & Sons and Subko Coffee reimagines the much-loved Espresso Martini into something distinctly South Asian — a cocktail that honours tradition but speaks the language of contemporary mixology to produce a flavour profile that feels intentional yet effortless, all while being delightfully familiar to South Indians.

Read our take on this coffee-inspired cocktail here.

Who doesn't like coffee? Who doesn't like gin?

No Sleep — a coffee-infused craft gin from Nao Spirits, the makers of now de rigueur Greater Than and Hapusa — brings together two of the most popular beverages in India together, gin and coffee, as well as two innovative brands which are pioneers in their own right, Greater Than and Sleepy Owl. Their first collaboration formalises the seemingly inevitable marriage between coffee and alcohol.

The limited-edition expression of Greater Than does not use any sugar, coffee extracts, or artificial flavours. Instead, Nao Spirits infused their gin distillate with a smooth cold brew made by Sleepy Owl using 100 per cent Arabica beans from the Chikmagalur estate. The result? A concoction which is simultaneously bold, crisp, and fruity with notes of red berries and a smoky aftertaste.

For coffee enthusiasts, coffee isn’t only a beverage — it’s a lifestyle. Whether you like to make your coffee from whole beans or pre-ground blends, you'll want to keep your precious coffee safe in these colourful, nostalgic stainless steel containers from Davrah Coffee. When Homegrown covered this coffee dabba earlier this year, we called it "not merely a storage solution for your coffee grounds, it's a nod to our roots, a tangible reminder of the homes we grew up in".

Read our article about what makes these dabbas an instant classic here.

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