Even though Kolkata is known to be a tea drinking city, with numerous tea stalls in every neighbourhood and a cup costing less than Rs 5, the citizens don’t fall behind when it comes to enjoying a cup of coffee. These tea stalls are numerous with adda among the residents in a neighbourhood. The adda or meeting session starts from early morning and goes on till late night even. However, little do people know that the average Kolkatan loves his coffee as much as he loves his tea. Coffee is not as easily available as tea in the city. There are very few shanties that sell coffee in the city. Moreover, the shanties that do, sell the instant varieties manufactured by Bru and Nescafe. You cannot find a cup of Mocha or Espresso coffee at these places.
Coffee has always been a drink for the elite in most parts of India. In the early 1900s, the famous coffee joints in the city were the Indian Coffee House on Chittaranjan Avenue and Bankim Chatterjee Street, an offshoot of College Street. Flurys, the famous bakery in Park Street, also serves a good cup of coffee and so does Kwality, again in Park Street.
Café Coffee Day and Barista were the two coffee chains that took a quality cup to different neighbourhoods. You can find different brews of coffee in these joins- Espresso, Cappuccino, Mocha, Latte etc. They use beans that have been procured from different parts of the world to prepare a brew. These brands have outlets in every locality in the city and they have taken the common man in Kolkata closer to a hot cup. Along with coffee, they sell other drinks like milk shakes, sodas and lemonades. Small bites like sandwiches and cakes are available.
Café Coffee Day, for example, sells tins of coffee to customers as well. You can buy ground coffee or beans from them. The coffee is packed in tins of 100g, 250g and 500g even. They cost anything between Rs 100 and Rs 200.
Patisseries have come up in the city that offers good food along with a good cup of coffee. The Paris Café, Rouge, Mrs. Magpie and Wise Owl are some of the new joints that have opened up in the city and they serve a good cup of coffee along with delectable confectionaries like waffles, crepes, cup-cakes and coffee cakes. A mean for two will cost you around Rs 500.
Kolkata is a city with refined taste among citizens and good food will always attract them. You too can start your own coffee shop in a corner of the city. It might appear to be a big investment to make. You can cut it a little short by buying second hand crushers and grinders for coffee beans and espresso machines. Many coffee shops want to get rid of older equipment and they sell it off at a reasonable price. You can pick up equipment from there for your Restaurants & Coffee Shops. You can find sellers of such equipment by logging on to free online classifieds.
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