On Coffee

My first day in the office, I discovered the only way to make coffee is with one of the automatic machines in every breakout room. It seemed like a reasonable, though not ideal, alternative to our individual brews and espresso machines in Mountain View. I pressed 'espresso' and out came... a full cup of half milk, half coffee with lots of sugar. I thought it was a mistake, so I put this cup aside and tried again, careful to press only the button that was clearly marked 'espresso,' and got an identical concoction. I was embarassed to be causing this much waste, but at this point was even more determined to get my single shot of espresso. I dumped the first two cups of sweet milky coffee and tried a third time, only to see the exact same liquid sputtering into my cup. I gave up, and asked some people sitting around the breakroom if the machine was broken. Even more embarassed now, I learned that espresso in India does not equal espresso in the US. Espresso is coffee with milk and sugar. My mistake.

However, last weekend in Mumbai, I visited Barista, a hip coffee shop chain that rivals Cafe Coffee Day. [The two companies seem to take their competition to a new level of immaturity-- if one of the two already exists on a particular city block somewhere in India, its counterpart wastes no time in building a new franchise next door.] On the menu, I looked for espresso and saw their explanation, which explained that unlike normal Indian espresso, Barista espresso is served without milk. Finally! And only three weeks into my life in India. My espresso arrived in a neat little shot glass-- free of milk and sugar as promised. I sipped it as we watched the sun go down on the beach. A lovely end to the weekend.