The cuppa grows stronger

CAFFEINEITES: SLURP it up from yet another cuppa now. If you thought it was tough for coffee to go down well with `Friends' or `Crorepati', you might for a change, just opt to watch sasujis, bahujis and babujis at the newly-opened Delhi based Barista Espresso Bar that religiously screens `Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi'.

No kidding here. Chennaiites have actually been doing that! Hanging out for a cuppa is no longer just a `Friends' do, it's also becoming a celebration of the great Indian `parivaar', an outlet for bonding, socialising with other `parivaars' of the city as well.

Every coffee joint in the city, thus, is catering to a different kind of a crowd, and is only increasing the base of retail coffee-drinkers in the process.

``Barista aims at growing the market for Espresso Bars along with the other players, promoting a lively and friendly neighbourhood atmosphere where people can get together and experience the joy of coffee,'' is the brief from Ravi S. Deol, President and CEO of Barista. No mention of youth there. And hence not really competition for Qwikys.

``This whole new category of retail coffee is just starting up. And hence, more the players, the better. Three (Qwiky's, Cafe Coffee Day and now Barista) in this case, is not a crowd. There have to be more players, and then, the fittest will consolidate. And only after that, will there be competition,'' says Sashi Chimala, CEO, Qwiky's.

If Qwiky's has a profile that is more American, oozing youthful attitude, ``more of Bob Dylan and rock'', the new comer to the city Barista has a crowd profile across the age-groups.

The TV there dishes out the desi soap opera, but the music playing in the background is phoren. To add to the `variety', there's a guitar you could pick up and play, or a `Times of India' to browse, or simply play Pictionary or Scrabble. That's how diverse the Barista crowd is, in a way, largely North-Indian fare.

Cafe Coffee Day, on the other hand is just being a desi coffee joint, the Indian cafe with mass-appeal and stylish interiors, more or less in the league of Barista. You can order your coffee from your table, catch visuals of MTV or Channel V0 playing on TV and listen to mass-based International music.

Variety-wise, Barista might just have a edge over the other players, offering a decent range of coffee (they even have decaf for the caffeine conscious) and varieties of tea apart from sandwiches.

For now Retail coffee is going places across the country. Cafe Coffee Day came to Chennai from Bangalore, Barista came from Delhi and now Chennai's own Qwikys has opened shop in Delhi (the official launch being this weekend) with the rave reviews from the media there.

Even as all this happens, in a quiet ambience off Greenways Road, some caffeine-romantics continue to have a warm sip of quality coffee at Coffee far away from the hustle-bustle of the city.

Yet another niche of coffee-drinkers. Drinking yet another cuppa.

By Sudhish Kamath

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Section  : Southern States
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