Apart from restaurants and the mushrooming hangout joints, the city’s most talked about coffee place has been The Roastery. Brainchild of Nishant Sinha, a barista and promising roaster, the star at his place is the coffee — not the usual frappuccinos and lattes. Here, choice of coffee varies from pour-overs to cold brews. The Roastery is different from the usual coffee shops in many ways; what makes it stand out is the roastery machine and the fact that the coffee beans are roasted at the venue ensuring its freshness when the cuppa is prepared.
Explaining his choice of a coffee roasting machine above the normal coffee vending machine, Nishant says, “This is the third wave of the coffee industry. This wave is all about freshness, roasting and brewing under one roof. The first wave was what introduced us to instant coffee and the second wave was the time of brewing coffee at the coffee shop.”
But why roast when you can get coffee powder, right? Roaster and barista Nishant says roasting the coffee gives one the authority to play with the flavours. “Roast it the way you want; light to light medium to dark. Depending on the roast, the drink will vary. This also allows coffee lovers to taste and enjoy a range of coffees," says Nishant.
In the countless number of visits to The Roastery, what I have personally gained is better knowledge of coffee, learnt the art of coffee appreciation and also methods of brewing. The alcove is the only outlet on Hyderabad that offers single-origin coffee to coffee aficionados. What makes this coffee place a must visit is the fact that one see coffee roasting, understand the process and identify the first crack in the beans while being roasted. “A number of coffee roasting machines are available. I chose to go for an assembled Indian machine that costs about ₹10 lakhs because it will help us to handle the wear and tear of the machine or mechanical glitches if any at a later point,” says Nishant.
But it wasn’t without a long wait that this roaster got to show off its beauty. After having waited for about five months the news of the arrival of Nishant’s machine reached its regular coffee drinkers who made a beeline to see this LPG operated gigantic beauty just like the way friends and family comes visiting to see a newborn kid.
