How to prepare Degree Coffee

South Indian Coffee, also known as Filter Coffee is a sweet milky coffee made from dark roasted coffee beans (70%-80%) and chicory (20%-30%), especially popular in the southern states of Karnataka,Andra,Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Indian coffee is generally not black coffee and is made using milk instead of water. Coffee is something of a cultural icon in Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. It is customary to offer a cup of coffee to any visitor. Coffee was originally introduced by Baba Buda to South India in 16th century and became very popular under the British Rule. Until the middle of the 20th century traditional households would not use granulated sugar but used jaggery or honey, instead in coffee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_filter_coffee

Not a day starts without the filter coffee for every South Indian. Early in the morning, waking up to the aroma of the freshly made thick decoction blended with thick milk always makes the day a very fine one.
In USA , my combination of coffee powder is: (1:1:1)
 Brookband coffee powder                                 - 450gm
Narasus or any other brand coffee powder            - 450gm
Columbia coffee powder (medium)                       -1 pound


Mix well all above coffee powders and store it in an airtight container.


Ingredients

Depending on your tastes and the size of your filter, you can modify the following . 

Coffee powder             3tsp

Farm fresh cow milk    3/4 cup

Hot water                    – ½ cup

Sugar –                           1 tsp (as an overdose will kill the essence of the coffee)

Coffee filter

Methods/steps

• Place the coffee powder in the upper compartment of the filter and gently tap it down and place the plunger on top of the powder. Do not push the plunger down in a manner that gives no breathing space for the coffee. Jokes apart, do not pack up the powder tight.
•  Boil the water vigorously, by this I mean the water should bubble up and boil with a lot of vigor, before it is considered good enough for the filter.
• Now pour the boiling water into the upper compartment and wait.
• As the decoction is percolating, boil the milk. (on low flame so that it takes just as much time as the decoction takes to percolate)
•  Within 10-15 minutes, percolation should be complete. Add the decoction to the freshly boiled milk along with sugar.
• In true madras style, pour the coffee back and forth between the dabara and tumbler, topping it off with a rich layer of froth. Enjoy!!!

Indian Filter Coffee

Few interesting Madras filters coffee notations:

Degree coffee - Coffee made with degree milk (pure milk as per the lactometer) and degree decoction (first degree - freshly percolated and the strongest).

Meter coffee - Coffee poured into the dabara from (I am not sure of this fact though) the height of one meter, to create the froth without lowering the temperature of the coffee.

Tips: 

• You can make the decoction and use it when you need within a few hours.
• Make the decoction thicker by adding more coffee powder or by reducing the water you add.The taste and thickness will depend on the quality of coffee powder, the amount of chicory used in coffee powder, the freshness of the coffee powder, the quality of the milk etc. So experiment with these till you get your desired taste.

Enjoy your filter drip coffee