What is brewing in India?
Around International Coffee Day, coffee is taking centre stage, evolving into a culture of craft, choice and personal taste
Not very long ago, a “coffee kit” in most Indian homes meant a jar of instant granules and a spoon. Today, it is as likely to mean a hand grinder, a pour-over dripper, a digital scale and a shelf of single-origin beans from Coorg. Morning coffee has become something people make for themselves — measured, timed and adjusted until it tastes the way they want it to. The shift didn’t happen overnight. Third-wave cafés that opened across Indian cities over the last decade first taught a generation to tell a washed process from a natural one, an Arabica from a Robusta — building the palate before anyone thought to recreate it at home. What has sustained the habit is infrastructure that didn’t exist a decade ago. Direct-to-consumer roasters now ship freshly roasted, traceable beans from Karnataka’s and Kerala’s coffee belts straight to a customer’s door — cutting out the old route where India’s best coffee went abroad while its own drinkers made do with the rest. Grinders and drippers once bought on trips to Europe are now sold by Indian brands at Indian prices. And Instagram reels are turning brewing technique into something anyone can watch, copy and improve on. The good in this goes beyond caffeine. For the first time, it is ordinary Indian drinkers, not only foreign buyers, who are deciding what good Indian coffee should taste like — a shift that rewards growers for quality rather than volume. It has also made coffee personal rather than prescribed: a home brewer tunes grind, ratio and roast to their own palate in a way no instant sachet, and few café orders, ever allowed. Small roasters, subscription boxes and equipment makers have grown around it, turning a private ritual into a domestic industry.
The shift has also given rise to the home barista and the growing culture of dedicated coffee corners. As Abhinav Mathur, Founder of Something’s Brewing, puts it, the home barista is no longer a niche hobbyist. Consumers are creating curated coffee spaces at home, choosing their machines, grinders, cups, shelves and beans with the same intentionality they bring to a home office or wine rack. These spaces are becoming personal expressions of taste and lifestyle, turning coffee from a daily beverage into a craft and a form of identity. India isn’t trading tea for coffee. Chai remains deeply rooted, but coffee is gaining a national identity as a drink of choice and craft. India isn’t switching cups; it is simply learning to brew its own.
“Home brewing is becoming a deeply personal and experimental experience. People explore different origins, adjust grind sizes and water temperatures, and discover how brewing methods can transform the same coffee. They begin sourcing micro-lots, following roasters and developing their palate. This sense of ownership turns a daily habit into a rewarding craft.”
- Abhinav Mathur, Founder & MD, Something’s Brewing