LIFE
My Grand Ma’s Welcome Drink
The Kattan Kappi
Childhood holds the best of memories, especially about food.
I am a coffee lover and I ingrained this habit from my sweet Grandma.
Granny welcomed each morning with her strong brew, The Kattan Kappi; the black coffee made from homegrown hand-pounded coffee beans. She would treat everyone who visited her home with her signature Kattan and some eatable, mostly pieces of boiled cassava with spicy green chili chutney 🌶️🧆.
If you ask me, I will say that the most sensuous fragrance one can ever experience is the smell of freshly brewed black coffee on a misty morning. It will instantly fill your senses and make you fall in love with yourself and life.
Breathe in coffee, breathe out ecstasy.
“The smell of coffee cooking was a reason for growing up because children were never allowed to have it and nothing haunted the nostrils all the way out to the barn as did the aroma of boiling coffee”
— Edna Lewis
I can very well relate to this feeling expressed by Edna Lewis, the renowned American Chef, Teacher, and Author in her book “The Taste Of Country Cooking”
Kattan is a brew made from freshly roasted powdered coffee beans. Since coffee plants are abundant in our region, this is our choicest homemade drink of all time. Ripe and sweet coffee beans are handpicked and sun-dried. The sun-dried beans are now dry-roasted, powdered, and sieved to make fresh aromatic coffee powder at home.
How to make Kattan Kappi :
☕2 tsp fresh coffee powder
☕4 cups of water
☕ 2 tsp sugar
Boil the water and add coffee powder and sugar.
As an alternative to sugar, one can use 2 to 3 teaspoons of powdered palm jaggery. Palm jaggery renders an earthy heady flavor, which is unique and refreshing. Sometimes, powdered peppercorns are added to enhance flavor and provide immunity against cough and the common cold. Boil the water, add the sugar and coffee, and simmer.
Kappi is a must with all breakfast items as well as in the evening along with a four o’clock nibble. A sip of it and you are back to work!!
Friends, please tell me something about your welcome drink.