While caffeine can give you a quick adrenaline rush, enjoying coffee seems to be an experience worth slowing down for. Across the city, guided tastings and brewing workshops are drawing crowds who are loving the slow burn over the venti-sized chug on the go. We attended a session, the room thick with the smell of roasted beans, and moved through coffees from different estates: one cup bright and citrusy, another all nutty and chocolatey. Each brewed differently, the conversation flowing between technique, taste and the stories behind every sip.Making of a cupProcessing shapes the flavour. Arshdeep Singh, who hosts workshops at his city café Artsy- Coffee & Culture, explains: “There are processes like natural sun-dried, washed — where the fruit is separated from the bean in water — and honey sun-dried, a middle path where some fruit is left on during drying.” Honey-processed coffees, he adds, “are generally a little sweeter because the fruit reacts with the bean when it’s being dried.” The green bean then moves through cleaning or fermentation before the roaster tests it to find the best way to prepare that lot. As Shubham Ambre, head of coffee and quality control at Subko, puts it: “A lot of this knowledge isn’t immediately visible when you order a cup at a café.”‘Never knew coffee could be this diverse’With every sip came a new surprise – flavour, aroma, aftertaste – leaving attendees curious for the next cup. For self-professed coffee lover Suchi Dutta, it was a realisation: “I thought I knew about coffee, but I realised how ignorant I was about it,” adding that with instant coffee and chai dominating in India, such workshops are “an eye-opener.” Home brewer Abhranil Dhar said tasting four brews helped him rediscover coffee’s complexities. For Anwesha Pattnaik, it offered new vocabulary: “Now maybe I’ll be able to identify them.”For the love of a good sipping sessionPerhaps the most telling shift isn’t in what Kolkata is drinking, but in the questions being asked. Prateek Didwania, who conducts coffee workshops at his specialty cafe Yours Truly Coffee Roaster, says: “There is a noticeable shift from simply ordering a cappuccino or a cold coffee to asking questions about the origin, processing method and brewing technique.” Shubham sees this as part of a larger cultural shift — “A cupping session offers a glimpse into that complexity,” he says, turning coffee into a lesson in sensory awareness. Cupping also lets people compare coffees side by side and form their own palate, with Prateek noting drinkers are growing “more confident in saying, ‘This is what I like.’”
