How Tea-Loving India Has Embraced Coffee
Coffee, once considered the drink of the elite, the tortured artist, or the night owl, is now found in the hands of most Gen Z, millennials, and even the occasional boomer
“I prefer medium or light roasts, usually bought from Devan’s.”
“I use ground coffee to brew my coffee and prefer dark roast press!”
“I prefer the dark roast coffee with chocolate notes. For that, I loved the Legend Coffee from Vietnam but since that stash is gone, I’m buying it from Blue Tokai.”
“No machine - I like manual brewing so usually pour over or French press.”
These are just a handful of responses from my chats. I’d quizzed people on their coffee choices. As many people; as many responses. The variety, eagerness, and detail of the responses paint a clear picture - tea leaves are no longer the only things floating in India’s cup.
Slowly, but surely, coffee’s distinctive aroma has seeped into Indian houses, offices, roadside eateries, markets, and malls. Coffee, once considered the drink of the elite, the tortured artist, or the night owl, is now found in the hands of most Gen Z, millennials, and even the occasional boomer. The South may still dominate in its love for coffee, especially “filter kaapi”, but the rest of India is fast playing catch up.
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Of course, it’s going to take a lot to replace the love, nostalgia, and borderline addiction that Indians have for tea… but coffee is making all the right waves.
As T-shirt slogans would remind you, a majority of the working population today can’t function until they’ve had their morning cup of coffee. That explains the rise in domestic coffee consumption - from 84,000 tonnes in 2012 to 91,000 tonnes in 2023, as per the Ministry of Commerce & India.
And that’s not the only indicator of a growing love for coffee.
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As of December 2024, chain store Starbucks had 457 stores in India. Launched in India in 2012, the Starbucks-Tata Consumers Product joint venture aims to more than double the number in the next 4 years and reach 1000 stores by fiscal year 2028.
Starbucks has its eyes set on tier-2 and tier-3 cities for expansion. Its vision clearly reflects India’s current reality - coffee is not going to remain restricted to the urban population. Yes, at present, urban areas consume 4x more coffee than rural areas in terms of per capita consumption. But a change is coming.
Shantanu Deshpande, founder of The Bombay Shaving Company, accurately predicted in his podcast (The BarberShop with Shantanu) that coffee is one of the five industries poised to go big as disposable income of India’s burgeoning middle-class expands.
When Café Coffee Day proclaimed “a lot can happen over coffee”, it had the mammoth task of setting up coffee stores nationwide, nudging things into action. Today, from international chains to regional favorites, there has been a surge of chain and specialty coffee stores across India.
Subko, from Mumbai, has already expanded to Delhi and Bangalore. Both, Blue Tokai (at ~90 stores currently) and Third Wave (at 100+ stores currently), have plans to expand as well. And so do Canada’s Tim Horton’s and the UK’s Pret A Manger.
The consumers of all these stores have or at least claim to have, a slightly more discerning palette. Not every consumer might ask for a special roast and milk type. But consumers have compared a tall Americano at every brand and picked the go-to spot for their daily caffeine fixation.
Does this mean that a small cup of coffee, priced between ₹200-300 on average, is now affordable luxury? Yes and no. Because the biggest growth in coffee consumption does not come from these stores, alone. It’s a lot more ‘instant’.
The West has long considered coffee a daily stable. But in India, it originally took on the status of a luxury item - especially coffee at a shop. It was an accompaniment to “important” business meetings, or even a date item!
Most households were comfortable sprinkling the Nescafé instant mix in tall glasses of milk and sugar and labeling it cold coffee. Over the last few years, the household coffee brands may have changed. But the practice continued.
Today, Sleepy Owl’s mid-range cold brews have found a spot next to the half-cut lemon in the great Indian kitchen’s fridge. Davidoff’s curvaceous and expensive bottle snugly rests next to the spice rack. As do special roasts, from India’s coffee spots or internationally sourced stashes.
Coffee machines, from the trusty Nespresso to the elaborate French Press, can be easily spotted on the kitchen counters as well. As per the report, Coffee consumption trends in India, 2023, by Coffee Board of India, “close to 65% of total (domestic) consumption is instant coffee. This is mainly due to affordability and hassle-free making associated with instant coffee.”
As Kartigya, 32, a daily coffee consumer mentioned, “Nescafé Classic Instant powder coffee is still my go-to. They don’t even have a roast level on the bottle. But mix it in a blender and you’re good!”