South Indian Filter Coffee
Coffee dripped slowly through a two-part steel filter, mixed with hot milk and poured between two vessels until it froths.
Photograph credit: A cup of frothy south Indian filter coffee by Ajith R N · CC0 1.0 · Wordpress
Don't Make These Mistakes
Never press the disc down.
Milk steaming, not boiled.
Four pulls from a height for the froth.
Making South Indian Filter Coffee
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Put the ground coffee in the upper chamber of a steel filter and level it.
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Set the perforated disc on top and press it gently — gently — into place.
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Pour 60 ml of the boiling water over the disc and leave 1 minute to bloom.
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Pour the remaining boiling water in, cover, and leave to drip for 15 minutes.
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Do not press the disc down. When dripping stops, you have the decoction.
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Heat the milk until it is steaming but not boiling.
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Put 2 tsp of decoction and 1 tsp of sugar in each tumbler.
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Pour the hot milk in and stir until the sugar dissolves.
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Pour the coffee from the tumbler into the davara and back again from a height, 4 times, until it froths.
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Serve immediately in the tumbler, sitting in the davara.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Why It Works
The pouring between tumbler and davara is not showmanship. It aerates the coffee, cools it to drinking temperature and builds the foam that a good kaapi is judged on — three or four pulls from a good height is right. The decoction itself must drip, not be pressed: pushing the disc down hard extracts bitterness and produces a thin, harsh cup.
Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping
The decoction keeps 2 days refrigerated. Make the coffee to order.
What to Serve Alongside
- Medu vada
- Mysore pak
- The morning newspaper
Still Wondering?
How long does South Indian Filter Coffee take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking, plus 15 minutes of standing, so allow 35 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 2.
South Indian Filter Coffee Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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