South Indian Filter
Two steel cups, a slow drip, a lot of milk.
South India’s everyday coffee: fine coffee, often cut with chicory, dripped slowly through a perforated steel cup. At 1:6 the decoction is far stronger than a filter cup brewed to drink black (1:15–1:17), because hot milk finishes it.
- Ratio
- 1:6
- Grind
- fine
- Temp
- 93°C
- Dose
- 25 g
- Water
- 150 g
- Time
- 15 min
- Difficulty
- easy-ish
You'll need
- South Indian filter
- kettle (any)
- scale
- stove, for the milk
- tumbler & dabarah
Steps
- Load the top. 25g fine coffee (a chicory blend is usual) into the upper cup. Shake it level and rest the press disc on it. Press gently if at all: packed hard, it barely drips.
- Pour. 150g water just off the boil, over the disc, which keeps the grounds from floating up. Lid on.
- The drip. Leave it alone. The decoction drips through the holes into the lower cup for about 10–15 minutes: time enough to heat the milk.
- Milk & froth. Mix 1 part decoction with 2–4 parts hot milk, sugar to taste. Pour it between tumbler and dabarah from a height, back and forth, until it froths.
Neat, the decoction is thick, dark and bitter; chicory adds body and an earthy edge. With hot milk and sugar it turns heavy, smooth and sweet, with a roasted, caramel note. A cup for mornings, not for inspecting origins.