Top 10 Best Coffee Brands in India 2021 (Starbucks, Blue Tokai, and more)

Every coffee lover has a go-to brand. While some prefer time-tested grocery store available stock, others go for boutique brands and café chains that roast small batches to ensure freshness. The coffee world is vast and varied, so how do you choose a brand that will give you the perfect cup? Listed below is a breakdown of important factors to consider before investing in a coffee brand.

Coffee beans have a long journey to cover, from being a seed to a plant and a fresh coffee bean. A whole bean coffee (where beans are not grounded to powder form) keeps its freshness and flavour longer than a ground coffee. A coffee's taste and aroma come from the oil coating on the whole bean, but once the bean is ground up, those essential oils begin evaporating, and the bean starts to age rapidly.

If you cherish the freshest cup of coffee to beat your Monday morning blues, whole beans are the answer. Grinding your beans to make a coffee that best suits your taste gives the ultimate satisfaction. However, the only downside of using whole bean coffee is the process of cleaning your burr grinder.

Using a pre-ground coffee (beans that have been ground down to powder form) saves a lot of time and mental energy if you're an on-the-go coffee drinker. It also takes away the risk of brewing a bitter or sour coffee, which is much more in making a whole bean coffee.

Just scoop coffee ground as per your preference into the filter, load your coffee maker, and it's done. Picking ground coffee is also beneficial because of the range of options available on store shelves.

Coffees come with different tags as they are roasted differently depending upon the brewing equipment. Espresso and filter coffee are two main types of coffees you'll find in the market and the one you pick depends on your preferred brewing method. Espresso has fine ground beans and is brewed with high temperature and pressurised water.

Filter coffee has coarser ground beans and is brewed for a longer time at a lower temperature. For a filter coffee, you need basic equipment, like a dripper, filter paper, and a cup whereas a full-blown espresso machine requires various tools, like naked or spouted portafilters, shower screens, portafilter baskets, etc.

This makes filter coffee a more cost-effective choice than investing in an espresso machine. However, espresso is quick to make and consume, whereas preparing a filter coffee is a time-consuming process as the water is not pushed through the coffee grounds, instead, it runs through solely because of gravity.

If you're a daily coffee drinker, you would look for smoothness and a taste with no off-flavours in a coffee brand. To get that, the beans should be neither under-roasted nor charred. Different roasters use distinct methods and the length of time the beans are roasted to determine the taste, colour, strength, and oiliness.

Light roast coffees are roasted at lowest temperature so that it retains most of the original coffee bean's characteristics. Since the beans are roasted for a shorter time, they have higher caffeine content and a strong taste. This also does not allow the oils to break through the surface of beans.

Light roast coffee is light brown, and its taste has been least affected by the roasting process. People don't generally like light roast coffee because it can taste citrus, floral, and not necessarily balanced (meaning unequal amounts of acidity, fruitiness, and body). If you like to gulp down a strong cup of coffee early in the morning so that it keeps you awake throughout the day, a light roast is for you.

Striking a perfect balance between bitterness and acidity, medium roast is the best-flavoured coffee out there. The coffee has a strong flavour while it maintains a non-oily surface. These beans also have a fair amount of their original flavour.

The medium roast beans have begun caramelisation but don't have any burnt or chocolaty darkness to them. They have a sweet caramel flavour that's most well-liked among people. You'll find a combination of perfectly balanced coffee with lots of possible flavours, including berry, fruit, sour, and citrus.

Dark roast coffee is roasted for the longest time at the highest temperature, giving it a bold, rich, and dark colour. This amount of roasting reduces the caffeine content and gives the coffee a nutty, chocolate flavour. The floral, fruity, and citrus flavour of the original coffee is overshadowed by the flavour of full caramelisation.

Dark roasts taste bitter when brewed, yet the flavour is liked by many. Since the dark roast is the least acidic among light and medium roasts, it is a good choice for those with a sensitive stomach. 

Brands use terms like bold, deep, and full-bodied to describe dark roasts. In restaurants, you can also find names like High, Continental, European, Espresso, Italian, and French.

Two popular myths go around coffee's freshness – one, that it keeps fresh forever, two, that coffee goes bad after two weeks. In reality, a freshly roasted coffee retains its freshness for up to three weeks, and its peak flavour lasts between day 7 and day 14.

After 14 days, the quality and flavour intensity starts to fade, and you can tell that by the taste of your early morning brew. Coffee is a fruit, which is a carefully grown agricultural product so, it is best to have it in its fresh form. While buying beans in a supermarket/café, read the label for the roast date.

Coffee comes in different packaging– glass containers, lidded boxes, and sachets, so ensure you pick the one that suits your needs and is sized as per your household's coffee consumption. Glass jars come sealed with foil and a screw-top lid that keep the content dry and fresh. They are reusable as you can top them up with refill packets.

You can even repurpose them to store other things at home. But they are often expensive because of the manufacturing cost of glass. Lidded boxes are convenient for fuller households, or those who drink several cups of coffee a day. It is an economical option, however, make sure to get a bigger box only if you finish it before it loses its freshness.

Sachets have pre-mixed instant coffees such as cappuccinos and lattes, making them a convenient choice for those who travel a lot. They are the most portable option when you're in a hurry, or travelling for work. The disadvantage is that they are expensive than larger containers, and may not suit those who like to brew their coffee a certain way.

Arabica and Robusta are two main species of coffee grown across the world. Arabica makes up 60% of the world's production, making it the highest quality and better-tasting coffee. Robusta is a smokier, earthier, and more bitter alternate. Since Robusta is easier to cultivate and produce, it is cheaper than Arabica.

If you prefer top-tier instant coffee, then 100% Arabica with nuttier, fruity, and chocolaty flavour will be ideal for you. The blend of the two beans is also readily available in the country as it budget-friendly and softens the strong bitter taste of Robusta while maintaining its kick.

Everyone has his/her favourite coffee brand that they've been drinking for years. But there's no harm trying some new ones as India has some of the finest homegrown coffee brands to look out for. Here, we've rounded up some of the top-selling coffee brands in India, based upon their quality, pricing, and reviews.

From bean to cup, coffee has an interesting journey to cover. And every sip you take has a beautiful story to tell. To make this story even more interesting, you can explore some more coffee-related products that we've listed down in our following articles:

Whether you're a daily coffee lover or an occasional drinker, you want that first cup of morning coffee to be an ideal one. To make your coffee experience pleasant every single time, you need to spend in a quality coffee brand, after considering all your preferences. We hope this article helped you understand your preferences better.

Author: Srishti Sikka