11 May 2007
We took a trip over to Delhi to support Beyond the Bean India as it made its first public appearance at the AAHAR 2007 – the largest food and beverage show in the region. Delhi really was everything we imagined and more; the traffic, the smells, the seriously crazy traffic... One of the many questions that we pondered during our trip was, if you were a cow in Delhi why choose to spend the day sitting on the central reservation of a heaving dual carriageway? Surely, one of the many lush green roundabouts in the Embassy area would be preferable?!
Setting up an exhibition India style is certainly very different to doing it at home. We spent 5 hours watching about 30 men load massive pieces of equipment, think double chest freezers etc into the back of two trucks. No forklifts, no trolleys, and definitely no consideration of health and safety – the organisers of Caffe Culture would have kittens….
We had a busy 5 days at the show to introducing a new and curious market to Sweetbird, Zuma and all our other products. The biggest stumbling block? The price of a good cappuccino in a nice restaurant is 50p and even this is more than a lot of the general public are willing to pay. However, on visiting the Cha bar in Delhi (one of a chain of three) and talking to manager Rishi Bhardwaj it became clear that there is a gradually building demand for speciality coffee and people are willing to pay more for quality. The Cha bar has a great location, looking out over the busy Mathura Road in New Delhi. Attracting students and office workers with its range of coffees, teas and meals it’s very similar to Borders in the UK or Te and Kaffi in Reykjavik as half the premises is dedicated to a bookshop. Its main offering is tea, with 69 types and blends but we were able to enjoy good quality espressos and lattes too.
The barista culture is very much alive with the Indian Barista Championship taking place in Bangalore a few weeks earlier. We were happy to support this and see Vikam Kashyap take the title of Indian Barista Champion 2007 with his banana and espresso signature drink. Out and about chai is still very much the drink of choice for the general public in India but in years to come we’re sure the trend for espresso based drinks will balloon.
We had many adventures during our time in Deli – Veronique being assured in a pet shop that a terrapin was a small land based tortoise and could simply be put in a pocket on the plane, getting caught up in a hugely extravagant wedding procession – complete with electric lighting, watching Kevin having his head quite frankly pummelled during a back street shave and finally the pleasure of spending 8 hours at Delhi airport which we would not recommend but was a definite experience – thanks to the security guard and politician for their company! Here’s hoping to get back there at some point…..AAHAR 2008 anyone?
To contact Beyond the Bean in India please email kevinjrogers@beyondthebean.in
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