Coffee drinking has become a ritual almost and is being increasingly preferred during ‘adda’ sessions. It is in vogue. This beverage has lent itself very well for experimentations with interesting twists making it an all-day favourite. Even three-four years back I could have never imagined having a Tender Coconut Cold Brew!  The first sip took me by surprise and refreshingly so. “It is a cold brew, prepared through an immersion technique infused with coconut water. It is less acidic and healthy,” explains Abhinav Kumar of Craft Coffee. Unique indeed—I could taste the green coconut water!

Abhinav feels that the demand for specialty handcrafted artisanal coffee has been on the rise and a good cup of coffee offers the perfect relaxation after a hard day’s work or even before one. For me, it was before I got busy with  professional assignments. Loved the breakfast time experience with cold brews and great breakfast platters— Sauteed Spinach, Cheese and Mushrooms with Baked Beans, Hash Browns and Buttery Bread Rolls and another one with Chicken Sausage and Mozzarella Omelette. Ended on a sweet note with Chocofills Cold Coffee and an Apple Pie! It was simply delicious.

The small but extremely well made All-Day Breakfast menu serves perfectly prepared Breakfast Plates, Omelettes—try their mozzarella mushroom and Toasted Sandwiches and desserts—cheesecake and apple pie along with freshly brewed coffees from 9 am every day. Trincas’ legendary continental menu is also available after 11:30 am.

After witnessing the overwhelming response that the Roastery Coffee House received from Kolkatans, Abhinav Kumar, a partner-promoter of the brand, contemplated on making specialty coffee easily available at affordable prices. Covid 19 drastically changed our lives. As work from home and staying at home became a routine, the code for eating out too changed. People preferred ordering in or picking up food on the go. Craft Coffee developed on this concept and worked on the platform of promoting take away/ hyper local delivery and home delivery modules.

Continuous innovations to develop new recipes for luring the millennial base will be at the forefront. For Craft Coffee, informs Abhinav, Roastery Coffee House, being the supplier, will curate exclusive single estate microlot coffee blends while Craft Coffee will also work with exclusive roasters nationally. While the cascara kombucha, signature coffee cocktails and vegan variants of oat milk latte and oat milk frappuccino rely on exclusive recipes,  Craft Coffee also offers fruit-based cold brews as well as manual brews like French press, pourover etc.

“The future of the brand lies in integrating modern technology as a service facilitator thereby ensuring scalability and an increased penetration through app based ordering and own delivery platform, loyalty programmes, self- service kiosks and mobile order takers,“ informs Abhinav Kumar sitting inside the smart and stylish Craft Coffee outlet at Trincas.

Kolkata’s current love affair with coffee is not a recent phenomena, one can confidently say that it has only been revived! Trincas’ association with coffee goes back to the 1920s and the days of the tearoom… coffee perhaps only played second fiddle at that time.

However, in the 1960s with the introduction of the super-popular tableside preparation of Cona Coffee (now known as Syphon Coffee), the city’s love for this dark, stormy beverage ascended new heights. Cona Coffee involved an exotic looking chemistry-set featuring a burner, glass globes, stoppers and receptacles and produced an intense, rich, dark brew. Based around this grew the cult of coffee and the popular Ladies’ Coffee Meets.

These festive occasions at Trincas in the 1960s featured fashion shows, quizzes, music and performances. A vibrant subculture was very much alive, albeit in a different form than it is today. There exists currently, a Community Based Memory Project, which aims to piece together the history of Trincas over the last century. In one of the latest articles, featuring the renowned Sushma Seth, the Trincas’ Timeline Project has spoken about the coffee culture of Calcutta in the 1960s.

Today, Kolkata’s coffee culture focuses on the entire experience of drinking coffee— the product, the sourcing of the beans, the method of preparation and the personality of the coffee shop. If Craft Coffee has to be judged on these parameters then the brand is a winner! At the same time, this is not an expensive place…the price point is extremely accessible—Rs. 90 for an espresso!

If you want good coffee, Craft Coffee is the place, where the new and the old have come to enjoy and bask in each other’s company. There is history in the air as stories and pictures adorn the walls and a warm and comfortable environment calls for a repeat visit!