Coffee Bars in India
Tea was once the main drink of choice in India, but now hundreds of hip western-influenced coffee bars have emerged across the continent in large metro areas. While tea is still preferred and offered, the bean has become big business, so large that it now competes against the once dominant tea on menus everywhere. For coffee fans, India offers a few notable coffee bar chains.
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Barista Lavazza
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One of India's largest franchised chains of coffee bars, the Barista Lavazza coffee company operates more than 200 bars in India and has begun aggressively marketing its products outside Indian borders into neighboring countries. Considered the Starbucks of the East, Barista offers many of the same menu items like espresso, lattes, cappuccino and various pastries, in addition to basic coffee. Despite being proudly Indian, Barista sticks closely to its Italian roots by serving Italian coffees exclusively. Like Starbucks, there's generally a Barista Lavazza on more than one corner in many Indian cities. The first Barista opened in New Delhi in 2000.
Café Coffee Day
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The first to introduce the coffee bar culture into the country, Café Coffee Day offers nearly everything coffee-related, from take-home products and equipment to fully operational stores. Since the grand opening of the first store in Bangalore in 1996, Café Coffee Day has grown to become India's largest coffee retailer, with exports into Europe and the Middle East. Like Barista Lavazza, CCD tends to be in every major Indian metro area.
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Costa Coffee
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The British influence isn't entirely missing from Indian cities, as the UK's largest coffee retailer has been setting up shops alongside other coffee competitors. The London-based Costa Coffee company specializes in imported Italian coffees and made-to-order coffee concoctions like risteretto (a coffee stronger than espresso) and "Flat Whites" that feature custom barista designs in the froth.
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- Photo Credit coffee in coffee image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
