How South Indian filter coffee became one of America’s most exciting coffee trends

This slow-brewed, concentrated coffee is a cherished cultural tradition that’s winning over America, one frothy cup at a time.

Key Takeaways

• South Indian filter coffee is brewed as a concentrated decoction in a traditional metal filter, then mixed with hot milk and sugar or jaggery, often using a blend of robusta coffee and chicory.
• More than a beverage, South Indian filter coffee is a cherished cultural tradition that has been passed down through generations and is defined by rituals like serving it in a tumbler and dabara.
• South Indian filter coffee is gaining popularity in the U.S. as cafés, pop-ups, and roasters introduce the tradition to new audiences.

For many South Indians, a sweet cup of frothy, milky filter “kaapi,” or filter coffee, is what anchors their mornings. 

Praveena Sundarraj, founder of Atlanta-based Raani Coffee Roasters, says the aroma of filter coffee defined her childhood mornings in chilly Ooty, a town in South India’s Western Ghats mountains. 

“One loud slurp was all it took for a deeply personal, grounding escape [from the cold],”​ she says.

Filter coffee is synonymous with South India, but it’s now grown in popularity across the country. And it’s also on the rise across the U.S., thanks to the efforts of entrepreneurs like Sundarraj, who opened her café in November 2025.

Related: Teh Tarik, Malaysia’s Frothy Milk Tea, Is Part of the Country’s Rich Street Food Culture

What is a South Indian filter coffee?

South Indian filter coffee is brewed using a traditional slow-drip filter made of brass, copper, or stainless steel. It creates a thick, concentrated coffee extract, commonly called decoction, that forms the base of filter coffee.

The brewer has four parts: a top filtering chamber to hold coffee grounds, a plunger to press them down, a lid, and a bottom chamber to collect the brewed decoction. Hot water is poured onto the plunger placed in the top chamber, the lid is closed, and it’s left to drip, typically for 15–20 mins per cup.

At Sri Ramana Coffee Works in Bangalore, the capital of the South Indian state of Karnataka, co-founder Lavanya Avinash prefers to brew the coffee twice. She’ll add roughly 1.75 ounces of water to 10-50 milligrams of coffee grounds and let it drip for five minutes. Avinash then repeats the process after she lets it sit for five minutes. 

Avinash mixes the first and second decoctions (and sometimes a third if she prepares a larger batch) to create the flavor she likes. She’ll boil milk, which can be mixed with sugar or jaggery (a mixture of cane sugar and often date or palm sap), and pour it into the coffee. The milk balances the earthy bitterness of the black coffee. 

Traditionally, filter coffee is prepared with a blend of dark-roasted robusta and chicory, a flowering plant root that offers woody, nutty notes. The coffee-to-chicory ratio can vary, says Avinash, but a 70-30 mix gives the “filter coffee kick,” a toasty, full-bodied taste with hints of caramel. South Indians prefer robusta because “it’s bold and rich in aroma, and [it] works well with milk.” At Sri Ramana, guests can choose arabica and robusta, either with or without chicory.

Related: What Is Chicory, and Why Is It Blended in Coffee?

How to drink South Indian filter coffee

Filter coffee is served in a two-piece brass or stainless-steel set consisting of a tall tumbler and a deep, wide bowl called a dabara. 

The hot coffee is poured back and forth between the two, which aerates the coffee and creates a bubbly, frothy layer. 

“Some of us believe it’s only filter coffee if it’s frothy. Only then can you really smell and taste the coffee,” says Avinash, “Because for us, filter coffee is not just coffee, it’s an emotion.” 

She says that filter coffee is slurped from the dabara, rather than sipped. She says that it helps get the full flavor profile.

The history and culture of South Indian filter coffee

There are many stories tied to coffee in South India. One involves a Sufi saint who traveled in the 17th century to what today is Yemen and smuggled out seven coffee beans. They were planted in the hills of Chikkamagaluru, considered the birthplace of Indian coffee. 

Others suggest that the use of chicory was introduced by the British Army in the early 20th century, when it faced coffee shortages. But no one knows how and when South Indians created the drip-style brewing. 

Although its origins are somewhat unclear, South Indian filter coffee has remained a household ritual for generations. Sundarraj recalls she would crowd into cozy kitchens and dip snacks in coffee during family gatherings.

“It’s really an inheritance,” says Varshi Srinivas, founder of No Filter Kaapi Klub, a pop-up café in San Francisco. Srinivas, who has roots in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, associates filter coffee with her parents and grandparents. Her mother, who never drank filter coffee, perfected it for her dad. 

“She learned it from my grand aunt, who could make a flawless cup without ever once tasting it in her life. It’s in our blood,” she says.

Srinivas likes that the device is “a humble filter” that everyone can access. “It lasts a lifetime and gets passed down through generations,” she says.

Filter coffee in the U.S.

Recently, South Indian filter coffee has carved a spot in U.S. coffee culture, with roasters, pop-ups, and cafés run by people of South Indian descent. Some of South India’s biggest coffee brands, like Narasu, see growth in their North American exports. Established in 1926, the legendary coffee brand sells its filter coffee blends online.

Raani Coffee Roasters also sells single-origin coffee and filter kaapi brewers online. Beans from South India are roasted to a medium profile to highlight the chocolate and caramel notes. They are not blended with chicory “to tell the complete story from the birthplace of Indian coffee,” says Sundarraj. 

At the Atlanta-based café, there are now regulars for both hot and iced Madras Kaapi, but the hot version sells more.

Before it’s served, they pour the hot coffee from the tumbler into the dabara from a distance, so it looks like ‘pulling’ the coffee through the air. 

“I believe it adds to the experience,” says Sundarraj. During their first winter this year, Raani sold 200 filter coffees a day. “Sometimes we run out, and because we brew in large batches, it takes 15 minutes to brew another batch, but people used to wait for the next one,” she says. 

Also in Atlanta, Tamil cybersecurity engineer Divya Raghavan hosts CoffeeKiRani pop-ups that serve filter coffee, and she plans to expand to other states in the future. 

In San Francisco, Srinivas decided to pilot the idea of a filter coffee spot first as a home café. She kept the classic filter coffee on the menu, but she added an oat milk version for those who wanted a dairy-free option.

Filter coffee has also found a spot in Michelin-starred venues, but in new forms. James Beard Award-winning chef Vijaya Kumar, a native of Tamil Nadu, leads New York City’s Semma . There, the cocktail menu lists Chikmagalur, a whiskey tipple built on filter coffee that quickly became a guest favorite. 

However it’s served, filter coffee in the U.S. is having its moment. “I’m seeing people who have no personal connection to South India trying kaapi for the first time and pushing the boundaries of what it can be. It’s a really exciting time to be doing this,” says Srinivas. 

Read the original article on Food & Wine