Restaurant review: Six mugs over an hour can show just how much is too much coffee

Six cups of various brews were presented before us and we were told they were made predominantly from two kinds of blended beans, Nicamalai and Panagiri. While the first was a blend of beans grown in Nicaragua and the Anamalai region of Tamil Nadu, the second was an amalgam of varietals from Panama and Baba Budangiri in Karnataka. They were made into three hot and cold cups of coffee each:

Caramel Americano: American style coffee with burnt molasses. The very smell of a freshly made cuppa can be titillating so our senses were awakened upon taking the first sip of the piping hot beverage. The touch of caramel lingered on our palate long enough for us to truly relish its flavour.

Cinnamon Mocha Cappuccino: Chocolate espresso syrup with frothed milk, finished with cinnamon on top. If Christmas was in a cup, this is how it would probably taste. However, to call it “coffee” would be an insult; it would have been better off as a form of hot chocolate.

Ginger Bread Latte: Full bodies espresso with steamed milk and a touch of ginger. While we’re all for experimenting with flavours, the accompanying cookies served with this mug reminded us of the harsh days when our mothers would forcefully shove Threptin biscuits down our throat. It didn’t work well with the coffee that could have stood our better solo.

Baileys’ Irish Brew: Irish cream liquor blended with freshly brewed coffee served on a bed of crushed ice. If you’re a person who likes Baileys’ Irish Cream or strong coffee, we would rather you don’t opt for this drink because the flavours were diluted by the ice and did justice to neither of these versatile beverages.

Iced Hazelnut Americano: Iced straight black coffee blended with hazelnut. This was the hero of the tasting and outdid our expectations. A hint of sugar drastically helped the nutty taste to stand out. 

Choco Fills Brew: Chocolate-filled cookies blended with coffee. “That wasn’t coffee but payasam (pudding served as dessert),” is a commonly heard joke in South India, when a person drinks excessively sweet coffee. We couldn’t agree more and wonder if coffee, even tea for that matter, should be kept far away from chocolate.

Address: ITC Grand Chola, Guindy

Cuisine: Coffee

Must-have: Iced hazelnut Americano

Timing: 24x7