Chai or Coffee? Or both!
At Sikanderpur, Gurgaon there is a big MGF Emaar building. We work, 24/7, Chaayos and Blue Tokai are all stationed at this one centre. They are open round the clock and for someone like me who is extremely fickle minded and swings between moods, men and mindsets quite rapidly, it’s the perfect destination. It was homely and inspiring to be surrounded by white walls, wooden chairs, the smell of coffee and warm lights when I spent time at the Blue Tokai here. The smell was noncommercial star-less, woody and earthy.
I don’t feel intimidated by the “coffee culture” here. It is an indigenous brand and the room has a corner that educates everyone on coffee. It gives access to a world of different roasts, different coffee making machines and your basic mugs and cups that are not overpriced. Affordable and flavourful (with roasts not syrups) in the aesthetically chosen Turquoise coloured crockery.
French press, aero press, pour over filter, drip filter, mocha pot and creamer, things I had hardly seen in the houses of my friends as a child. The new-ness of this access itself opens up the creative locks of the mind. I asked the warm host at the counter the difference between pour over coffee and espresso and he spent 20 minutes to make sure I went away with all the required information and a bold coffee choice to explore my taste.
Saa, my brother, is the one who introduced me to this cafe. He made me see things from his view. Now I even appreciate the place for the humidifier they have kept in the corner, the think-pads on the tables in front of work-from-cafe visitors, and the vertical yellow tube lights they have chosen to decorate the place with. I stepped out to see off this coffee-lover one day, only to enter the cafe next door with a chai-lover.
Chaayos welcomed me with Lucky Ali’s songs, smell of ginger, cardamom, and jaggery in the atmosphere. I was transported to another world, which I love as much as the coffee world. The cheerfulness of the host here with “Welcome to Chaayos!” was something another friend of mine had brought to notice.
They are extremely patient while I decide how exactly I want my chai, the amount of milk, spices and tea leaves. The flexibility of deciding exactly how my tea should taste is something that Chaayos has captured from Indian homes so perfectly. No two people make their Chais in exactly the same manner. Every single person has their own chai-flavour. Experimenting with chai is everyone’s right, and yet chai remains chai and doesn’t need five different names.
Unlike coffee, no machine can ever make the perfect chai either! And then, having chai solo is not a thing anywhere! They have to be served with chatpat snacks to complete the experience, which the menu invites you to experiment with as well. My mouth watered for palak-patta chaat and bun-samosas from the place, and luckily nothing ever on their menu is a disappointment!
If anyone ever asks me if I am a chai person or a coffee person, they aren’t ever just asking my choice of beverage, but my choice of an ideal setting for conversations.
Do I like the casual tapri with gossip-inducing mahaul, or do I like the corner cafe where one can read books in a quaint little spot? Do I like bursting Indian holi-type colours, or the minimalist warm-soft tones? Do I like wintery mid-nights or the foggy winter mornings? I like both in all! I am both a chai-person and a coffee-lover.
