Patience may be bitter, but its fruit is sweet - by Urvashi Malhotra

Paromita (left) honing the skills of  baristas from Kolkata - the heart of the Tea Capital of India.

The city of Kolkata, in the Eastern part of India, is often called the City of Joy. It is also the Tea Capital of India, and all the tea trading for its 1.5 billion tea-drinking population happens out of this city. So it is rare for a coffee story to come out of the heart of the Tea Capital of India.

And it takes extraordinary patience to make something noteworthy happen in the world of coffee in Tea’s heartland. India’s largest café chain introduced the concept of Italian style espressos and cappuccinos to the country about 18 years ago. The coffee value chain in India now exists from coffee plantations in the southern part of India to coffee drinking at cafes all across the country.

It brought to India the appreciation of drinking coffee and a café culture among the youth. This success was possible only when young baristas across the country developed the skill to brew coffee in the way that it was intended, coaxing the aroma from the coffee beans and ensuring that the coffee consumer got a perfect cup of coffee each time.

It takes a very special kind of person who ensures that she nurtures a love for the magnificent coffee bean and is able to guarantee that this is translated into skills to brew a refreshing cup. And this could not have been an overnight success story. It took years of diligence, mentoring and patience from an extraordinary lady, Paromita, to hone the skills of the baristas from the Eastern region. And year after year, the region demonstrates in the annual competition that the best talent in coffee brewing comes from this region!

The quest for intellectual growth and self-improvement is inherent in East India and Paromita feels that this has been instrumental in building the passion for coffee among the baristas of Kolkata.

Love and respect for a Guru is a deep-rooted culture in the East, and particularly in Bengal, which makes it easy for a trainer to witness great results.

In a land of tea connoisseurs it is no mean achievement that a trainer is able to build this passion for brewing the magical CUPPA!

Empathy, and passion from Paromita and her team of  trainers, and an openness to share their knowledge of coffee brewing with their students or “shishyas” as they are called in the Guru-Shishya tradition, is what makes the talent shine through.

The passion for coffee is instrumental in knowledge transfer and the coffee trainers or gurus of this region believe in being a buddy to their shishyas; this is the mantra for effective training. So the next time you are in Kolkata or any part of Eastern India, and are sipping a well-made cup of Joe, you know that an excellent mentor, Paromita, who had the patience to nurture the skills as well as the love for coffee, is behind the delicious cup!