Enjoy Kumbakonam Degree Coffee? This 109-year-old hotel claims to be its birthplace

If you have travelled through Tamil Nadu, it is likely that you would have spotted boards proclaiming authentic ‘Kumbakonam Degree Coffee’ being sold there. We visit its birthplace, Sri Mangalambika Vilas coffee hotel to find out why it is famous even though Kumbakonam does not produce any variety of coffee bean or have an exclusive preparation method

Tucked away in a narrow lane within the Adi Kumbeswarar temple complex in Kumbakonam is Sri Mangalambika Vilas Coffee Hotel. With a low roof that partially hides the name board, it is easy to miss, but for the aroma of fresh coffee being brewed.

Wrapped in old-world-charm, this hotel has been functioning for 109 years with the famous degree coffee as its flagship item. Rajagopalan Iyer and his wife Neela, the owners of the hotel, take us to their coffee station. “This is where it all started,” says Rajagopalan, fondly called Ramani. “Back then milk would be tested daily for its purity, rather, density with a lactometer. It has to show the letter ‘M’ . That is where the title ‘degree’ comes from,” he adds.

Neela interrupts, “We had our own cows and used fresh milk without adding water.” While their only contender, Panchami Iyer hotel, closed their doors almost 15 years ago, Sri Mangalambika Vilas carries the legacy beverage forward.

Swaminathan, their trusted coffee master, comes in on time for the evening rush. “ Rendu degree kaapi,” Neela informs him. For the degree coffee, decoction is freshly made and only the first extract is used. In a filter, Swaminathan first sprinkles a teaspoon of sugar. “This step is important. After we add the coffee powder and as we pour the boiling hot water, the sugar melts and covers the pores in the filter so that the granules don’t seep in. As the sugar caramelises, it also makes the taste smooth,” says Swaminathan. With a steady rhythm that can only come from years of practice, he adds the coffee powder, pressing it down gently with a spoon, pours in the hot water and closes the filter to let it percolate.

Rajagopalan Iyer’s father VG Harihara Iyer came to Kumbakonam when he was 14 and began to work in this hotel in 1914. “The hotel must have been functioning for a few years before my father joined but we have no record of that. So we decided to go with the words ‘Since 1914’,” Ramani informs.

In the kitchen, dinner is getting ready. Neela takes a fresh idli which is still steaming. “The food we serve here is homely with only a moderate use of spices. The menu changes every day. On Mondays we serve  gotsu, Wednesdays we have  kadappa, on Fridays,  arisi upma and there are stapes like  adai,  podi dosai and  bonda.” Most stoves used here run on firewood which Neela believes adds to the taste of the food. In an emergency the gas stove comes to the rescue.

While the property belongs to the Kumbeswarar temple, these long-term tenants have made minor alterations, adding vents for a smoke-free kitchen and solar panels to power their mixers and grinders. “My elder daughter monitors all this through a camera from the US. Maybe she will carry on the legacy after us,” she adds.