As I mentioned in my previous update, I was stuck at our farm in Neihbawih for 10 days because of the sudden Aizawl Lockdown imposed on 27th October.
Everything was going on quite well at the farm, until I ran out of coffee!
And so I walked down to Neihbawih market, which was around 30 minutes of downhill hike from our farm across slippery slopes and muddy crevices, on a mission to buy coffee. Since Neihbawih came under Sihphir jurisdiction, it wasn't affected by the Total Lockdown imposed across Aizawl region.
However, none of the shops had coffee!
Fortunately for me, my friend Makima from Durtlang Leitan who had a permit to travel during the lockdown because he's a baker (hence, essential service) was coming to Sihphir to deliver a batch of freshly baked bread to his customers. I asked him to get me some coffee immediately!
It felt soooo good to finally drink coffee again once Makima arrived at our farm.
He also gave me two loaves of bread and I am extremely grateful to him for those as well. I forgot to tell him only a 4x4 SUV could make it up the slippery trail leading to our farm, so the dude came in his Wagon R! He got stuck halfway and could no longer move. :D
And so that was how my life (and soul and spirit) was saved because I finally got to drink coffee again. Coffee is something I cannot live without, and everything around me feels dead without it.
11 years ago, I wrote this extremely controversial blog post called "Tea isn't my cup of tea" where I mentioned that even though I am a Mizo, I do not drink tea! Gasp! What sacrilege! That post was met with anger and protests across Mizoram, and the raging mob called out for my blood and crucifixion!
Just kidding, nobody gave a shit. :D :D
One of the points I mentioned in that post (do read the link above) was that, I do drink Ice Tea. In fact I love Ice Tea, and when people ask me how come I don't drink hot tea when I love ice tea, my reply is simple - Do you like chilled beer? Yes. And do you like hot boiling beer? No. How come? Why don't you like hot boiling beer when you love chilled beer? See, same logic. :D :P
Not drinking tea does not make me any less of a Mizo. It just makes me a... "Tea"totaler :P
As a Christian majority state, people of Mizoram love tea, mostly because it has to do with brewing. For it is mentioned in the Bible clearly that men will make tea (or coffee) for their wives, as it is written in Hebrews... Get it? He Brews, bwahaha.
Now here's the part I don't understand. What is it with us Mizos and the way we make coffee?
I'm generalizing here because I am basing this off my observations only. You may not fall in this category, but I have seen far too many people (Mizos living in Mizoram and outside the state) make coffee by first taking a teaspoon or two of instant coffee powder into a cup along with another teaspoon of sugar, and then add a little bit of hot water or hot milk, and finally, stir stir stir stir stir...
OMG, the stirring! They just keep stirring forever and forever.
They stir and stir until the solution in the cup finally turns into a thick brown paste, and then add more hot water or hot milk, followed by more stirring!
Legend has it that some people even stir for weeks, taking a short break to relieve themselves in the loo, and then continue stirring even while sleeping :P One time, somebody stirred so long and loudly that neighbours started running out of their houses with their garbage bags thinking it was the sound of the garbage truck arriving. :D :P
This is how everybody I know seems to make coffee. My mom and aunties all make it this way, my Mizo friends in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune all make it this way too when I go to their apartments, and all my cousins and friends here in Mizoram make it this way as well.
Why?????
It's instant coffee. The taste doesn't change once the coffee powder dissolves in the solution, no matter how long you stir it.
I make my instant coffee by adding coffee powder and a little bit of sugar, followed by small amount of milk or creamer, and then I top it off with hot water, after which I stir just 5-10 times, max. That's it. It takes me less than 30 seconds to make it. After all, it's supposed to be "instant". That's what instant coffee means.
Filter coffee on the other hand is a different playing field. Likewise, I'm not going to dive into the world of different coffee preparation methods like Mocha, Espresso, Americano, Cappuccino, Macchiato, Cortado, Irish, Dalgona etc., I'm just talking about your basic simple home-brewed instant coffee. In my case, it would be a Mizohicano. :P
So why do we Mizos stir our coffee for such a long duration?
Surely this practice must have been passed down to us from our ancestors? After all, we are a community of tea drinkers, and making coffee is not our forte, hence the need to learn how to make it from other people. And maybe the first person we learnt the technique of making coffee from must have stirred it like crazy for a long time and that's why most of us are doing it now as well too? Maybe.
Or maybe when Mizo warriors raided the Alexandrapur tea gardens of Cachar in 1871 and kidnapped Mary Winchester, on their way back to their village, the smart little girl tried to delay them in the hopes of being rescued immediately, and so she introduced them to coffee.
Since the Mizo warriors had only drank tea before, they were intrigued with coffee. Mary Winchester aka Zolûti tried her best to delay them, and so she slowly stirred the freshly brewed coffee, over and over again, while glancing across neighbouring hills to see if any despatch had been sent to rescue her. She stirred and stirred the coffee pot for hours, and eventually when there was no sign of any British Expedition forces, she gave up hope and served them the coffee she made.
The warriors loved the coffee that was served to them, and immediately took a mental note down on how she prepared it. And that is my theory on how Mizos started stirring a coffee cup for a very long time, all thanks to Mary Winchester. :D
I'm just spitballing here, feel free to let me know about your own theory in the comment below or in my Facebook post. :)
And like I said, I'm just generalizing in this post, so you may not make coffee in this particular way too. Do let me know.
Cheers everyone. *sips coffee*.
