The name says it all

True Black Specialty Coffee, Hyderabad, India

When you think of Hyderabad, what comes to your mind is Chai aka Tea in localized, busy Irani Cafes. Considering that imagery, I would say True Black has pulled off a huge miracle!

The founder of this gorgeous coffee place – Rohit Rao started his career as a professional photographer clicking the restaurants & cafes only to realize that something was amiss in the city…that is the classy manually brewed specialty coffees! By then he was already experimenting & brewing some fabulous flavours at home and decided to open the first café in Kompally last year.

Spurred by the success there, he followed it up with the second one on Road No.45, Jubilee Hills, which is where I checked-in for my coffee experience in an otherwise Tea addicted City.

True Black reflects the new wave - ‘Japandi’ style. In the most basic sense, this style is a fusion of Japanese design & Scandinavian design. “It is the East-meets-West design movement. It blends Japanese artistic elements and Wabi-sabi philosophy with Scandinavian comfort and warmth or Hygge,”. Both Japanese and Scandinavian design aesthetics are focused on simplicity, natural elements, comfort, and sustainability.

You can feel this in every inch of café space - from ceilings to walls to floors to everything in between. I also really loved the way Rohit explained this philosophy & how he incorporated Japanese Wabi-sabi aesthetic in the café. For the uninitiated Wabi-sabi means the beauty of imperfection and impermanence.

The original meaning of Wabi referred to the feeling of remote loneliness that comes with living in nature, and the paradoxical beauty of imperfection. Sabi, depending on the context, can mean ‘withered’ or ‘lean’, but most often refers to the beauty of ageing – like the changing hues of wood. In many ways, it’s easier to convey the essence of what Wabi-sabi is in contrast to what it is n’t:

·       Slow, not fast

·       Natural decay, not synthetic

·       Humble and modest, not arrogant and proud

·       Asymmetry, not evenness or symmetry

·       Minimal, not ostentatious

·       Unfinished, not complete

Newest Brewing Technique:

Rohit brewed our coffees using a new manual brewing method invented by the Aussies from down under. It’s called Tricolate and these are the factors that differentiate Tricolate versus other methods like V60; Kalita Wave; Chemex!

·       Eliminates uneven input whilst brewing

·       Better coverage

·       No more high and dry coffee grounds

·       Extract more coffee

·       No need for an expensive goose neck kettle

It was lessons in Coffee & Design for me and my friend Sekhar as we cherished every moment, we spent at True Black… We will be back soon folks!

Ciao…Arrivederci!