Thaindian News

Thiruvananthapuram, May 5 (IANS) Steaming cups of coffee made from the best beans sourced from Kerala coffee estates will soon be made available across the country with the Floatel Group of Hotels setting up 3,000 kiosks, quite appropriately named ‘Kic OFF’, said a company official.

The Floatel group, which set up the first floating cottages near the famous Kovalam beach resort, is ready with its new venture that will use coffee from its own estates in the state.

“The highlight of these kiosks is the hot steaming coffee, made out of ‘coffee pods’ which will be the first in the country,” M.R. Narayanan, co-owner of the Floatel group, told IANS, referring to the nitrogen-packed seven grams of coffee.

“We make the purchase of the best quality coffee beans directly from coffee estates. Then they are roasted and packed in a small pouch. Since it is a nitrogen-packed seven-gram pouch, the aroma of the coffee will be there for more than a year. Fresh milk and sugar have to be filled in the containers in the coffee dispensing machine along with our ‘coffee pods’,” he explained.

The company, which will be importing the machines from Italy, has already started the production of ‘coffee pods’ at its newly set up unit called Hotel Tek Beverages(P) Ltd on the outskirts of this city.

The coffee dispenser has been named ‘Easy Serve Expresso - pods’.

Depending on the size of the machine, the dispenser cost would range from Rs.6,000 to Rs.40,000.

“Our 3,000 kiosks will be set up very soon. Apart from our own brand of steaming coffee, there would be vending machines, which would sell juice,” added Narayanan.

Floatel’s came into the limelight in 2009 when it built the first floating market (food items, pulses and all types of consumer goods) on a 16-metre-long boat. Today, this floating market moves around in the Alappuzha backwaters, about 120 km from here, where water transport is the only mode for travel.

(Sanu George can be contacted at sanu.g@ians.in)