That mysterious spice...

So it has been very hit and miss with the coffee here. On the very, very early train from Mysore to Bangalore about a week or so back I purchased two (tiny) coffees on the train and was unable to drink them. The milk had a very strange taste and smell and I assumed that either the taste was coming from the thumb sweat from the vendor who stuck his thumb once in each cup as he was filling them up, or else from some mysterious spice that was being added to the coffee. However, I've now tasted this "spice" a few more times. I finally asked Chitra, with whom I'm staying in Hyderabad at present, what she put in her coffee (that had this spicy taste). Coffee, milk and sugar, she said. I was puzzled until this morning when I asked her some questions about cows in India and she revealed that her family drinks buffalo milk. Mystery solved, I think.