There are few rituals quite as dependable as coffee.

It can be the reason to get out of bed, the pause between meetings, the excuse to catch up with a friend or simply a small moment of calm in the middle of a busy day. And somewhere along the way, Mumbai turned its coffee run into a whole culture of its own.

With International Coffee Day here,to step away from the usual coffee order is a best excuse to spend time at the cafés doing interesting things with the humble cup.

For specialty coffee and a slower start, Subko has become a familiar name in Mumbai’s coffee scene, pairing carefully sourced coffee with its now-signature craft bakes. Boojee makes a case for the longer coffee break, with a laid-back café setting that works just as well for a morning catch-up as it does for a casual afternoon.

Mokai and Blondie are the kind of places where beverages have a unique twist and their coffee becomes only the beginning of the plan

Our orders have gotten a little more interesting recently . The cappuccino is always going to stay,, but it now shares the table with dirty matchas, cold brews, pour-overs and coffees that sound suspiciously like dessert but actually fall into the coffee category. We’ve become very particular about the roast we use, the milk we choose, the temperature we like and glass it’s poured into. Somewhere between “let’s grab a coffee” and “have you tried this one?”The everyday cup became something worth seeking out.

Maybe now that’s the reason why the coffee run has become less of an errand and more of a plan. You go for one cup and somehow stay for another. Someone opens a laptop. Someone orders something sweet for the table. The quick catch-up stretches into an afternoon, and suddenly the café you picked matters almost as much as the coffee itself.

Because really, International Coffee Day doesn’t need much of an itinerary. Find a good café, order the coffee you actually want, stay a little longer than planned and let the rest of the day figure itself out.