In the depths of the rainforest, was this ordinary bean that Saint Baba Budan planted in the 17th century in Chikmagalur district in Karnataka. Today, those seven beans have multiplied infinitely — expansive Arabicas and Robustas under the shaded comfort of trees, springing to life India’s around four percent coffee production in the world. This nurturing of coffee has been watched, wide-eyed and curiously, by these children of India’s coffee family. From “catching up over coffee,” they’ve decided to “catch up WITH coffee.” Living, breathing coffee since birth, some took their plantation’s heritage forward, added innovation and experience to make coffee their business, not in the principle sense of growing, but making coffee entrepreneurial and gourmet.
Be it artisan gourmet coffees like Halli Berri with Tejini Kariappa, coffee engineering spaces like Mihir and Mithun Rebello with Ganga and Pavan Hanbal, liqueurs like Sajini Joseph Karripparambil or Tapaswini Purnesh’s coffee education and gourmet paring, these children of the bean are the reason India may yet have a coffee uprising that gives our humble filter kaapi a gourmet flair. With coffee appreciation following wine tenets, relishing that cuppa and its notes are guiding this new trend.
But first, we have to go back to the genes — theirs, the human genome and the coffee genome, which through a quirk of fate, were destined to cross paths, both being traced to Africa. Many from this new generation went to Illy’s specialised Masters in coffee economics and science at Trieste and found that it will take years to map this ordinary green bean.
Courses in Treiste saw Mihir Rebello, Ashritha Gowda and Shravan (Classic Coffee scion) learn about coffee. In fact, Shravan was among the first batch to get a fully sponsored scholarship. “The Masters is done by the University of Udine, it’s a six-month course into theory, practice, genetics, marketing finance, etc. We learnt about Robusta, its genes and how Arabica is an individual strain — it’s fascinating how cultivars evolved. The university has broken down its genome structure,” explains Shravan.
Enriched with this knowledge, they want to create a self-sustainable coffee uprising, that stands proud in quality and identity. A seasoned planter like DM Purnesh, Tapaswini’s father, says, “Today, planters’ children have their own brands, youngsters like my nephew (Shravan) build relationships with buyers abroad. Many are growing coffee, arekanut, pepper, cardamom, orange, cheeku, orchids and anthuriams — it’s an exciting time.”
Halli & its berri
Tejini Kariappa
She created Halli Berri and started retailing her estate coffee to high-end stores and resorts, Amazon, etc. This student of banking and finance from Monash, Tejini Kariappa is the fourth generation from the Kandi Halli Estate in Chikmagalur. Finding her way back to the plantation, she is behind the retail growth of Halli Berri and her Trip Advisor-rated cafes. An all women-run estate, her mother Nalima Kariappa and Tejini helm the show. “I got involved when my dad passed away nine years ago. I was the youngest, my first sister lives in New York and the other is a pilot with Indigo, so I decided to come back and take our rich legacy forward. We started the Coffee Barn Café at the estate, and customers would ask us for our coffee, and we would end up giving them a goodie bag. Four years ago, we started Halli Berri as a gourmet coffee,” says the girl who also started another Coffee Barn Café in Chikmagalur Town. The girl whose heart was in banking threw it all, and even started Estrada, that works in branding.
“I wanted to leverage this legacy and go beyond just being a planter. One’s inheritance is something most take lightly, and with such a rich legacy, I wanted to take it further,” says the tall 29-year-old who does not believe in talking numbers, but says, “Halli Berri is not just a brand, it is my life,” stressing on the need for leadership skills to take any venture forward. “I want to take this tradition of coffee making, and embellish it to ensure it is in my family forever,” she adds. “Halli Berri has inspired many coffee front-runners. We are trying to build awareness around gourmet Indian coffee. Our’s is an overall bean to cup story,” she says.
The Coffee echanics
Mihir and Mithun rebello, Ganga and Pavan Hanbal
Some of these coffee children decided to explore the world. But, in the end, the aroma of coffee was too strong. They jumped headlong into the art of coffee engineering. For these artisan roasters, it’s about giving coffee its identity. For Mihir (an architect) and Mithun Rebello (a tech supplier and entrepreneur) from Kuttinkhan Estate, and their partner Ganga (an ad professional) of Srilakshmi Estate, and her husband Pavan Hanbal (a business consultant) of Sasyakashi Estate, that shining red berry swaying in the rain and its expectant aroma called out, and they came back to their heritage, to change it, and give it the respect it deserves. The highly-inspired crew speaks of coffee with such ardour, it makes one a believer too, even a tea drinker! They call themselves The Coffee Mechanics, with a slogan — The art of coffee engineering — and are huddled together mechanising brews and blends. “We are starting our own space shortly and have a facebook page. We want to democratise coffee, and give it origin and identity,” Mihir says whose grandfather bought Kuttinkhan from a Britisher around 60 years ago.
“We want to explore the finer nuances. If you roast coffee lighter, you get a fruity taste. We are blending, and giving coffee from our estates as single origin and traceable coffee. So you know where it comes from. There is no end to learning — wine has 300-odd chemicals, whereas coffee, when roasted, has upwards of 1,600. Using machines like gas chromatographers, one can separate each note, like grape fruit, lemon or even onion, it’s a whole spectrum of tastes,” says Mihir, whose card says chief roaster, taster and control freak while Ganga is the chief roaster, blender and toublemaker.
For Ganga, a year at the plantation, gardening and the monotony of a nine-to-five job was reason to get back to the brew. “We aim to help people figure out their coffee by playing with roasts, customising and experimenting. We are all lucky to have witnessed coffee growing up, and we want to do justice to it, and bring that experience to the cup,” explains Ganga. “Our place (not named yet) will be a happy space where one can experience what coffee offers — the whole gamut,” she adds. Right now, the “mechanics” work out of Ganga’s home, as they zero in on the four walls for their coffee conversations.
Mithun and Pavan add their expertise and guide the whole idea forward. “With Brazil producing 42 percent of the world’s coffee” these “mechanics” want to engineer a change — by targeting smaller estates, and letting the young Indian learn its tenets. “There are many with a few acres, who sell on the spot as they require cash. We want to guide them — fermenting washed Arabica for two more hours makes a difference to taste, and we want to make this self-sustainable in India so we can buy and sell, and incur profits. Most importantly, people should know where the coffee is from. My dad and Ganga’s dad have been selling coffee which goes into the supply chain, and no one has a clue where it’s from. Ours is specifically from one hill on one estate,” explains Mihir. “Indian coffee is mostly shade-grown, people are converting to robusta or sun-grown coffee which is high-yielding and we feel Arabicas have finer qualities. We want to be able to keep its quality and bio-diversity, which is our biggest advantage,” explains Mihir, adding “In Colombia, there is a particular type of coffee called Colombian Miles, CM, Brazilian Naturals, or BN, is from Brazil. India has no such geographical coffee, apart from the Monsoon Malabar. Our coffee is not making a splash and it should. In Columbia, there was a lady — the grandmother of speciality coffee and what she set in motion in 1970, is reaping benefits now. If we begin now, 40 years later, we can see a brighter future,” say Ganga and Mihir.
A coffee high
Sajini Joseph K.
For some strange reason that she can’t remember, Sajini Joseph Karipparambil had always wanted to get married to someone in Coorg. Growing up in Mysore, this city-bred girl rarely visited the coffee plantations her dad had in Coorg. In 2003, her wishes came true and she reached Siddapur in South Coorg. She found herself in Boovenhully Estate, where her husband’s family had been in coffee plantations since 1924. Sajini realised it wouldn’t be easy! But the estate, its reserved forest and the Kaveri river made her fall in love with the bean.
Years later, as a mother of two, she began making juices out of passion fruit and wines out of coffee. “In the process of making parchment coffee, you get the pulp as a waste product. And it is this pulp I used to make coffee wine,” Sajini says.
She began selling passion fruit juice, starting at first with 11 bottles, learning how to market herself. Now, she has about 500 bottles a year. She has also started making liqueur using coffee now. “All the recipes are ones I picked up from my grandmother, the traditional ones. I don’t add anything for fermentation.”
The blend from bynemara
Ashritha’s family-owned Bynemara (Kannada word for Caryota Urens or Fishtail Palm) Estate has been producing coffee since 1870. As the fourth generation, she keenly helped her father B.G. Chandre Gowda (in accounts) at the estate in Beranagudu, 35 km from Chikmagalur. An engineer, it struck her that she didn’t belong. So, she worked for a coffee exporting company in Bengaluru and then, like many coffee children, went to Illy for her Masters, and did Coffee Board and Sunalini Menon’s workshops. “At Illy, I understood the green coffee industry. I also did an internship in Milan at a green coffee importing company which buys coffee and distributes it to small and big roasters,” says the girl who is launching her own brand of coffee named, Bynemara.
“While we have a month’s practice session at the Illy campus on roasting and brewing processes, I believe it’s a skill that takes a long time to learn. I am trying to distribute green coffee beans to a roaster, while working on my own coffee blends too,” Ashritha says.
Last December saw her absorbing the harvesting rituals with her father, now she is busy brewing a filter coffee and a pure coffee. She believes that single-origin coffee is the way forward. “Origin-wise, it’s from Bynemara. We should start manufacturing by the next month. Appreciating coffee is no different to appreciating a fine wine,” she smiles, adding succinctly, “I’m particular that my brand showcases the history and heritage that led to its inception. We have tried our best to stay true to our South Indian roots and the rituals we associate with drinking coffee. It would be nice to procure my coffee, have a name for it and to know how the end consumer feels about it.”
Nishant Gurjer, coffee grower and exporter, Kaapi Royale
Indian coffee was always a controlled market, and with India’s tie up with Russia early on, it was exported to Russia only, or sold at high seas. There is a huge potential for Indian coffee. That and exporting estate origin coffee to the Britishers set us back. Then Columbia came out with their coffee-break campaign that changed the brand image of coffee. With artisan and single-origin coffees budding, coffee is slowly following wine trends, and this is good for India which stands between 5th to 7th on the world map. Its quality is better. Aspiring for a self-sustaining market is great as we won’t be controlled by the vagaries of the economy. Indians are not yet geared for high quality coffee though there is high domestic consumption, it augers well for the industry.
A Classic Cuppa
Tapaswini D. Purnesh
Tapaswini Purnesh took to coffee when her mother roasted beans every morning, and its welcome woody notes wafted through. The mechanical engineer from five generations of planters — Classic Coffees — says, “My aim is to educate people on how one can enjoy coffee, and not just filter coffee, it could be cold pressed, hot, nitro coffee which is almost like beer, with Classic Synergy Pvt Ltd, the gourmet arm of the parent company, where we do coffee with food pairing and blends.”
She recently added a Cordon Bleu course, and also started an online coffee repository Home Barista. “I fell in love with coffee with desserts in Paris, so we’ve been working with food paring, last week a learning group at home was educated about coffee, how to brew, foods to pair it with. Our lab also works on different blends,” says the girl who believes that coffee, like wine, will gets its connoisseurs soon.
She points to her new gadget with a childlike excitement, “The aero press gives you an espresso-like shot, with more body compared to a French press which is spaced out in tenets. People have a lot of misconceptions about coffee, and we want to break those myths,” she adds.
Now, this coffee entrepreneur wants to take the ordinary cup and turn it “cool”. “We started an educational online platform which should be running by month end. So you can learn how salted caramels go well with an espresso. The mouth feel, something soothing and mild, goes well with apples, poached pears, when the body is heavier, a Madeline or a custard-based dessert works,” she adds.
She recently attended the Singapore Coffee Festival and came back “full of beans” as there were 12,000 coffee lovers, and she believes India too is getting there, and it’s only time before the brew comes of age.
— Inputs from Cris
