Category Archives: Coffee News

Coffee Revolution

Business & Economy, Coffee News, Records, All, World Opinion

Coffee pubs may be next zingy avatar of buzzing cafes as the country’s young discover the cool quotient of the rich brew.

CoffeeKF01aug2018

Forget decaf, now’s the time to get high on coffee. For investors, traders and connoisseurs alike, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. It is not yet a mass consumption beverage in India — remember, we are mostly tea-guzzlers — and coffee is being served to those who have arrived.

The world over, coffee rules the beverages market. No wonder it is the second largest traded commodity after crude oil. Although coffee is believed to have arrived in India long before the British got us addicted to tea, it is only in the last couple of decades that cafes and the instant variety have evangelised it beyond the south of this country. Ironically, down south, where coffee has long ruled the roost, tea is also emerging as the morning cuppa. For a highly prized commodity, coffee has had its ups and downs in the global commodities market. And, at US $500 per kilogram, going through (civet) excreta was actually a high — civet coffee is made out of coffee beans eaten and excreted by civets.

A coffee story can’t be narrated without invoking India’s staple beverage, tea, multiple times. We have been a tea land from British times and coffee, by and large, remained a privilege and pride of south India for hundreds of years. The cafe culture that began to kick in some 10 years ago has, to an extent, disrupted the traditional and regional divide between tea and coffee at least in the metros and small towns.

Coffee is said to have been introduced to India by a Muslim saint, Baba Budan, who smuggled seven coffee beans from Yemen and took them to Mysore. Later he cultivated coffee out of these beans on Chandragiri Hills, also called Baba Budan Giri now. India’s total area under coffee cultivation is almost 400,000 hectares, with Karnataka alone accounting for over 70 per cent of the production while the rest comes from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The country’s organised coffee retailing was started by Bangalore-based cafe chain Cafe Coffee Day in 1996. By the time Uncle Sam’s much celebrated cafe chain Starbucks forayed into the country in 2012, coffee culture had already set in. Barista Coffee Co Ltd, Costa Coffee and others too came in. All these cafes have ushered in the experiential proposition to coffee drinking, with an attractive, relaxed and cosy ambience accompanied by an assortment of food items.

Waiting in the wings

Italy’s Elli and Lavazza, global brands that are already active in the Indian coffee market with roasting and blending, and many other foreign cafe brands are waiting in the wings to land in the cafe business in this country. Cafe Coffee Day’s 1,722 outlets and around 600 coffee kiosks serve over a billion cups of coffee in six countries while Starbucks has 120 stores across seven cities in India and the chain serves close to 250,000 customers every week with brews of French press, pour over, siphon, chemex and white eagle. Barista has around 50 stores around the country and the brand currently focuses on opening up more cafes through franchisee route.

All the players are aggressively trying to expand their chains across the country. India’s coffee retail industry is projected to experience its fastest growth so far between 2018 and 2025, said a recent Grand View Research. Coffee chains market was valued at $128.6 million in 2016 and its growing at a CAGR of 20 per cent. “After all who on earth can ignore over a billion lips? We always had coffee stalls and coffee houses operated out of staid and dull environs. Only coffee fanatics frequented these places. Once the cafe era set in and vibrant cafes with great ambience came up, India’s cafe scene started buzzing. Coffee no doubt remains a more frequently used conversation starter than tea,” said Himu Gowda, a young coffee grower and coffee enthusiast of Rajarajeshwari Estate, Chikmagaluru.

How did the cafe culture of the West and Europe start sweeping across India? There are millions of Indian professionals working in these geographies around the globe in the last few decades. In addition to that, India’s knowledge economy created a large army of techies and other professionals who often travelled to the West and Europe on work. Again, close to 30 million Indians travel overseas — UN World Tourism Organization predicts this figure to cross 50 million by 2020 — on leisure and they are exposed to cafe culture in various countries. So for many Indians, names like Cafe Central (Vienna), San’t Eustachio il Caffe (Rome), La Cafeotheque (Paris), Winkel (Amsterdam), Toma Cafe (Madrid), Kaffeine (London), Caffe Vita (Seattle), Reslau (Auckland), Double Tall (Japan) and several other famous cafes in Melbourne, Reykjavik (Iceland), Singapore, Istanbul in Turkey, Vancouver in Canada, Portland (US), Wellington (New Zealand), Havana in Cuba are familiar.

The key drivers of India’s cafe revolution are: increasing disposable income, influence of western culture, sudden spurt in outbound travel, rapid urbanisation, boom in tech jobs, exposure to foreign cafe brands and acceptance of coffee as a premium beverage. Today, coffee as a bean beverage has been able to capture either a mindshare or a market share from a large portion of Indian population. As a result, cafes have emerged as ideal venues for daily conversations, socialising, work interactions, entertainment and the actual unwinding of the mind with a cup of quality brew. Also, the number of coffee enthusiasts, evangelists and hardcore coffee fans are on the rise in the country, with coffee emerging as a versatile beverage.

Sudheer Gopinath, 35, a techie who worked in the US and many European countries at client sites over a decade said, “Cafes are a big thing in the US and Europe. They transport you to a different world. They may be buzzing with music and chit chats…still you’ll find your quiet corner. India didn’t have such quality cafes until 10 years ago, but today our cafes are almost on par with cafes across the world.”

Arunachalam, a 65-year-old migrant labourer from Tamil Nadu and a self-confessed coffee addict has not had tea in 40 years. “I pass by cafes to capture the aromas emanating out of them. I simply love it. I can never afford a coffee there. Even if I decide to spend Rs 100 per coffee, I may not be allowed inside these five star cafes as I don’t have decent shoes and pants and I speak no English. I love my home made kattan kappi (black coffee) and two meter coffee from the roadside stall which costs only Rs 10,’’ he said and laughed loudly, revealing a set of tobacco-stained teeth.

High growth

According to a report on coffee retailing by Grand View Research, the Indian coffee retail chain business witnessed tremendous growth in recent times as outlets are gaining popularity as hangout zones. The increased acceptance of coffee, attributed to the emergence of premium cafes like Cafe Coffee Day, Tata Starbucks, Boutonniere Hospitality operated Barista, Bedfordshire-based Costa Coffee, promoted by Devyani International in India and others fuelled the market growth.

The coffee retail shops in India are popular hangouts for those between group 16 and 45-years-old, the report said, adding: “The youth of the country has developed greater inclination towards coffee which previously favoured tea. Reading, working, or just casual discussion in the coffee shops is a usual sight. The complementary services provided by the coffee shops such as free WiFi, music, and others have succeeded to retain customer footfall in the shops.”

Techies and social media enthusiasts Pratik Choudhari and Arvind Jain recently launched an app-based startup venture. “Most of our ideation talks, preparation of business plans, pre and post launch debates and discussions happened in cafes. Even now we work out a cafe, we don’t have an office,” they said.

Global exposure and rapid urbanisation along with increasing disposable incomes have created the ground for modern coffee retail outlets offering premium coffee and variants costing more. Moreover, lifestyle preference influenced by the western world has created opportunities for the key players to witness tremendous growth and success. Foreign investment in India’s coffee retail sector has increased in recent years.

For US cafe chain Starbucks, India is one of the most exciting markets in the world with a diverse and dynamic culture. The discerning Indian consumer is well-travelled and well-informed, and appreciates quality experience. Interestingly, India has seen the fastest rollout of stores in the first five years of operation in Starbucks’ history in any new market.

Veetika Deoras, head, marketing, category and loyalty, Tata Starbucks (a joint venture of Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks) said that in India, coffee consumption is on the rise and coffee is slowly becoming a tool for self-expression. This perfectly ties in with the mission of Starbucks where it inspires and nurtures the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.

“Starbucks believes in building a ‘third place experience’ and our stores are neighbourhood gathering places for meeting friends and family. Our customers enjoy quality service, an inviting atmosphere and an exceptional beverage. We are passionate about delivering the highest quality coffee house experience to customers and believe that every moment is a moment of connection and recognition.”

“Coffee as a beverage is loved by traditional coffee drinkers and the younger audience. Coffee today is a part of one’s routine, it has social connotations, and affection towards coffee goes beyond age or gender. Constant innovation is a testament to the growing appetite for a deeper exploration of coffee among Indians. We are humbled by the way customers have embraced Starbucks and have begun to make it a part of their daily ritual,’’ she adds.

At Starbucks, innovation is the core. It is always innovating customer experience whether it be with beverage, store design, community impact. Meeting this need for innovation is Nitro Cold Brew, a naturally sweet nitrogen-infused coffee, which takes 48 hours of making. Its heightened coffee craft, which allows customers to enjoy small-batch, slow-steeped coffee which is brewed using an interplay of coffee, water, temperature and time. Starbucks Coffee Company has a 47-year history of sourcing, roasting and serving high-quality Arabica coffee.

Coffee is no new romance for its local partner Tata Coffee. The seeds of Tata Coffee’s estates were sown more than 150 years ago by resilient planters who brought coffee to the hills of Coorg in the then state of Mysore in South India. The land, the weather and the people came together to create what are today some of the finest coffees in the world. “Today, we produce some of the best Arabicas and Robustas in the country, in Washed and Natural offerings. Our coffees are shade grown in our own Rainforest Alliance, UTZ and SA 8000 certified estates, among lush forests in a thriving ecosystem, teeming with biodiversity. We handpick the coffees and delicately process them to bring about the intrinsic romance in every cup. Every step of the cultivation, harvest and processing is handled with an utmost emphasis on sustainability,” said an official at Tata Coffee.

The ‘best coffee’

India is the only country in the world that grows coffee under the shade of dense rain forests today. The country grows the best quality coffee, including several specialty varieties. It has been exporting all its surplus coffee for decades, which is almost 85 per cent of its total produce.

Anil Kumar Bhandari, president, India Coffee Trust, said, “Despite this exclusivity, Indian coffees are not able to command a premium in the global markets because we have not yet built a brand for it. So the need of the hour is to build a sophisticated campaign for our coffee for the domestic and international market. It is also extremely critical that we develop a strong domestic market so that our coffees can be insulated from global market vagaries and price volatilities. Our cafes are doing a good job in creating a passion for the bean based beverage in the country.”

The irony is that coffees from Central American countries, South American countries, Kenya and Ethiopia are getting a premium in the global markets although none of these countries grow superior quality coffee like India does. During fiscal 2017-18, India exported coffees worth around Rs 6,000 crore, that’s the basic price the India produce fetched at the New York Futures Exchange. “We have the potential to double the value, with the same quantity of exports, if we are able to position our coffee under specialty and premium varieties and not as bulk commodity sold at the basic price,” said Bhandari. “The Ministry of Commerce should set up a special focus group for coffee, involving all stake holders in the industry, to create a profile, brand and a sophisticated communication for Indian coffee at home and outside. The government also has to sanction a fund to build a brand. All these are required to enhance the profile of Indian coffee in the global markets and also increase its domestic consumption,” he added.

Domestic consumption

To improve domestic consumption, the largest producer of coffee in the world, Brazil, has done something very smart. It introduced coffee in a school mid-day meal scheme about 10 years ago. It was like catching them young, and when this generation grew up, instead of visiting pubs and taking to drugs, they frequented cafes. This gave a big push to domestic coffee consumption.

Rohith Rajagopal, owner of Kerehuchloo Estate, Mudigere, Chikmagalur, said, “India can take this path, we in fact have the world’s best coffee to serve in schools for free. We should also make coffee more affordable and easily accessible. The industry players and the Coffee Board should take the initiative to make coffee decoction or liquid sachets available in the market.”

Chitralekha Rohith, a coffee enthusiast and also a coffee planter at Mudigere, Chikmagalur said, “We have a lot of people and friends visiting our gardens round the year. After seeing the green environment where coffee is grown and how it is cultivated, most of them return home with a newfound respect for this southern Indian beverage.”

Coffee Board chairman Boje Gowda said India consumes less than a third of its coffee production. The rest of the coffee is exported mostly to Europe and Russia. “In our country, per capita coffee consumption is too low, we are nowhere in comparison to major coffee consuming geographies. The consumption here is mostly restricted to coffee producing states. This has to change and coffee should become a pan India beverage.”

“The practice of making chicory mixed coffee should be legally banned. Nobody is saying chicory is bad, in fact it has health benefits, though not as much as coffee. But let chicory be sold as chicory and coffee as coffee. Using chicory to adulterate coffee and calling the final product coffee is an unethical practice,” said Rajagopal.

Specialty coffee & single estate brands

India has several specialty coffees and estate brands while many more are in the making. Some estates are spending a lot of money in developing and marketing these brands globally. The cuppers, graders and tasters and others are trying to tell a story, about the origin of a particular coffee, though Indian green coffee on its own is capable of fetching premium prices in the global markets.

Tata Coffee’s Nullore estate microlot became the first Indian microlot to be selected by Starbucks Reserve, Seattle. The feat was repeated by its Yemmigoondi estate microlot this year. Tata Coffee also produces other specialty varieties like monsooned coffees and single-estate coffees. Also Tata Coffee is the first Indian organisation to be part of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, a global sustainability initiative anchored by Starbucks and Conservation International.

Keeping in mind the global trend of ethically grown specialty coffees, the company developed a microlot programme — which is less than 0.1 per cent of its total green bean production — using the absolute best of its production. With highly selective picking and innovative processing methods, these coffees have graced some of the most discerning specialty coffee roasters across the world, say officials at Tata Coffee.

Dr Sunalini Menon, Asia’s first woman professional in the field of coffee cupping (tasting), a coffee quality control expert and founder of Bangalore-based Coffeelab, said, India grows the best coffee in the world and therefore it is placed at a great vantage position in terms of specialty coffees that can fetch great premiums in the international markets, but it comes with a responsibility. Specialty coffee is exclusive, exotic and unique as its origin is traced back to the bean it came from, the coffee plant it belongs to and to the estate it was grown on. The cultivar and terroir of a bean or coffee plant is well explained in black and white. All information related to seed and soil conditions, cultivation, fertilisation, harvesting, post harvesting processes, storage, packaging and shipping methods are made available to the consumer in detail.

India’s Monsooned Malabar (both Arabica and Robusta), Mysore Nuggets extra bold (Arabica) and Robusta Kappi Royle are India’s specialty varieties, developed by the Coffee Board. Tata Coffee, Allana Sons, Cafe Coffee Day and many others have coffee units on coastal areas of Karnataka and Kerala where sea wind, moisture, rain and special humidity conditions are available to cure specialty coffee Monsooned Malabar that offers a mild, mellow, soft and silky brew. KD Thimmaiah, general manager, Coffee Division, Aspinwall & Co, Mangalore, India currently exports over 5,000 tonnes (4000 Arabica and over 1000 tonnes of Robusta) of Monsooned Malabar, of which his company has a share of around 60 per cent.

The specialty coffee segment in the country has been growing at 5 per cent annually and it fetches up to 20 per cent premium in the global markets compared to standard coffee. Some of India’s estate coffee brands that are making waves in the domestic and international markets include Veer Athikan, Temple Mountain, Papakuchi, Jal, Taste of Freedom, Harley Estate Classic, Butter Cup Bold, Balanoor Bean, Monsooned Mellows, Monsooned Mystique, Riverine Coffee, Estate Craft and Halli Berri.

Growers’ woes

Coffee is a colourful industry. It comes with flavours and biodiversity. The green bean is the master and plays a critical role in the global markets. But all these come for a huge price paid exclusively by the growers. “Sudden uptick in growing cost, labour shortage, constant fall in prices, erratic rainfall and climate change, pests, increase in fertiliser prices are some of the key issues that are plaguing coffee estates,” said Coffee Board chairman, Gowda.

Nanda Belliappa, Vice president Karnataka Growers’ Federation, Committee member at Coorg Planters’ Association and also former member of Coffee Board, said, “Global warming, erratic rains, depredation by pests, apathy by central government and Coffee Board have in the last 25 years sent coffee cultivation and income into a tailspin that we growers will take a long time to recover from.”

Outbreak of pests and diseases due to global warming and weather-related issues have made Arabica coffee virtually impossible to cultivate and so farmers are converting their fields into Robusta which is hardier and not susceptible to pests and diseases. Coupled with the vagaries of nature, labour wages have gone up, input cost are up, cost of manure and fertilisers are also up and overall cost of cultivation per acre has gone up multiple times, Belliappa added. There are about two lakh coffee growers in the country and the coffee industry supports over 10 lakh people directly and indirectly by the coffee industry.

Price situation

Over production and bumper crops are always a price spoiler. The International Coffee Report said that during 2018/19, Brazil coffee crop is expected to be 53.2 million 60 kilo bags, 14.9 per cent more than last year. Colombia reported a coffee production of over 15 million bags, sharply up against the projection of over 13 million. Colombia is planning to increase its annual coffee harvest to 17 million 60 kg bags in 2030. Again, Honduras is expected to have a bumper crop of Arabica coffee. Excess coffee production from leading coffee growing countries like Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam and Indonesia has caused an oversupply with the prices of the commodity falling by about 30 per cent in the global markets.

India’s coffee exports reached an all-time high of 3.95 lakh tonnes in 2017-18 as compared to 3.53 lakh tonnes a year ago. The country’s coffee shipments have risen 12 per cent in volumes during the first half of calendar 2018 over last year on good demand from traditional buyers such as Italy and Germany. In value terms, the exports were up by over 7 per cent, both in rupee and dollar terms.

source:http://www.mydigitalfc.com

Tata Coffee unit finds US fee too hot

Coffee News, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg), World Opinion
Tata Coffee
Tata Coffee

A one-time fee for distribution in the US has become a drag on the profitability of Eight O’Clock Company, a coffee company owned by Tata Coffee Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Global Beverages Ltd.

During an analyst call, Tata Coffee managing director and CEO Sanjiv Sarin said the impact on Ebitda is “a necessary one” and is largely driven by a listing requirement in the trade in the US for distribution.

“The temporary hit has happened,” said Sarin, without disclosing the quantum of the listing fee.

In 2017, Tata Coffee through Eight O’ Clock Coffee (EOC) had signed an agreement with Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. for manufacturing, sale, licensing and distribution of EOC coffee in K-cup pods for use in Keurig brewers.

Keurig had agreed to pay royalty on the sale of EOC K-cup pods in certain channels and EOC agreed to pay co-packing fee to Keurig in certain other channels, as per a regulatory disclosure in March 2017.

K Venkataramanan, executive director – finance, and CFO, while addressing the analyst call, said, “The new arrangement is kind of settling down”.

EOC, held through company’s overseas subsidiary Consolidated Coffee Inc, recorded higher sales with a total income of $39.64 million in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal compared to $28.86 million in the year-ago period, while the consolidated pre-tax profit for the quarter under review was lower at Rs 41 crore as against Rs 63 crore in the same period last year partially due to one-time exceptional expenses in the US operation, a recent press release said.

Meanwhile, profits of Tata Coffee were also impacted due to lower realisation from its tea and pepper segments. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 31.22 crore in Q1FY19, a decline of 30.4% over the same period last fiscal.

Sarin said that pepper has been a focus area and a “strategic growth driver”.

According to him, the overall domestic production of pepper has exceeded by around 14% and Vietnamese pepper was trading at a significant discount to Indian origin pepper.

However, despite the minimum import price restriction of Rs 500 per kg, pepper prices have dipped from Rs 403 a kg at the beginning of the quarter to Rs 372 per kg at the end of the quarter, he said, adding that the market price drop has been quite steep and “has severely impacted profits”.

Tata Coffee announced its first quarter result on July 26. In a press release, the company had said the plantation segment has reported revenue of Rs.73 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal as against Rs 74 crore in the year-ago period. The operating profit was Rs 5 crore in Q1FY19 as against Rs.18 crore in the corresponding period on the back of lower tea and pepper realisations.

Sarin also said that the weather in Annamalai, where its tea estates are located has been “extremely adverse”. Continuous rainfall has impacted crop output, and is “one of the major impacts on Tata Coffee’s overall quarterly profits”.

However, to mitigate the impact, it is maximising its bought-leaf operation and has also brought in multiple cost optimisation measures, Sarin said, adding that the strategic step of converting one of its crush-tear-curl (CTC) factories into orthodox has also helped garner better realisations.

Filling the cup

Eight O’ Clock had signed an agreement with Keurig Green Mountain for sale of its coffee in K-cup pods for use in Keurig brewersKeurig had agreed to pay royalty on sale of EOC K-cup pods in certain channels whereas EOC agreed to pay co-packing fees to Keurig in certain other channels.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Business / by Soumonty Kanungo / July 31st, 2018

Coffee needs a boost from the government

Business & Economy, Coffee News, Leaders

Guest Column: Harish bijoor, brand expert

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Typically, coffee in India has been a beverage that has had a deeper connect in the south of the country, with literally no, or anecdotal connect in the north of the Vindhyas. This was the story of the past. Then came the liberalisation wave, the early 90s, when the free sale quota for individual planters came by. Earlier, coffee was a controlled commodity and growers could sell their beans only through a pooling system via the Coffee Board. The free system opened up the markets in the country and across the globe. Planters were now free to market their produce anywhere they wanted. And they did. A few did a brilliant brand game in the market, and the leader of the pack was VG Siddhartha, the founder and owner of country’s home-grown cafe chain Cafe Coffee Day. Others followed.

Instant coffee players such as Nestle and HUL had always been at the cutting edge of creating consumption in non-traditional markets. They continued in the game. Brands such as Nescafe, Bru and Sunrise criss-crossed consumption patterns in all regions of the country. However, till the mid-90s, coffee consumption was largely in solid form, in the form of packaged filter or instant coffee. Tata Coffee, Nestle and HUL were pioneers in the respective spaces of pure filter, chicory mixed filter, pure instant and mixed instant coffees.

With serial entrepreneur Siddhartha from Karnataka starting off Cafe Coffee Day with its first outlet on Brigade Road (which celebrates 22 years this month), Indian coffee was moving into its LIQUID era. And this has been the single most dominant strategic shift that Indian coffee saw in years. Cafe Coffee Day was pioneering the concept of the cafe style, which Starbucks had revolutionised in the US and in parts of Europe. With this, Indian coffee had two avatars: the SOLID in packet form and the LIQUID in the cafe at the corner form.

Coffee Cafes

That was the start point. Cafe Coffee Day started the cafe revolution in India in 1996. I remember being there at the first cafe on Day 1 which was really a Cyber-Cafe for a start with spanking new desktops and coupons of Rs 30 per hour being sold. I remember buying a T-shirt which I still possess and wear. It says proudly, “do Caffeine”!

Coffee today is about both solid and liquid. The liquid form is available at cafes of every kind all across the country and the solid form has a demand that is better, thanks to the liquid evangelist cafes doing their job quietly, but surely!

Yes, consumption of coffee in India is still small, and just no match for tea, but we have travelled long distances in these 22 years!

There is a lot of love for coffee in this country and that’s only growing. But coffee is an island drink. In an ocean of tea-consumers, coffee occupies a small fraction of space. Coffee was and is therefore a niche drink. A special drink even. Tea is easy to make, coffee is that much more difficult. Coffee was shared when special guests came home. Coffee meant bonding that was different. Young people embraced coffee as the most fashionable and happening drink to be seen with. It suddenly became young, from being fuddy-duddy. The environment of swanky cafes added zing and fizz to it all.

There are many more elements helping the South Indian brew to go mainstream from the staid and dull environs of Indian coffee houses to vibrant and buzzing coffee restos. Private players added big value. The Indian Coffee House of the Coffee Board had become more like a buzzing canteen where the middle-aged and the old congregated. The cafe to that extent adopted the avatar of the pub for the young. The coffee pub even! This added hangout value, fashion-tinges and more. Differentiation of the drink, niche-value, multiple flavours served etc brought in uncommon value and more takers for the Indian cuppa.

Big Challenge

Having said all this, domestic consumption still is a big challenge for India. The country is failing in promoting coffee as a beverage. There is a need for institutional involvement in this space. Instant coffee itself has big potential. The Government of India needs to adopt coffee as a drink of the future. The Coffee Board is a nodal body. I have been a member on it for five years and know the kind of work the board does in terms of plantation work, R&D and maintenance. The board needs to get a lot more front-ended in its work than it is today. It needs to adopt coffee promotion at the front end of consumption as its primary role.

The government, Coffee Board and the industry should not forget the fact that coffee growing is a tough job and growers need to be acknowledged for their hard work and their contribution to the economy. Karnataka alone accounts for almost 80 per cent of the country’s entire coffee production. Over 200,000 growers are involved in coffee and each grower faces every problem there is to pick. Costs are going

up while realisations are not. In fact, prices are only falling. Labour is getting to be expensive and maintenance of estates is a big-cost exercise. Cost of production overall is on the rise. Coffee goes through cycles of prosperity in terms of prices and doom in terms of prices as well. But, we hope to see domestic consumption increasing and cafe culture catching up, not just across metros and tier-I and II cities but also in tier-III cities, smaller towns and villages across the country. As of now, almost 85 per cent of our coffee is exported, a forex earning of around $10 billion per annum. Only a strong domestic market can insulate Indian bean from the price volatilities and related pressures in the global markets.

The author is the founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, formerly head of Consolidated Coffee (Currently Tata Coffee) and a former Coffee Board member)

source: http://www.mydigitalfc.com / Financial Chronicle – Mydigitalfc.com / by Guest Column : Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert / Julyu 2018

Mother Mirra’s Coffee’s 100-year legacy

Agriculture, Coffee News, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg), Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion
Chasing the perfect brew Sundar Subramaniam, Executive Director of Mirra's Coffee | Photo Credit: S_SIVA SARAVANAN
Chasing the perfect brew Sundar Subramaniam, Executive Director of Mirra’s Coffee | Photo Credit: S_SIVA SARAVANAN

As Mirra’s Idhu Namma Veetu Kaapi now steps into the new age with its latest filter coffee variants, we look back at the company’s 100-year-old legacy.

“I promise, you will keep coming back for more,” declares Sundar Subramaniam with a confident smile. The executive director of Mother Mirra Group of Companies offers me a fragrant brew, made with coffee powder from Mirra’s Idhu Namma Veetu Kaapi brand. The group recently launched three variants of filter coffee. It’s limited to retail in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for now, but Sundar is bursting with plans.

“We are marketing Mirra’s Coffee with the line ‘I want you to buy my coffee once’… we plan to give away free brass coffee davara sets with every packet soon. And, there will soon be wet sampling at malls and stores.”

Mother Mirra’s Coffee has a 100-year-old legacy. It comes from the house of the first Asian planter, PPR Subramaniam (Sundar’s great-grandfather) and his Virakesari Plantations. PPR was an entrepreneur and journalist from Avanipatti village, in the Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu. He also started Virakesari, the first Tamil newspaper in Sri Lanka in the 1930s, to give a voice to the rights of plantation workers.

“Back home, our community was often associated with the money-lending business. My great-grandfather set a new path. He moved to Sri Lanka at a time when plantations were still owned only by the British and the Scottish,” Sundar says with pride.

Later, PPR moved to Malaysia, where he bought more plantations. “My grandfather Sundarakesari continued the tradition and owned plantations in Coorg. My father S Subramanian followed suit,” says Sundar, now settled in Coimbatore.

Today, their plantation AA — or Premium Arabica — variety of beans is exported to countries within Asia and beyond. They also have a line-up of Arabica and Robusta with varying ratios of chicory content in them.

“Our wholesale market is thriving. We also sell online on Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, and Big Basket, something I introduced after I took over in the last six months. My focus is on digital marketing. We are getting a good response from our active social media pages too.” The group has also branched into budget homes and service apartments.

“I did my masters in business marketing at Cornell University in New Zealand. I wanted to work abroad, but my father had other plans. He met me at Singapore and handed me my return ticket to Coimbatore,” laughs Sundar.

What followed was the launch of the retail brand. They added more German machineries to the factory at Coorg and introduced three new products — pure coffee (100% premium Arabica), premium filter coffee (with 15% chicory) and Gold (with 47% chicory). A network of 350 dealers ensures that the filter coffee reaches stores in Coimbatore, Madurai, Chennai and Puducherry. “In a couple of months, we want to start exporting to Singapore and New Zealand.” They also plan to enter the Sri Lankan market, from where it all began. A particular street in Colombo, from where Virakesari was born, still goes by the name Chettiar Street, to honour his great-grandfather.

Among new products, a green coffee is in the offing. Sundar also plans coffee counters at airports: where one can sow coffee, roast, grind and brew a perfect davara.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Food / by K Jeshi / July 20th, 2018

“The Virtues of Coffee” Explained in 1690 Ad: The Cure for Lethargy, Scurvy, Dropsy, Gout & More

Coffee News, Records, All, World Opinion

CoffeeKF09july2018

According to many historians, the English Enlightenment may never have happened were it not for coffeehouses, the public sphere where poets, critics, philosophers, legal minds, and other intellectual gadflies regularly met to chatter about the pressing concerns of the day. And yet, writes scholar Bonnie Calhoun, “it was not for the taste of coffee that people flocked to these establishments.”

Indeed, one irate pamphleteer defined coffee, which was at this time without cream or sugar and usually watered down, as “puddle-water, and so ugly in colour and taste [sic].”

No syrupy, high-dollar Macchiatos or smooth, creamy lattes kept them coming back. Rather than the beverage, “it was the nature of the institution that caused its popularity to skyrocket during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”

How, then, were proprietors to achieve economic growth? Like the owner of the first English coffee-shop did in 1652, London merchant Samuel Price deployed the time-honored tactics of the mountebank, using advertising to make all sorts of claims for coffee’s many “virtues” in order to convince consumers to drink the stuff at home. In the 1690 broadside above, writes Rebecca Onion at Slate, Price made a “litany of claims for coffee’s health benefits,” some of which “we’d recognize today and others that seem far-fetched.” In the latter category are assertions that “coffee-drinking populations didn’t get common diseases” like kidney stones or “Scurvey, Gout, Dropsie.” Coffee could also, Price claimed, improve hearing and “swooning” and was “experimentally good to prevent Miscarriage.”

Among these spurious medical benefits is listed a genuine effect of coffee—its relief of “lethargy.” Price’s other beverages—“Chocolette, and Thee or Tea”—receive much less emphasis since they didn’t require a hard sell. No one needs to be convinced of the benefits of coffee these days—indeed many of us can’t function without it. But as we sit in corporate chain cafes, glued to smartphones and laptop screens and mostly ignoring each other, our coffeehouses have become somewhat pale imitations of those vibrant Enlightenment-era establishments where, writes Calhoun, “men [though rarely women] were encouraged to engage in both verbal and written discourse with regard for wit over rank.”

via Slate
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness.

source: http://www.openculture.com / Open Culture / Home> Food & Drink History / December 03rd, 2014

Starbucks introduces coffee brewed with nitrogen for first time in India

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Coffee News, Records, All

Cold coffee which will be called–Nitro Cold Brew marks Starbucks next chapter of coffee innovation through the newest take on its signature cold brew.

Tata Global Bev
Tata Global Bev

Tata Starbucks, a 50-50 joint venture between the US-based Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Global Beverages has been on an innovation spree of its products.

Starbucks today introduced a new generation of coffee for the first time in India infused with nitrogen.

Cold coffee which will be called–Nitro Cold Brew marks Starbucks’ next chapter of coffee innovation through the take on its signature cold brew.

Starbucks Nitro Cold brew is made after handcrafting the cold brew coffee and then infused with nitrogen. It is also available with vanilla flavour– vanilla sweet cream cold brew.

Starbucks cold brew will be available across all outlets in India, while Starbucks nitro cold brew is currently available in 5 stores across India namely–Mumbai-Kamala Mills, Bangalore-Jaya Nagar, Delhi-Green Park, Noida-DLF Mall of India, Kolkata, Park Mansions.

The company achieved a topline growth of 28 percent last year, supported by better in-store performance and growth through new stores.

Tata Starbucks recently made its maiden foray into Kolkata, the seventh city for the company in India. It plans three more stores there.

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / MoneyControl.com / Home> News> Business / July 04th, 2018

Coffee to keep tea company in hills

Coffee News
Coffee saplings being distributed among farmers at a village in Kalimpong . File picture
Coffee saplings being distributed among farmers at a village in Kalimpong . File picture

Darjeeling:

Coffee is set to make its debut in the Darjeeling hills which have so far been synonymous with tea.

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has decided to give a thrust to coffee plantation in Kalimpong district and picked 407 farmers who have started growing coffee in an area spread over 345.72 acres.

The directorate of cinchona and other medicinal plants has been identified as the nodal agency and is collaborating with the agriculture and horticulture departments of the GTA.

“We plan to brand it as Kalimpong Coffee and the thrust is on organic cultivation,” said Samuel Rai, director, cinchona plantations.

Four village clusters, comprising 34 villages in Kalimpong 1 and Kalimpong 2 blocks, have been formed.

“They are named as Loley, Bhalukhop, Algarah and Gitabling clusters,” said Rai.

To start with, the villagers were selected on the basis of their willingness to grow coffee. “Traditional cash crops like ginger, cardamom, oranges are not doing well and we realised that coffee could be a good alternative. We first spoke to the villagers and identified 407 willing farmers,” said Rai.

The majority of the 87 tea gardens in the hills are concentrated in Darjeeling district. But only six estates can sell their produce as “Darjeeling Tea” and are located in Kalimpong.

“Kalimpong is ideal for coffee plantation as the plant needs a temperature ranging from 20 to 32 degrees Celsius. Coffee is being cultivated by few individuals successfully and we have conducted the trials,” said Madhav Chhetri, a senior scientific officer of the GTA horticulture department.

The GTA has ordered for 7.20 lakh coffee saplings from nurseries in Karnataka which are certified by Coffee Board of India. “About 1 lakh saplings have already arrived. We are planting Chandragiri variety, which is suitable in the area and is both trunk borer and coffee rust-resistant.”

“All the growers will be trained by experts from the coffee board and within the next few months, 40 farmers from the clusters will be taken to Karnataka for further training,” said Chhetri who was also sent to the southern state for a training recently.

The GTA is currently investing Rs 2 crore in the first phase of the project. “At the moment, we are distributing saplings and providing the farmers with 75 percent subsidy,” said Chhetri.

The GTA has decided to set up dry and wet processing units.

Coffee from Kalimpong was also sent to the coffee board for tests. “The results are encouraging and we only need to concentrate on the high moisture level during production,” said Rai.

The GTA officials said initial estimate suggests that a coffee plant bears 6 to 8 kg of green coffee that commands a price of Rs 20 per kilogram in the market.

“If we can hold on to this estimate, then we are looking at selling our produce for around Rs 8 crore. This would be a great start for a project where we are initially investing Rs 2 crore,” said Chhetri.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> West Bengal / by Vivek Chhetri / July 05th, 2018

Strongest Coffee In The World Is Headed To International Space Station

Coffee News, World Opinion
Death Wish Coffee is sending what is hailed as the world's strongest coffee to astronauts at the ISS. The blend contains 200 percent more caffeine than standard coffee. ( Death Wish Coffee )
Death Wish Coffee is sending what is hailed as the world’s strongest coffee to astronauts at the ISS. The blend contains 200 percent more caffeine than standard coffee. ( Death Wish Coffee )

The world’s strongest coffee is headed to the International Space Station. It will launch into space on June 28 aboard SpaceX CRS-15.

Contains 200 Percent More Caffeine Than Regular Coffee
Death Wish Coffee is billed by its producer as the strongest coffee in the world for its high caffeine content and intense flavor.

The coffee company said that the blend contains 200 percent more caffeine compared with standard coffee, which could give astronauts the added punch that they need while working at the space station.

“Death Wish Coffee is the world’s strongest coffee with the highest-caffeine content available, resulting in a buzz that blows other coffees out of the water,” Death Wish Coffee described the product.

“And because we’ve taken the time to source fair-trade, USDA-certified organic coffee beans and refined our roasting techniques, we’ve created a high-caffeine coffee with low acidity that tastes good, too.”

Specially Packaged Death Wish Coffee For Astronauts Aboard The Space Station
The company is sending crew members of Expedition 56 a special freeze-dried version of the coffee packaged in the same foil packets used by astronauts for other beverages including normal-strength coffee.

Death Wish coffee is normally sold in 1-pound bags of whole and ground beans as well as in K-Cups, but the space-bound coffee is specially packaged by NASA in astronaut drink pouches.

Death Wish said that the coffee is designed to caffeinate astronauts aboard the ISS sans sacrificing the texture, flavor, and potency of the coffee.

Mike Brown, the founder of Death Wish Coffee, revealed about the plan to provide the world’s strongest coffee to astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory in a statement dated June 6.

“We couldn’t think of a better way to showcase the smoothness and strength of our coffee than by providing the crew aboard the International Space Station with an easy-to-make blend that will keep them on their feet,” Brown said in a statement.

Coffee And Coffee Machine For Astronauts Working In Microgravity
Coffee is a staple aboard the ISS as early as 2000, the year the first batch of crews arrived at the orbiting lab.

Astronauts and cosmonauts can choose from caffeinated or decaf instant coffee. Kona blend with just sugar or powdered cream or both already mixed in are also available.

The space station received its first coffee machine in May 2015 with the arrival of the Lavazza and Argotec ISSpresso.

source: http://www.techtimes.com / Tech Times / Home> Science> Space / by Allan Adamson Tech Times / June 27th, 2018

Agnieszka Rojewska wins World Barista Championship

Coffee News, World Opinion
Image credit: World Coffee Events, SCA and Jeff Hann.
Image credit: World Coffee Events, SCA and Jeff Hann.

Agnieszka Rojewska of Poland has won the 2018 World Barista Championship (WBC). Agnieszka, a veteran of multiple coffee competitions across the globe, triumphed over 55 other baristas to become the first woman ever to win the title.

Lex Wenneker of The Netherlands was runner up, Mathieu Theis of Switzerland was third place, Michalis Katsiavos of Greece was fourth, Cole Torode of Canada was fifth place, John Gordon of New Zealand was sixth place, and Craig Simon of Australia finished in seventh place.

“I never thought I’d be in the final so the fact I [was] is the best experience,” Rojewska said post-performance. “This is like the craziest day of my life.”

Rojewska of Full Pro Coffee has been making coffee for more than 10 years. She started working in a coffee chain before starting her own cafe. Agnieszka now works mostly as a coffee trainer, but has spent the past four years competing in various coffee competitions, tackling almost every category of competition there is to win.

Rojewska is a three-time Polish Barista Champion and four-time Polish Latte Art Champion with a career high ranking of third in the world in 2017. Rojewska will compete in Poland’s Brewers Cup Championship on Sunday 1 July, and will attempt another world title when she competes in the World Latte Art Championship in Brazil from 7 to 9 November.

Last year, Rojewska placed Runner-Up in the Polish Brewers Cup competition and New York Coffee Masters, but this year has been one of first places, winning the London Coffee Masters competition in April, and now the WBC in Amsterdam.

For her 15-minute routine, Rojewska used a coffee sourced from Project Origin Coffee’s CM Selections lot in Mesina, Ethiopia, a new coffee growing area. Because of the fresh soil and young 10-year-old trees planted at 2300 metres above sea level, Agnieszka said the result in the cup would have “more intense yellow fruit characteristics” and “extraordinary sweetness”.

The Heirloom cultivar underwent washed carbonic masceration processing, a concept Ona Coffee Founder Sasa Sestic first presented to the WBC in 2015, the same year he won the event. With this process, the coffee is depulped, put into tanks and pressurised with carbon dioxide to remove all oxygen and encourage lactic bacteria. The coffee was roasted by 2017 Brewers Cup Runner Up Sam Corra of Ona Coffee.

Rojewska says she chose to use Ethiopian coffee because of how expressive it is, with flavours of yellow and red fruit that are easy to recognise. “It was the first coffee I have fallen in love with,” Rojewska told the judges.

To make her milk beverage exude strawberry notes, Rojewska prepared a more intense espresso using 23 grams in the basket and 36 grams out via the Victoria Arduino Black Eagle machine. She added three-and-a-half ounces of milk to help achieve notes of milk chocolate and warm strawberry jam. The full cream milk had a high fat content for a creamy texture and combined with a lower temperature, reminded Rojewska of slow-melted chocolate ice cream.

Despite her accomplished latte art skills, Rojewska poured a simple small heart in the centre of each cup to help stretch the milk, give more aromatics, and more intense strawberry flavours.

For her signature beverage, Rojewska used Ona Coffee’s O.C.D and Stem devices to produce her shots and made a passionfruit infusion. This was made adding 100 grams of passionfruit to 30 grams of coconut sugar, 50 millilitres of water, and cooked for three hours at 60°C for more natural tropical fruit notes. To replicate the same lactic acid bacteria used in washed carbonic masceration, Rojewska used 100 grams of warm milk and seven grams of citric acid in the form of lime juice, which she then let sit and separate for three hours before straining three times. The end result was 20 grams of ‘washed milk’ and a creamy mouthfeel in her signature beverage. She added 4 grams of this liquid to 100 grams of water infused for 20 hours at 120°C, and blended it together with her espresso shots at 20 grams in the basket, 35 grams out.

Lastly, Rojewska prepared her espressos using the same Ethiopian coffee. Despite her coach Sasa Sestic pointing out that she was 20 seconds behind in his Livestream commentary, Rojewska pushed on, using 20 grams in the basket and 45 grams out to achieve medium sweetness, medium bitterness, and flavours of orange, plum, and low intensity of peach. She used visual aids to describe the body and texture of the body and concluded with a simple message.

“It’s my greatest pleasure to bring this world stage coffee to you as my customers, and most importantly, my friends,” Rojewska said with one seconds remaining on the clock.

In the past week, thousands of coffee professionals gathered in Amsterdam for World of Coffee (WOC), one of Europe’s largest coffee trade show, and the host of the 2018 WBC. Just under 11,000 professionals from across Europe and around the globe registered to attend, breaking records for the event.

Next year, WOC heads to the German capital of Berlin from 6 to 8 June, 2019 at the Messe Convention Center.

source: http://www.gcrmag.com / Global Coffee Report / June 25th, 2018

Coffee sector seeks govt support for re-plantation

Agriculture, Coffee News, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All

City: Chennai

With a large majority of coffee plantations having turned old and unproductive, coffee sector is seeking a Colombian-model re-plantation support from the government.

Abysmally low yield, lower price realisation and high levels of debt have been restraining the sector from taking up re-plantation on its own.

Re-plantation is long overdue for 65-70 per cent of India’s coffee farms. About 65 per cent of plants are more than 40 years old and for those varieties, the maximum yielding age of the plants is 35-40 years. Some of the better-yielding newer varieties have a shorter life of around 25 years and a good number of these newer varieties are also due for re-plantation, said AL RN Nagappan, coffee committee chairman of UPASI.

By retaining the older plants, both production and yield has been coming down. Coffee production, especially arabica production has been falling year-after-year in the past five years. From 120,000 tonnes, it has dropped below 90,000 tonnes.

The yield too is abysmally low. “We cannot even compare our yield with that of Brazil or Colombia. If an acre of coffee plantation provides 1.5 tonnes of coffee in Brazil, it would hardly produce 300 kg in India,’ said Nagappan. Inability to mechanise the plantations due to the hilly and rocky terrain also has been affecting the yield. According to Ramesh Rajah, president of the Coffee Exporters Association, coffee growers in the India are not in a position to take up the task of such large-scale re-plantation as most of the growers are incurring losses due to lesser price realisation and higher input cost.

“If the input cost on an acre is around Rs 70,000, the income would be around Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000. The grower is incurring a loss of around Rs 30,000 on an acre of coffee plantation,” said Boje Gowda, chairman, Coffee Board of India.

The growers have been relying on the pepper vines to make up for the losses. “But the pepper prices too are down this year,’ added Nagappan.

According Gowda, almost 80 per cent of the growers have defaulted on their loans and the non-performing assets of the coffee plantation have become a burden for the banks.

In such a scenario, the sector is looking forward for support from the part of the central and state governments. “The government should take a leaf out of the re-plantation scheme being provided for growers in Columbia. The government has been providing financial support for the past few years and now the country has been able to enhance its production significantly,” said Rajah.

Since 2009, Colombia has been replanting around 85,000 hectares of coffee plantations every year. The government has been providing subsidy for the every replanted coffee.

“We have been requesting both central and state government to provide subsidies on the inputs like fertilizer electricity and machines,’ said Gowda.

As the grower has to forego the income during re-plantation, he also wants financial support during that critical period. “We are also expecting an interest waiver for the loans so that the growers can pay back at least the principal,” said Nagappan.

source: http://www.mydigitalfc.com / mydigitalfc.com / Home> Miscellany / by Sangeetha G