In line with its focus on innovation, Tata Consumer Products announces the launch of its premium instant coffee ‘Tata Coffee Grand Premium’ a 100 percent coffee blend with flavor-locked decoction crystals. The product has been launched keeping in mind the taste preference of consumers in non-South markets who tend to prefer a 100 percent coffee blend over a coffee: chicory blend (which is more preferred in South).
Tata Coffee Grand Premium, while being a 100 percent coffee blend also has unique flavor-locked decoction crystals which lock in taste and aroma and are the key differentiator for the brand as it’s a unique product offering over its key competitors.
The new launch is supported by a captivating film, using ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) that showcases the sensory journey of Tata coffee Grand Premium from bean to cup.
ASMR videos are sensory magic that invigorates listeners and captivates viewers intensely.
The new film accentuates the brand’s positioning through a scenic and captivating ASMR video by featuring the enthralling sounds of how the coffee beans are born in the plantation, carefully plucked, dried, roasted, and then grounded and processed to perfection to deliver the signature ‘Shik Shik Shik’ sound of the flavor locked decoction crystals of Tata Coffee Grand.
The campaign integrated creativity and technology to deliver a film that resonates with the brand’s core proposition of great-sounding coffee. Through this campaign, the brand aims to build a strong and memorable connection with consumers by leveraging the power of sonic marketing.
Puneet Das, President – Packaged Beverages (India and South Asia), Tata Consumer Products said,
“Our ambition is to become a significant coffee player and we continue to offer relevant and quality offerings to grow our share in the India coffee market. Indian consumers are embracing a new wave of coffee. Hence, as we continue to expand our presence and reach to consumers across India we are strengthening our portfolio across the country with the launch of Tata Coffee Grand Premium- a 100 percent coffee blend with flavour-locked decoction crystals that gives consumers a rich and aromatic cup of coffee”.
He further said, “The differentiation of Tata Coffee Grand is the signature SHIK SHIK SHIK sound of the flavor locked decoction crystals. Hence, it was only natural to bring the brand story alive through sensorial stimulation which is unique to ASMR. The new launch will be scaled by leveraging TCPL’s network and distribution reach across channels including E-commerce and modern trade.”
In 2015, Tata Consumer Products limited made its entry into the branded instant coffee business in India under the brand name Tata Coffee Grand.
After leading the Indian tea market under its iconic Tata Tea brand, the company took the strategic step to leverage its product, marketing, and retail expertise to enter the branded coffee space in India.
source: http://www.indianretailer.com / Indian Retailer / Home> News> Retail & Business / by Indian Retailer Bureau / by sub-editor / January 05th, 2023
Suresh has harvested nearly 7000 kilos of ripened coffee beans from a total of 1220 dwarf varieties of Robusta plants.
Image used for representational purpose only.
Madikeri :
The coffee sector is not doing well. The reasons are many such as crop damage caused by incessant rains, disease outbreaks and overall changes in climatic conditions. However, a “progressive” farmer in Madikeri, Ponnachettira Suresh is doing well. Suresh has harvested nearly 7000 kilos of ripened coffee beans from a total of 1220 dwarf varieties of Robusta plants.
“A planter is also a doctor who treats the plants,” Suresh quips.
It was in 2020 that Suresh learnt about the dwarf variety of Robusta coffee from a friend in Kolkata. Always open to experimenting, Suresh availed five seeds of this dwarf Robusta variety and he developed them into seedlings.
“Out of the five seeds, one did not survive. However, from the four seedlings, I propagated 196 dwarf plants and I have now planted 1220 plants of the same species,” explained Suresh.
With 6 feet X 6 feet spacing, a total of three acres of land was developed with the dwarf variety of Robusta and Suresh planted Gliricidia Tree for the shade across the area.
“The plants are yielding after three years and I have picked 7000 kilos so far,” he said.
Suresh explained that the dwarf variety does not require any over-the-top maintenance. “The plantation was manured five to six times, irrigated in February and March with sprinkler irrigation and a chemical spray was carried out before monsoon to avoid dropping and rotting of the plants,” he added. He opined that the maintenance of the plantation varies and depends on the condition of the soil, weather and other variants.
“I do not use complex manure. Instead, I feed the plants with only the required amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. These nutrients are fed by hand as per requirement. While the labour charge might increase in this process, it will ensure proper health and growth of the plant as not all nutrients are required in equal amounts,” he shared. He provides the plants with nutrients depending on the weather condition, which has helped his estate flourish.
“However, the dwarf Robusta variety has not been certified by the Coffee Board and this might be due to the lack of interest in this regard. Nevertheless, I have marked five dwarf variety plants and I will be recording the yield of these plants for the coming five years. This data will be handed over to the coffee board,” he said.
Suresh has always been a “progressive” grower and he has a 400-year-old Robusta plant known as Robusta Peridenia, a 200-year-old variety known as Coffea Congensis and other rare varieties of crops that are still yielding. He is also an avid orange grower and has won a state award for best cultivation of Coorg Mandarin.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Prajna GR, Express News Service / December 18th, 2022
Coorg Coffee Festival and Expo will held at Raja Seat, Madikeri on December 10 and 11.
Kodagu as a whole is known for the wonderful nature accomplished with rains and mist, besides a galaxy of wild animals. The nature here is praised all over for the exciting seasons throughout the year and is even coined as the “Scotland of India”
Kodagu produces one of the finest Coffees under Western Ghats hot spots. which are marked as living ecosystems and ecologically sensitive areas, marching sustainably along with flora and fauna. Coffee growers in this region have imprinted world coffee lovers and engraved an image of best coffees in the Western Ghats.
To strengthen further and to make world to aware the instinct note of Coorg Coffee and Indian Lovers in particular, the District administration is organizing a “Coorg Coffee Festival and Expo” first of its kind on 10 and 11 at Raja Seat, Madikeri
The main objectives of the festival are to bring all the coffee stakeholders under one umbrella and to promote Coorg Coffee extensively among the Coffee lovers, tourists visiting Coorg from across the country and world also.
Disteict administration stated in a press release “private entities who are involved in the Coffee Value Chain are requested to take part in the festival and exhibit their products. In this regard, the Coffee Board and the Department of Horticulture will be the facilitating entities to carry out the above programme”.
All the communications related to exhibition stall including registration and remittance of stall charges will be on the coorgcoffee-coorgcoffeefestival2022@gmail.com
Acviss Technologies develops a “no internet” blockchain-based traceability application for the Coffee Board of India.
Brand protection and consumer engagement technology company Acviss Technologies develops a “no internet” blockchain-based traceability application for the Coffee Board of India. This app is designed to protect coffee production from counterfeiting.
The Coffee Board of India has been working with marginalized tribal coffee growers to help them improve their farm productivity and quality. With the introduction of this anti-counterfeiting technology, farmers have been able to benefit from higher incomes in their farm produce.
In the last few years, the demand for differentiated coffees with traceability features has been increasing across the world and the differentiated coffees which can be traced back to their source can help obtain a premium for these coffee farmers.
Commenting on this, Vikas Jain, Founder, of Acviss Technologies, said, “It has been a pleasure creating a solution for the Coffee Board of India, we’ve not only built something innovative but we’ve also tried to make it accessible and helpful for the common man, the app we have created is very simple and does not require Wifi for farmers to scan. It’s a very easy and user-friendly app created first and foremost for the benefit of farmers”
The blockchain-based traceability application by Acviss is an anti-counterfeiting solution that helps to reorganize the unstructured supply chain, provides transparency in transactions, and protects farmers from fraud and fake GI tag products with the help of quality evaluation.
This app also helps farmers to generate stable income and protects them from any collateral damage with the help of automated payments, insurance, and financing as there is no middleman involved. For the end users, this app also helps consumers by providing authenticated certifications ensuring that the bought product is safe for consumption.
Talking about this implementation, the officials of the Coffee Board of India, said, “We have worked with Acviss to develop a blockchain solution that has been implemented in Karnataka and we have been very satisfied with the output. With this solution, the farmers have been able to gain benefits. Their incomes have gone up by about 43 per cent because of this traceability app.”
Coffee has become an increasingly common target for food fraudsters, with low-quality ground coffee beans adulterated with filler ingredients such as corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, acai seed, brown sugar, or starch syrup. One of the main drivers has been a reduction in coffee bean output due to poor harvests in some key producers.
With this application, coffee procured by these tribal farmers can now be traced from the grower to the consumer. Coffee parameters like moisture, weight, type and outturn captured at source farms are mentioned. Along with this, certification data is also available for each sample collected.
To build consumer confidence, this app also displays the farm locations and the farmer data. It helps in simpler transactions between farmers and the end consumer with the help of digitalization as every product packaged goes through an authentic signature. This digital signature cannot be tampered with and helps in easy tractions between the farmers, processing unit, warehouse, distributor, retail, and finally the consumer.
Coffee has become an increasingly common target for food fraudsters, with low-quality ground coffee beans adulterated with filler ingredients such as corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, acai seed, brown sugar, or starch syrup. One of the main drivers has been a reduction in coffee bean output due to poor harvests in some key producers.
source: http://www.bwdisrupt.businessworld.in / BW Disrupt / Home / by BW Online Bureau / December 03rd, 2022
A unique eco-certification initiative in Kodagu’s famous coffee estates offers fresh hope for preserving native rainforests of the Western Ghats.
Growing coffee in the shade of evergreen trees in Kodagu. | Gopikrishna Warrier
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when coffee farmers in Kodagu district of Karnataka grew their plants only under the canopy of evergreen forests they had inherited. Now they prefer to grow it under the sun, which has serious implications for the Western Ghats and on the waters of the Kaveri River.
More and more farmers are now letting trees such as Dadup (Erythrina subumbrans), Arecanut (Areca catechu), Balanji (Acrocarpus fraxnifolius) and Jackfruit (Acrocarpus heterophyllus) die so that the canopy can be opened up and they can grow sun-loving coffee varieties that produce more berries and beans, resulting in higher returns.
Instead of the big trees, they are now planting exotic Silver Oaks (Grevillea robusta), whose pole-like trunk can be used as a support for the climbing pepper vines, which help boosting incomes. The proliferation of Silver Oaks has made it one of the more common trees in some parts of the area.
This transition has a larger ecosystem cost. Kodagu, earlier known as Coorg, is located on the western edge of the Mysore Plateau, at an average altitude of 800 metres, as it lifts up to the crest of the Western Ghats ridge (altitude above 1,500 m) and then falls sharply westwards into Kerala. The plateau mainly slopes eastwards, with the streams and rivers joining to form the Kaveri River, which is the lifeline for millions of people in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
With insufficient rains over the Western Ghats during this year’s southwest monsoon, there is a shortage of water in the reservoirs across the Kaveri in Karnataka. This has led to the flaring of the water-sharing dispute with the lower riparian state of Tamil Nadu in recent days.
While this acrimony continues, payment for ecosystem services measures are being worked out in Kodagu district so that coffee farmers protect the forests under which they grow their crop, thereby preserving the water flow into the Cauvery. These measures also help to maintain the climate resilience in the river’s catchment and command areas.
With the forest-like mixed-tree canopy in coffee plantations disappearing, the torrential rains of the southwest monsoon flows quickly down the streams, carrying valuable topsoil away and causing floods followed by long dry periods downstream.
Paying for ecosystem services
The Kodagu farmers are being encouraged through payment for ecosystem services, in the form of eco-certification, to continue with their traditional coffee cultivation under the shade of mixed species of trees. This will help strengthen the ecosystem services they receive from the unique landscape of Kodagu, and also strengthen similar services and climate resilience of all those relying on the waters of the Kaveri downstream.
The concept of eco-certified coffee, whose certification process ensures that coffee is grown under mixed-species trees, has gained popularity in the district in the past five years. Close to 900 coffee farmers have converted to eco-certified coffee. Even with a conservative estimate of 10 acre per farmer, this means nearly 10,000 acres of eco-certified coffee. In addition, with Tata Coffee getting all of its 13 estates eco-certified, Kodagu district has at least 20,000 acres under coffee cultivation that aims to minimise damage to the environment.
As an incentive for protecting the environment, the coffee farmers get a premium above the market price for their coffee beans. Coffee is the major agricultural produce from Kodagu, with 33% of the district landscape under its cultivation. About 38% of India’s coffee production comes from the district.
Ecologically, Kodagu district has been identified as a micro hotspot of biodiversity under the larger Western Ghats region. Rightly so, since the western crest of the mountainous district is in the direct path of the southwest monsoon. The dark clouds heavy with rain dump much water over the district. While the western edge of the district receives above 5,000 mm of rainfall on an average, it reduces to around 1,200 mm in the east. Most of the water feeds into the Kaveri.
According to a reportby the College of Forestry at Ponnampet in Kodagu, natural forested ecosystems cover an area of 46% of the total area of the district. These include evergreen, semi evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous and scrub forest types, and even the high-altitude shola-grassland ecosystem.
Traditionally, coffee is grown in the shade of these forests. Coffee estates in Kogadu have on an average 350 trees per hectare, compared with 270 in degraded groves and 640 trees per hectare in the nearby Brahagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, making these estates amongst the densest agro-forestry systems in the world.
“Very few landscapes across the world grow coffee in the way in which Kodagu does,” said C.G. Kushalappa, university head for forestry and environment sciences at the College of Forestry, Ponnampet in Kodagu. “We grow both Arabica and Robusta coffee under the shade of the trees. Our shade-grown Robusta fetch a premium price. When grown under the shade, the berries mature slowly and fill out better. They have good cupping (taste) quality.”
Coffee plants are increasing being cultivated under exotic Silver Oak trees. (Photo by S. Gopikrishna Warrier)
However, he needed scientific data to convince the coffee farmers and the district administration that there was strong ecosystem benefit in maintaining the traditional shade-growing methods. The opportunity for doing this research emerged when the College of Forestry was chosen as the lead institute in India to carry out the Coffee Agro-Forestry Network, or CAFNET study to understand the environmental services from this unique landscape.
Financed by the European Commission, the study was jointly conducted by the College of Forestry, the Coffee Board, the French Institute at Puducherry, CIRAD (the French national agricultural research system) and Bangor University from the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2011.
Rich local knowledge
The study noted that the multi-storeyed coffee agro-forestry system developed and sustained by the farmers based on their local knowledge is one of the most diverse production systems in the world. The traditional coffee agro-forestry system sustains diverse animal, bird, plant and microorganisms, and provide biodiversity, carbon sequestration and water-related ecosystem services. Since multiple crops such as pepper, mandarin oranges, vanilla and timber is also grown in these systems, they help provide resilience to farmers when they are hit by coffee price volatility.
The CAFNET report recommended that coffee farmers growing Arabica and Robusta under shade trees should be paid for the ecosystem services that their farms provide, so that they can protect biodiversity and therefore water in the Cauvery. Two methodologies for payment for ecosystem services suggested was eco-certification and geographical indications protection for Kodagu coffee.
Eco-certification of coffee farms in Kodagu started as a follow-up to this recommendation. Coffee farmer BB Thammaiah says his interest was piqued when students from the College of Forestry came to his farm to carry out biodiversity studies. “After the studies I was told about the uniqueness of the method in which I grow coffee, and I went in for eco-certification,” he said.
The two eco-certifications that have been popularly accepted are from the Rainforest Alliance and Utz. Coffee grower KK Naren in Kunda village near Ponnampet said the main benefit of the eco-certification process is that farmers are trained in good practices that have good environmental benefits and improve the working and living conditions for the workers.
“The economic benefit is not much,” he said. “It is more of training for us, which will be beneficial in the long run. The eco-certification process educates the coffee farmers about the environment.”
Importance of native trees
The most important lesson from the training relating to the eco-certification, according to Narenm was the understanding on the importance of native trees. “It is not that we didn’t know about native trees but we were not that keen on maintaining them,” he said. “The native trees do not give good financial returns, so we gave importance to silver oak.”
According to Naren, the Rainforest Alliance eco-certification process looks at whether native shade trees are present. The certifiers and auditors also look at labour management, whether the minimum labour wage is paid and the cleanliness around the labour quarters. They are very strict about not using child labour. “They also look at the way chemicals are used,” he said. “They are not saying no to chemicals but there are restrictions to some chemicals and the way the rest are used. They are keen that we should not use pesticides of chemicals near the rivers or tanks. They give importance to maintain local environment.”
Individual planters like Thammaiah and Naren got an opportunity, through the eco-certificaion process, to access the international market through a Swiss procurement agency that buys higher quality coffee. Both of them sell their eco-certified coffee to Ecom Gill, who procures the eco-certified produce for supply to Nespresso.
BB Thammaiah in his coffee farm where the plants are grown under the shade of native evergreen trees. (Photo by S. Gopikrishna Warrier)
For Tata Global Beverages Ltd and its production subsidiary Tata Coffee Ltd, the move to eco-certification of all of its 13 estates in Kodagu was an important step in the process to make its supply chain sustainable. According to Anurag Priyadarshi, global sustainability manager for Tata Global Beverages, one of the guiding principles that the group has adopted is to source sustainability. For this, all their estates in Kodagu have been eco-certified by Rainforest Alliance and Utz.
“Through the eco-certification process we are trying to ensure good management practices for the ecosystem, energy, water, waste, soil and agro-chemicals. We ensure the safety of the produce and also occupational health of the workers. Ultimately we want to prevent the impacts of climate change,” he said.
MB Ganapathy, head of plantations for Tata Coffee, said the company is aware about the fact that they are growing coffee in Kodagu, which is a biodiversity hotspot in the Western Ghats. “We have recognised this fact and that is the reason that our vision is to enhance the ecological wealth we have inherited. The eco-certification helps us safeguard the environment.”
Challenges remain
However, the rapid spread of the eco-certification process has also raised some hiccups which need to be overcome, states TR Shankar Raman, scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation, whose organisation was involved with helping Rainforest Alliance with the certification in the initial years. The three points of concern, according to him, is the very rapid pace at which certification is being done; the relative absence of biologists and social scientists in the auditing process; and the dilution of conservation standards (like the requisite number of native species and canopy cover) in subsequent versions of the certification guidelines.
“While the rapid certification has more and more farmers being eco-certified, we hope the rigour of the process continues to be maintained, so that the end result of conserving the native vegetation is not compromised,” Raman observed.
With more farmers opting for eco-certification, there is a movement towards the protection of the traditional methods of coffee cultivation under the shade of mixed-tree species. For the process to strengthen the farmers should continue to get good economic benefit for their eco-certified produce.
According to Naren, if there is at least 10% more returns from the eco-certified coffee remains constant then there will be an incentive for the opting for opting for the process. At present the price at which procurement agencies such as Ecom Gill buy is linked to the international market price, plus a premium of Rs 60 to Rs 80 for a 50 kg bag of sun-dried cherries. The international prices fluctuate in relation to the local market prices, and as with the current situation can go below the domestic price.
However, Kushalappa says that in addition to the premium, there are other incentives and bonuses for producing good quality coffee beans. The average increase in price above the local market price was around 15% last year, which is well worth the effort.
If additional income for coffee farmers from eco-certification can help conserve unique agro-forestry ecosystem of Kodagu, then it will be the water flow into the Cauvery that would be conserved. Millions of people downstream, including the residents of Bengaluru and other parts of peninsular India, will thank the coffee farmers upstream for their drinking water and climate resilience.
We walked through meandering coffee plantations and around precarious corners that led up steep cliffs. “Most of these coffee farms belong to local families trying to make a living. They do most of the work themselves. It is difficult labor,” Aarush, the enthusiastic tourism manager at Mojo Plantation, explained. Eventually the forest ascended into open valleys overlooking thick, emerald rainforest below. “You see the mountainside there? There were huge landslides last year.”
Each year during the rainy season, torrential rains cause mudslides that destroy homes, villages, and farmland. Nonetheless, Coorg’s exceptional beauty alongside the promise of fertile land and the increasing boom of the coffee industry have made this slice of southern India an attractive destination to build a livelihood for centuries.
History of Coffee in India
India is a nation typically renowned for its tea. Chai wallahsare found on corners across India selling small cups of tea from roadside stands and carts. Grand tea estates and blossoming tea plantations cover hill stations across both northern and southern India. However, India also has a little-known coffee history that has blossomed into a flourishing industry in recent years.
History tells it that in 1670, a Muslim pilgrim named Baba Budan snuck seven coffee beans in his beard aboard a ship to India. Upon arrival, he planted these beans in the Chikmagalur region near Coorg in Karnataka. At this time, it was illegal to transport green coffee beans outside of Yemen, and the ports were strictly monitored in an effort to maintain a monopoly on local coffee production and trade.
Baba Budan was not only successful at sneaking them out of Yemen but also successfully planted them in Chandragiri Hills. Legend has it that the Baba had his friends carry the beans with them and plant them wherever they went, mostly in gardens and backyards. Coffee production prospered in Chandragiri Hills over the next century. However, the bean didn’t spread throughout other parts of India until the 19th century, when coffee started being exported for trade. Coffee now flourishes in Karnataka, where the slopes of the Western Ghats are brought to life with the fresh aromas of arabica and robusta plants.
Coffee fruit.
Welcome to Coorg
Also known as Kodagu in the local Kodava language, Coorg is a district and hill station in southern Karnataka, a state on India’s southwestern coast. Coorg is rich with colorful folklore and a dynamic history.
“You know there are sacred forests in Coorg? People worship the forests and the species living in them,” Aarush mused. The original Kodava inhabitants were agriculturalists, still evident today in the protection of forests and the emphasis on agriculture in the region.
The undeniable natural beauty and abundance in Coorg—from rainfall and rice fields to fertile soil and diverse water sources—made the region a highly sought-after location to outsiders throughout history. Nonetheless, the Haleri dynasty, which ruled from 1600, withstood countless attempted invasions of Coorg for centuries, reigning strong and quelling outside attacks.
The last king, Chikka Veerarajendra, however, lost the support of his people and eventually the warriors who once propped up the Haleri dynasty also brought it to an end. Shortly thereafter, in 1834, a Coorg general named Apparanda Bopanna invited the British forces into the kingdom. Despite previous resistance to British influence, the partnership with the British beckoned in a period of peace and prosperity. The British introduced coffee cultivation on a mass scale, capitalizing on the coffee beans that were brought over some centuries earlier.
The first coffee estate was established in Coorg in 1854 by an Englishman named John Fowler. Soon, almost every family in Coorg began to grow the infamous bean that energizes people across the globe. This tradition has been carried through generations to present day, perhaps contributing to the nickname Coorg has acquired of being “the coffee cup of India.”
Contemporary Sustainable Farming
Coffee in south India is a competitive commodity to the infamous tea that dominates India’s northern states. Estates are plentiful in the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The plants grow beneath thick, natural shade in ecologically diverse and sensitive regions of the Western and Eastern Ghats. Coffee plantations simultaneously contribute to the biodiversity of the local ecosystem and to the socioeconomic development of these hilly, rural regions.
Coorg grows 40 percent of India’s coffee, and the local economy relies heavily on it. The majority of the uninhabited land is cultivated coffee farms, many of them still owned by families as they were when coffee estates first emerged in the mid-19th century.
Today, Karnataka yields 140,000 tons of coffee a year and is the largest producer of coffee in the country. As a whole, India produces 299,300 tons of coffee annually, according to a 2019-2020 census by THE COFFEE BOARD OF INDIA. India is the third-largest producer and exporter of coffee in Asia and the sixth-largest producer and fifth-largest exporter of coffee in the world. It accounts for 3.14 percent of the global coffee production. Seventy percent of India’s coffee is exported, and thirty percent is distributed and consumed domestically.
Spice Farms
Even though Coorg might be known as the coffee cup of India, the region has been renowned for its spices for centuries, long predating the introduction of coffee. Coorg pepper is particularly famous. Since ancient times, traders arrived at the Malabar Coast in bordering Kerala to purchase the treasured black spice grown in the emerald hills of Coorg. Cardamom, cloves and kokum, among other spices, grow abundant in Coorg and supplied the Malabar spice coast trade. Coffee hasn’t replaced the spice trade in Coorg, but rather complemented it. Today, on many estates, coffee and spices grow side by side and benefit from the diversification of the local eco-system.
Sustainable Tourism and Agriculture
“Can you smell the flowers? Doesn’t it smell like jasmine?” Sunal, my guide at Evolve Back asks me. He is right. I notice a discernible scent of jasmine permeating the air as we walk through rows of blossoming coffee trees. “When the coffee trees are ripe, they have small, white flowers that smell like jasmine.” The rows of arabica and robusta trees hang heavy with burgundy-colored fruit and delicate white flowers. Interspersed among the blossoming coffee trees are ladders of pepper vines climbing into the sky.
There are two different climates in Coorg—rainforest and dry, temperate forests—both of which are friendly for coffee growing conditions. A region relatively far off the typical tourism track, the increasing focus on sustainable, organic farming alongside experiential travel has been monumental in encouraging intentional and experiential travel in Coorg. A handful of initiatives have developed sustainable, organic coffee growing, which is leading to a regionwide awareness around responsible agritourism.
Coffee flowers in bloom.
I started my time at RAINFOREST RETREAT, which is situated outside of Coorg’s main town, Madikeri, and offers an educational and immersive coffee-based tourism experience. This organic farm and guesthouse feeds into the concept of organic, sustainable agriculture. Set amid tropical rainforest, Rainforest Retreat and the adjoined Mojo Plantation are a deeply researched experiment in ecological farming. Understanding and playing to the strengths of the eco-system, the plantation focuses on “agro-ecology.” They encourage all forms of organic farming, including biodynamic farming, permaculture and traditional practices such as panchkavyaandjeevamruth, which all help to sustain healthy, living soils.
On Mojo Plantation, the coffee and spices flourish side by side amid the riches of the rainforest. During my stay, I spent hours each day meandering through thick growth of native trees, vanilla, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper crops; and coffee trees heavy with ripened arabica and robusta beans. The growth of the rainforest canopy is left natural, allowing for the fungi, spiders and insects native to the ecosystem to their important role in the ecological coffee and spice farming in this region. Mojo Plantation also produces the delicacy luwak coffee. The civet cat ingests coffee beans and the excrements are collected and processed into some of the most expensive coffee available on the market.
Mojo Plantation also runs an NGO, which offers workshops and trainings for farmers and agricultural businesses about organic, chemical-free practices, to encourage a continued shift and commitment to ecological farming as a method to grow organic coffee and spices.
Beans are bagged and ready for market at Evolve Back.
From Rainforest Retreat, I traveled to EVOLVE BACK, which sits on the opposite side of Coorg in a more temperate climate. This family-run plantation and guesthouse dating back over a century stands as an example of the entwinement of mostly domestic tourism and the coffee industry in Coorg. Inviting guests to stay amid an organic coffee and spice plantation, Evolve Back offers a complete immersion into the ebbs and flows of work on a coffee plantation.
Each day a new experience that was immersive, sustainable and educational. I walked through the expansive breadth of the plantation, abundant in plant and spice varietals. I learned about and visited each step of coffee cultivation, from the fields, to sun-drying the beans, to processing the beans in the factory. I tasted surprisingly smooth coffee wine, a fermented drink made from remaining coffee juice after the beans were separated from their skins. I cycled through villages along the river Cauvary. On my final day, I joined farmers in the field to pick ripe coffee beans. At the end of an afternoon in the fields, I sunk my teeth into delightfully pink rose apples as the truck pulled away, leaving me with the sight of coffee fields receding into the horizon.
Local Consumption
At some point during the 19th century, South Indians began to adopt coffee drinking, and adapted it with their own style. They brew their coffee with milk and sweeten it with jaggery. While coffee remains a beverage mostly consumed at home across India, the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are plentiful with street-side coffee stands, much like the chai stands throughout northern India.
“We have saved the best for last: India’s infamous Kaapi coffee,” the barista at Evolve Back announced. Each afternoon Evolve Back hosts a coffee tasting for its guests to try different roasts and ways to brew coffee, from cappuccino to Vietnamese, and including India’s very own coffee, known as Kaapi. Amid the thick green coffee plantations and the stirrings of the surrounding jungle, the barista carefully pours steaming cups of Kaapi.
Also known as South India filter coffee, Kaapi is India’s most recognized coffee specialty. This brew requires boiling milk, to which coffee and sugar are added. The liquid is processed through a cylindrical filter. After the tedious filtration process, the frothy concoction is poured into a metal cup, known as a davara, which is served inside a stainless-steel tumbler.
After days of having to turn down coffee after coffee due to an inexplicable caffeine intolerance I have had for a decade, I couldn’t resist tasting the smooth, flavorful specialty. I savored the few sips I allowed myself to indulge in, drinking in the centuries-long history of coffee that its way into this unassuming forested region off the southwest coast of India.
**Note: Names have been changed for privacy purposes
source: http://www.whetstonemagazine.com / Whetstone / Home> Journal / by Alicia Erikson , Text and Photo www.journeywithalicia.com / September 14th
Nestled in the many hills of Kodagu, Hassan and Chikkamagaluru are countless coffee estates. The vast green estates betray the problems that coffee growers now face due to an acute labour shortage and climate change. These estates, once profitable, have been affected by unpredictable rains.
The 2018 landslide, a climate calamity in the region, washed away Savita’s 10-acre estate in Thanthipala, Madikeri. Four years later, many disasters followed suit. “I did not want to come back to this village, I was scared,” she says.
Kodagu is the largest coffee-producing district in the country with a total of 22,320 growers and 2,20,430 hectares of plantation land. The growers of the globally sought-after Monsoon Malabar beans are faced with new challenges, including a hard blow by landslides four years ago.
Landslides affected 2,095 hectares of land in Madikeri and Somwarpet. Of this, 959 hectares were plantation land.
Reminders of these landslides are plain to see in the areas of Thanthipala, Mukkodlu, Hattihole, Madapura, Hebbettageri and Monnageri.
For the plantation owners who lost land, there has been little relief, explains Nanda Belliappa, Vice-Chairman, Codagu Planters Association (CPA). “Apart from National Disaster Relief Fund relief, which is meagre, growers have not received any aid. Many areas have yet to be brought to condition. Land preparation has to be done,” he says.
Although Savita received compensation for her damaged house, it did not extend to estate loss. “I make a livelihood from the five acres of land that survived the disaster in 2018,” she says.
The once pristine greenery and ecosystems in these areas have been altered forever. In this place stands fissured land, devoid of trees, as a testament to government apathy.
Coupled with the rising cost of production, the plantation growers are constantly challenged by changing climate, lack of skilled labour, elephant-human conflicts and gaps in policy and reforms.
Plantation growers also point out the lower productivity of coffee varieties in India when compared to other coffee-producing countries. This is attributed to the gradual conversion of Arabica plantations to Robusta over the years, and the white stem borer menace.
What is the way ahead?
There is a significant technology gap in the plantation sector. Most technology is imported from Italy and Germany and therefore has high import duties, making it impossible for local plantation growers to purchase.
“I think where we need more help is to get good machinery for our plantation sector and get good plant material,” said Shamveel Nizam, co-founder of Big Cup, a coffee franchise.
Another solution is to form farmer producer organisations, explains Salman Baseer, proprietor of an estate in Hassan. “Small plantation growers can leverage these technologies which are otherwise extremely expensive, and fetch more in terms of profit” he explains.
Social media
Newer plantation growers are now leveraging the power of social media to create a brand for their coffee.
Pranathi Shetty, one of very few women plantation owners in Madikeri, uses her Instagram page “Kolliberri The Coffee Farm” to create awareness about her farm. It is through social media that she connected with various buyers and made inroads into the world of speciality coffee.
“Online presence also helped me enhance my knowledge by networking with some of the pioneers in the speciality coffee world,” she says.
With more growers experimenting with speciality coffee, there is huge potential for the growth of startups.
Indian coffee is rated highly in the global market and coffee culture continues to evolve because coffee growers are persistently fighting these adversities.
source: htttp://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Spectrum / by Lavpreet Kaur / November 24th, 2022
Kavery Nambisan’s new book Cherry Red, Cherry Black details the fascinating story of coffee in India
Kavery Nambisan was born on a coffee estate, grew up among the “twisted branches and dark green leaves of the coffee bushes”; her parents joked that she was among those children who had been “plucked off the coffee bushes.”
It is therefore fitting that the surgeon’s latest book Cherry Red, Cherry Black(Bloomsbury India) is about the history of coffee in India.
Written with anecdotes woven into chronology, this comprehensive look at the coffee industry reveals intriguing nuggets – the origins of the coffee terms ‘Robusta’ and ‘Arabica’; the story of how Southern India became coffee country (it’s more complex than the Baba Budan tale); how coffee made sugar popular… Kavery explores the world of coffee far beyond its cultivation via the journeys of rulers and invaders and the ways of governance and tribute to its current status as one of the most valuable legally-traded commodities in the world. With the pride of a true Kodava, she writes of how coffee cultivation in Coorg (now Kodagu) changed the social, ecological and economic nature of the land and its people, and of the planters clubs that still exist.
A large part of the book details the story of how Tata Coffee, with whom the author has been associated in her medical avatar, came to be, but its scope goes far beyond company history and personalities to showcase coffee’s ability to be the great leveller available to every layer of society, and details the journey of the bean from plant to cup. Readers will be fascinated to know that the coffee served at Starbucks is made with beans from Kodagu, Hassan and Chikmagalur and cured in Kushalnagar.
Excerpts from an interview
You speak of yourself as “almost a child plucked off a coffee plant”. How was the experience of going back with research to discover what is such an integral part of your childhood? How long has this book been in the making? Have there been any surprising learnings?
Yes, coffee has been integral to my being, but I did not consciously think about it until recently when I started to write this book. It has been a pleasure to discover the history behind coffee, and, along with it, to learn more clearly certain aspects of local history. I started to read up sometime after the middle of 2018 and wrote in 2019 but was unable to conduct some important interviews during the period when Covid came and went. After that, everything had to be ‘fast-forward.’
As for surprise learnings, yes, of course. There can be no better way of learning something new than writing about it. I learned much.
You are a proud Kodava and now live and work again in Kodagu. What aspects of life there do you enjoy most, both connected to coffee and otherwise?
I have worked as a surgeon in Kodagu for over 10 years, off and on. My husband and I built a house in a village here and it is surrounded by coffee estates that do not belong to us – so pleasure without responsibility! The tall shade trees that surround us are a blessing – with so much life going on in the branches and the undergrowth. As a doctor, I have a great rapport and a serious commitment to my neighbours, many of them being daily wage earners in the estates. I think we live a good life.
What does your own coffee cache look like? What would we find in there?
You would find a cache of roasted coffee beans (a blend of Arabica and Robusta). I roast the beans every few weeks or so and use about 10% of chicory to enhance its strength.
You’ve detailed a bewildering number of ways to prepare a cup of good coffee. Which is your favourite?
I use three methods, depending on my mood. Filter coffee (in the afternoons); the Moka pot or a rustic brew (adding coffee powder to just boiled water and letting it steep for two to three minutes) in the mornings. Always with a little milk and jaggery.
India Coffee House remains your coffee house of choice in Bengaluru. Tell us what you have there when you visit these days?
It’s a great place to hang around with friends. I always have coffee and, if peckish, an omelette or a cutlet. I have been frequenting this grand old place (although now in a changed location) from my medical college days. Satisfaction guaranteed.
source: http://www.femina.in / Femina / Home> Life> Books / by Primrose Monteiro D’Souza / November 04th, 2022
Progressive farmer and Rajyotsava awardee Somengada Ganesh Thimmaiah shares his thoughts
Madikeri:
Kodagu’s progressive farmer Somengada Ganesh Thimmaiah of Nallur village near Ponnampet in the southern part of the district has won the Rajyotsava Award for agriculture.
Though coffee and pepper are the prominent commercial crops in Kodagu, Ganesh Thimmaiah has been growing both agricultural and horticultural crops in integrated farming methods and has scripted success.
He is actively involved in innovative agricultural practices since the last 30 years and had earlier served the Indian Army. After retirement from services, he took up agriculture in his 15-acre land and has grown more than 60 varieties of paddy.
To gain additional income, he has a poultry farm and is also involved in apiculture and pisciculture. Apart from the regular crops of coffee, pepper, ginger, mango, orange and jackfruit, Thimmaiah has cultivated rambutan fruit.
In the integrated method in agriculture, he grows areca, coffee and paddy as main crops and a variety of vegetables and fruits and sub-crops. Thimmaiah has also been growing the ‘Beth’ plants required for honey bees and has implemented a mechanised system in agriculture.
At a time when more and more youths are showing interest in jobs and businesses, Ganesh Thimmaiah has earned name and fame as model farmer and has bagged many awards in the past. He won the National-level Babu Jagjivan Ram Krishi Samman Award. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, conferred the prestigious award on Thimmaiah on the occasion of its 92nd Foundation Day in 2020.
In April this year, he gave comprehensive training in agriculture to the batch of IAS officers at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.
“I am honoured to be conferred with the prestigious Rajyotsava Award and this gives me an opportunity to innovate further. I have been involved in agriculture for three decades and there is a need of attracting more and more youths to agriculture as it is profitable if innovative,” he said.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / October 31st, 2022
The average coffee production in Brazil is 60 million bags a year, whereas in India, it is below six million bags.
Farm gate price of raw berries touch a record ₹106 a kg against ₹80 last year
Lending fresh hopes to coffee farmers, the price of the Robusta variety of coffee has reached an all-time high, thanks to a sharp decline in production.
The farm gate price of raw Robusta coffee berries touched a record ₹106 a kg in Wayanad market on Friday, as against ₹80 a kg during the corresponding period last year.
The State government had announced that it would procure coffee from farmers at a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹90 a kg when the market price of raw coffee was ₹61 a kg two years ago.
A sharp decline in coffee production in Brazil, a major coffee-producing country, owing to severe frost was the major reason for the rise in price, trading sources said.
The average coffee production in Brazil is 60 million bags (a bag of 60 kg) a year. But the production declined to 50 million bags this season. A drought-like situation in the coffee-growing regions of that country during the post-harvest period also contributed to price hike, sources said.
The average coffee production in India is below six million bags a year. A huge disparity in production and supply was the major reason for the price hike. Moreover, the depreciation of Indian rupee to US dollar was also reflected in the rise in price, sources added.
“However, the current upswing in price will not benefit coffee farmers in the country as most of them have already sold the produce at a low price,” Prasanth Rajesh, president, Wayanad Coffee Growers’ Association (WCGA), told The Hindu.
“The fortune of Indian coffee farmers depends on the misfortune of farmers in Brazil,” Mr. Rajesh said, adding that such a situation should change as it would not offer a sustainable income to farmers.
A quick intervention by the Coffee Board to increase internal consumption of coffee is the need of the hour, he said .
Though the State government had announced an MSP of ₹90 a kg, most farmers are yet to benefit from it as the government has fixed a ceiling limit of one acre for procurement, he said.
All farmers, irrespective of land holding, should get the MSP since input cost, especially that of fertilisers, had gone up by more than 200%, he added. The Coffee Board has projected a crop size of 3.42 lakh tonnes in the country during 2021-22 in its final estimates.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Kerala / by E.M. Manoj / Kalpeta – September 24th, 2022
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