Frish Coffee I misread this as Irish Coffee and couldn't figue why they were pushing Irish Coffee. Then I realized someone had misspelled Fresh. |
Classic India Coffee Poster Classic Poster ad for India coffee, and very effective I might say. |
The Big Guy The director of the India Coffee Board, GV Krishna Rau, a very personable guy. We had a time slot scheduled for a half hour meeting with him, and he spent was more like 1.5 hours with us. He was very generous with his time. |
Interesting Emmisary Our meeting was held in a mini UN type conference room with and arc of seats surrounding the VIPs seating, and we were served coffee (frish coffee I suppose) and cookies by this gentleman in his fancy duds. |
Ujwala, Animated Ujwala is, along with Michael, a key part of the sales of Karnataka coffee, and had animated exchanges with the Board president. And frankly so did I. Our point was to ask how the board supports farmers, markets coffee, and (my point to him) advocates for cup quality in research and farm practice. I asked what the Board does to track quality initiatives in other countries. The answer was basically zilch. |
the group and the president The group of roasters and the India Board president. |
Coffee Board Roasters In the lab, quite a lot of sample roasting capacity. They also have 2 air roasters, which I found interesting, in addition to the standard Proabt sample roasters. These are 2 barrel roasters in 2 banks of 6. You are looking at about $120,000 of coffee roasting equipment here |
Coffee Board Cupping Lab They have some odd tables with funny dental-office like spit fountains. They have a lot of espresso equipment too, which is nice to see. |
It's good to be alive Fresh Honest Alive, Institutional Pure Coffee Powder. Sounds pretty good eh? |
On the way out of Bangalore We were stuck in traffic for hours leaving Banagalore. At least I got some pictures of the funky trucks out of it. |
Stunted Mushroom Tree I found something very funny about the proportions here. This is where we stayed in the town of Hassan (which is a major coffee town). |
Fresh market Foods Agriculture coming to town, the old way... |
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Surf 'em Cowboy Stand up fun in Hassan India |
Finally, a Coffee Farm Our first stop on a day filled with farm visits was the Dewan Estate. This is owned by Mr. Busavanna. Hey Scott - look at that hat! |
Intro To India Coffee Forests This was the first time we got to see the 2 to 3 tiered shade used in India estate coffees. It's really impressive, creatling a thick shading that helps the coffee in many ways, including regulating evaporation of water |
Fresh Green Pepper Pepper is in-cropped with coffee on many farms. Pepper is a vine that grown up the mature shade trees. I have never tasted fresh pepper and it is fantasitic! |
Moldy Unpicked Coffee Cherry There is a labor shortage and some parts of the farm were not fully harvested, although later all this will be picked to control pests and to prepare the plant for next season. I hate to think where this kind of coffee goes. |
Dewan Estate Nursery The nursery grows plants for 1 year to about 18", a bit taller than I have seen at nurseries on other countries. |
Mohan at the Dewan Estate Nursery The plants are in plastic liners to they can be easily removed the the field. The farm also has Robusta which is Selection 274 type |
SLN 795 SLN 795 is by far the most popular selection or arabica planted in India. It produces well, and has good rust-leaf disease resistance. The cup is okay, nothing neccesarily outstanding. There is another, SLN 9 that has some more Ethiopia inputs. SLN 9 is a cross between 795 and another called Selection 4 that has even greater Ethiopian inputs, but nobody will plant it due to poor yield. Sad. |
Mr Basavaraj - Mallige Estate Our next farm was Mallige Estate, which is named for the jasmine flower. They grow both arabica (SLN 9) and robusta as well as some old Kents varietal plants |
Coffee Cherry on Hard Wood This is not something you see often, but I saw it on both arabica and robusta (pictured here) plants on this trip. Coffee normally produces on lateral branches, often on the ends known as the Herbaceous growth. Here you see coffee production on old woody growth. |
crazy robusta clusters it's like a hive of coffee cherry. it's like the borg of coffee cherry. actually, it's a much more beautiful plant than arabica, period. |
Forests, again Old first tier shade trees are anywhere from 50-80 years old, not just here on Mallige Estate, but on all farms we visited. Shade on all levels must be managed given the weather, so you will see workers trimming shade tree branches to let in more light, if the coffee needs it. |
Robusta Flower and a Bee The charactersitic rippled surface of the Robusta leaf can be seen, the tightly clustered flowers which will result in tightly clustered cherries, and the huge leaf size. |
Workers at Malige Estate These woman were harvesting wood and were kind enough to let us take their picture. |
Old Robusta Trunk Robusta like this is vintage, not a new selection, and is often called Peredino type. Basically it's genetics are unkown. |
Parchment Coffee at Dewan Mill Dewan has it's own coffee mill. They use a forced demuscillage process and this is the parchment that results. |
The Foot Rake This was my first time to see the "raking" method for coffee on the patio. Coffee must be turned as it lays out, to dry evenly. Usually a big wood rake is used. At huge farms I have even see a mini tractor used! Here it is done with the feet, dragging them along to turn the coffee. |
Raised Bed at Dewan Estate Some of the coffee was in a raised bed, but I think this was just preliminary to putting it out on the patio, but a place to fully dry it. |
More Foot Raking All the coffee seems to be sun-dried. I did not see any sign of a mechanical dryer anywhere. The patios are made of brick, as they are in El Salvador, which helps to absorb excess moisture from the coffee. |
Coffee Wood Carvings Egad, this was frightening. But there was some other coffee wood carvings (made from the huge old Robusta trungs) that were amazing and beautiful. |
Coffee to Go Mmmm ... along the way, the option of Powder or Beans. |
Heavy Labor, India Style. This is one of many examples of how they approach big jobs. Machines are expensive, people are cheap. Get up there ang start sawing, man! |
Mr Vinayak - Chowki Estate Our next stop was Chowki Estate, another beautiful farm |
Once again, 3-tiered amazing forest These heavily forested coffees were amazing, and I knew our hosts wanted us to take note of this. There were places where I saw a farm surrounded by denuded land; in other words the coffee farm was preserving the forest. |
SLN 9 Cultivar Chowki is at 3100 feet and has 2/3 Robusta, 1/3 Arabica. Every farm had a different mix of the two, except that Sethraman is all Robusta. |
Workers at Chowki Estate, India They are managing the shade trees at this point, which means climbing awfully high and using a machete to chop off excess branches. |
Coffee Cherry on the Patio Here is the fresh coffee cherry laid out on the pato for drying ... i.e. the first step of dry-processed coffee. |
Coffee Cherry on the Patio Another view of some fairly fresh, just-picked cherry on the patio. |
Coffee Cherry after some drying Turning from red to a chocolate brown, this is coffee cherry in the midst of the "dry-process." |
More "Foot Raked Coffee" Like some sychronized dance, it seemed quite meditative. I saw workers changing positions so as not do the same task all day. I heard this was reserved for older workers since it is an easier job. |
Another Amazing Lunch One of the greatest perks to these travels is to be so graciously invited into the farm house, and served amazing home cooked food. On this entire trip, we ate so much I gained weight, and the food was ridiculously good. |
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