From rich flavours to blends, coffee is becoming hottest gourmet experience

There is a storm brewing in the coffee cup. India’s coffee geeks are experimenting with blends and brews to transform your regular cuppa into a gourmet experience. The country’s speciality coffee movement, started by third- or fourth-generation coffee planters to educate the consumer about indigenous produce, has spawned such artisanal brands as Koinonia Coffee Roasters, The Flying Squirrel, Blue Tokai, Black Baza, Araku Coffee, Halli Berri and Marc’s Coffees. And they all have their own cult following.

Innovation is the buzzword here and great coffee flavours the outcome. For example, blenders are combining cascara (sundried coffee cherry pulp) with kombucha (a fermented tea drink) to create a refreshing brew called Cascara Kombucha. Others are ageing coffee beans in single-malt casks or creating cocktails with coffee.

“The coffee market is two-paced. You have the South Indian coffee aficionados who don’t just know their Arabica from their Robusta, but also yearn for the rich and pure flavour profiles of the bean,” says Shannon D’Souza, managing director and co-founder of Koinonia Coffee Roasters (KCR) in Mumbai. “And then there are those who may be low on knowledge but are keen to experiment. When they drink the coffees without sugar, they taste the natural sweetness, body, flavour and bitterness all in harmony,” he says. At his tiny café in Khar in Mumbai, coffee enthusiasts are looking beyond cappuccinos and taking to cortados (double shot espresso with steamed milk), flat whites (similar to the cortado but with a milkier texture) and pourovers (coffee made by pouring hot water over coffee powder). This shows that the market is evolving and getting more exciting, says D’Souza, who is famous for his blends from award-winning coffee estates such as Kelagur, Poabs, Badra and Marvahulla in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

 

If you are ordering online, try Koinonia’s single-origin, 100 per cent Arabica coffee with tones of cocoa and caramel from the Marvahulla estate in the Nilgiris. At their café, try the Mocha Cortado in which a Royce chocolate, melted in the espresso, tastes scrumptious with milk.

Even as they go for great taste and innovation, coffee crusaders are striving to work with coffee that is sustainable. Arshiya Bose and her team at Black Baza have set up a system of collectives with 391 small growers in Coorg and the BR Hills in Karnataka. The growers are helped with capacity-building and are committed to following eco-friendly farming practices. “There is no use of chemical pesticides, fertilisers or weedicides,” says Bose. Black Baza’s packaging material is 100 per cent biodegradable.

Try the Black Baza Ficus which is grown under the shade of fig trees. It has nutty tones and is a great morning coffee. Or the Wanderoo, a washed Arabica, which has bright flavours and is a wonderful pourover for an afternoon cuppa.

D’Souza, too, is pushing for innovation in a big way. KCR recently launched a coffee called Geisha, which is sourced from his partner Clement Sissia’s family estates in Chikmagalur. “Originally from Ethiopia, this fruity and floral coffee retails at exorbitant prices in speciality coffee shops around the world. This varietal was planted here as a hybrid species to ensure that it grows well in the Indian climate,” he says.

Another innovation, one in which coffee beans are aged in Amrut (an Indian single malt brand) casks, will soon hit the market. These beans produce an incredible depth of flavour and sweetness along with whiffs of raisins and berries. Koinonia has also collaborated with upmarket restaurant chain Olive’s The Grammar Room in Mehrauli, Delhi, to create cocktails such as the coffee tequila sour with chilli kumquat jam.

Two other young coffee fiends, Sadhavi Ashwani and Mrinal Sharma have been experimenting with single-estate coffees for their brand Baba’s Beans. They are combining coffee and spices such as vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon. At their café in Delhi’s Vivanta by Taj Ambassador, they are coming up with a Blending Bar where customers will be able to fashion their own blends using beans or freshly-ground coffee. Baba’s Beans also plans to launch its coffee-based 

ice-creams this summer.

The Flying Squirrel, which has contributed greatly to the popularity of artisanal coffee in India, focuses on introducing new roasts. The dark and full-bodied French roast is now available at its café and roaster in Bengaluru on popular demand. Then there is the new Rohan Bopanna line, made with beans from the tennis player’s estate. “We are working on three flavour profiles — the newly launched master blend, which is a medium roast and works beautifully with milk, a fruity, acidic coffee and a dark roast,” says Ashish D’Abreo, who co-founded the brand with Tej Thammaiah four years ago.

Coffee crusaders are striving to work with coffee that is sustainable; Mrinal Sharma (left) and Sadhavi Ashwani

Some like it cold

One of the hottest coffee brews now is, well, cold. No, not cold coffee, but cold brew. That’s coffee steeped in cold or room temperature water for an extended period of time, poured over ice and drunk sans milk. Ashish D’Abreo of The Flying Squirrel, who was one of the first to start a cold brew blend, explains that cold brews are extremely versatile, and need sweetness and fruitiness. “So instead of naturally processed beans, we pick pulp-dried Arabica grown at higher altitudes, which have a less acidic taste,” he says.

The Flying Squirrel is also working on a refreshing blend of cascara and kombucha, a fermented, mildly fizzy tea with lots of good bacteria, and on another drink with cascara extract, topped with cherry soda.

Koinonia’s D’Souza has also been developing coffee-based mocktails such as the cinnamon cold brew with orange juice and demerara sugar. At the Baba’s Beans cafe, Ashwani and Sharma offer cold brew combos with blueberries, pineapple, lemon, orange, condensed milk and spices like vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon. “To beat the heat, there’s also cold brewed coffee full force, available on the tap and in pitchers,” says Ashwani.