Processing · Chikmagalur plant Processing

Seven stages between the hillside and your filter.

Every bag we ship passes through the same sequence, in the same plant, under the same roastmaster. This is what happens to a bean after it leaves the estate.

What happens to a bean after it leaves the estate.

Location

Born in India's coffee cradle.

High-altitude mountain valleys and lush estates — Panduranga Coffee began in Chikmagalur, the region that gave India coffee in the first place.

In 1600 AD the Sufi saint Bababudan carried seven coffee seeds home from Yemen, hidden in his robes, and planted them on these slopes. They are still called the Bababudan Hills.

In 1600 AD Bababudan carried seven coffee seeds home from Yemen and planted them on these slopes. Chikmagalur has grown coffee ever since.

13.31°N, 75.77°ESince 1600 AD

Selection

Only clean, high-grown lots make it into the roastery.

Cooler temperatures at altitude delay the growth cycle, so the bean matures longer and the cup comes out fuller and more flavoursome. Above 5,000 feet you start finding florals, stone fruit, high acidity, even spice.

We buy only the finest carefully cultivated lots from selective plantations across Chikmagalur.

Altitude slows the growth cycle, so the bean matures longer and the cup comes out fuller.

Cupping

Coffee is all about taste, and taste is everything.

Cupping is the systematic evaluation of flavour, aroma, body, aftertaste and acidity across samples — the only honest way to judge a lot before it is bought.

Soil Laterite, shaded

Micro-climate Monsoon, cool nights

Species Arabica, robusta

Roasting

Nature is not in a hurry, so neither are we.

A coffee plant takes three years to mature and then yields about a pound a year. With that much at stake we slow-roast, coaxing the bean rather than forcing it — drying, roasting and cooling each handled separately under the roastmaster's eye.

Probat German hi-tech roaster Roaster

240 kg Per batch Per batch

3 stages Dry · roast · cool Dry · roast · cool

Granulating

Cut, not crushed — and chilled while it happens.

Roasting creates the aromatic oils that make the cup. Conventional grinders generate heat and those volatile oils evaporate on the way out.

Our Probat grinders chill as they work and cut the coffee to an even particle size instead of crushing it — better aroma retention, faster and cleaner filtration.

Roasting creates the aromatic oils that make the cup. Conventional grinders generate heat and those volatile oils evaporate on the way out.

Our Probat grinders chill as they work and cut the coffee to an even particle size instead of crushing it — better aroma retention, faster and cleaner filtration.

Chicory

The only house in India roasting chicory the way it roasts coffee.

Roots come from Jamnagar, Gujarat, and go into a Tornado roaster at our Chikmagalur plant. They tumble under the roastmaster's eye until the exact moment of perfection, then drop into a cooling zone and are blasted with cold air to fix flavour, colour and development.

Ground to powder and blended to ratio, chicory is what gives South Indian coffee its body, colour and strength.

Roots come from Jamnagar, Gujarat, and go into a Tornado roaster at our Chikmagalur plant. They tumble under the roastmaster's eye until the exact moment of perfection, then drop into a cooling zone and are blasted with cold air to fix flavour, colour and development.

Ground to powder and blended to ratio, chicory is what gives South Indian coffee its body, colour and strength.

Packaging

Sealed at the plant, so the aroma never leaves.

Coffee has a short shelf life and its aroma fades by the day. Grand Aroma, Made in Chikmagalur, Mysore Nuggets and our other top blends go into a reclosable zip pack with a one-way aroma valve, filled and sealed on site by computer-monitored form-fill-seal machines.

One-way valveReclosable zipSealed on site