[MuraliR]

Pure Coffee, not instant, for Filter/Percolator, I have used a brand called Classic Mountain, and it does taste pretty good.

[ghodlur]

My wife was basically into tea and would hate the mere mention of coffee. But now its totally other way round, now she is more into coffee but the first daily cuppa will always be the tea (with ginger).
Recently she brought Bru coffee during her trip for monthly groceries and it turned out to be Coffee with Chickory mix. She made the coffee the way she does with instant coffee and boy she was embarrased with the my facial expression when I had the coffee. It tasted like uuggh.
That was the day when the Percolator was re used for the first time after 3 yrs. I showed her how to use the explained her the difference between instant cofffe and one she brought. Now it seems like she's hooked to the decoction.
There was a time (in 90's) when I used to make my monthly trips with my mom to Matunga for getting the two most loved items - coffee powder and Coimbatore butter. God I loved that smell waffing through the stores esp Mysore concerns and Ramalingam near King Circle, the coffee bean roasting, grinding, it used to be WoW exp. Its been ages since I have gone to Matunga but still remember those special trips.

[ssingri]

My 2 bits,
I have grown up on filter coffee and never bothered about how it is made or what kind of filter or powder to use as my mom made very good coffee. She is a coffee addict too.
I moved out on my own about six years ago and started missing the morning fix. I started with boiling coffee powder and adding milk(you cant make one shot even if you have a filter). Any more investment in research or equipment seemed unwarranted for that one cup of coffee as my wife had developed an allergy to coffee as she had drunk too much of the stuff in medical school and could no longer stomach the stuff. Things changed about a year and half ago when she got pregnant and found out that she could drink the stuff again.

Now I pull out the trusty old filter that was hiding in the kitchen and have a go. Doesn't cut it, I buy a Morphy Richards Expresso machine. I try a different powder still the same. This went on till I tried all blends from the local coffee grinder to organic to specialty. Now I had to have my morning fix, my wife thought that I was just obsessing over it for the one cup I had at home.
I researched a lot on the net for what makes a good coffee, and finally arrived at a conclusion by experiment. What I found out is that what international coffee experts say does not hold true for our style of coffee drinking with milk, sugar and sometimes chicory.

Some of the coffees I have tried:
CCD Black forest : Overrated, too strong too too little flavour
CCD Monsoon Malabar: Very different flavour but not strong enough for Coffee with milk.
Cothas: Strong aromatic with a blend of chicory, a little bitter and on the stronger side (more Robusta than Arabica)
Coorg 100% Arabica (local Blend): Good, but not strong enough and the fine grinding does not agree with my coffee machine.
Lavazza: Good strong blend has enough flavour but I feel it is too overpowering and missed the delicate flavour.
Classic Mountain Coffee: My favourite, pure Arabica with delicate flavour, it slightly lacks in strength.

My current blend is 500gm of Classic mountain coffee with 200gm of Cothas (85/15) blend.
This is the url for classic coffee export and retail , for guys in Bangalore MK Retails stocks their coffee.
I am posting pictures of the packaging. I think I need a coffee break now http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[MuraliR]

People who would like to experiment, can also try mixing the regular Cothas with Cothas Premium (brown packet) : I took a liking to it.

Tata's Aveon Royale Instant Coffee is also good. Did not like the other variants of Aveon.

[navin]

Originally Posted by ssingri

CCD Monsoon Malabar: Very different flavour but not strong enough for Coffee with milk.

Classic Mountain Coffee: My favourite, pure Arabica with delicate flavour, it slightly lacks in strength.

My current blend is 500gm of Classic mountain coffee with 200gm of Cothas (85/15) blend.

CCD uses Robusta. Try an Arabica based Monsooned bean.

Does Classic Mountain sell a "PeaBerry"? I see a "Plantation PB and Arabica Cherry PB" on it's website.

The sad fact is that most of the really good bean is exported and very little is left for local consumption.

some companies who bulk sell/trade high grown coffee:
Aspinwall & CO. Ltd. Mangalore:+91 824-2211415
Bola Raghavendra Kamath & Sons Karkala +91 825-8230262
Bombay Burmah Trading Corpn Ltd (BBTC), Siddapur +91 827-458368
Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Ltd., Bangalore, +91 80-25589581
Alna Trading & Exports Ltd., Mumbai, +91 22-22874455
or you could contat the Indian Coffee Board itself at +91 80-23536178
you can get more information on various grades here
. : Coffee Board of India - Coffee Regions - India : .

[navpreet318]

Thanks Sam!

Don't know how i missed this thread till now.Some new things are gonna land up in my house soon.

[ssingri]

Originally Posted by navin

some companies who bulk sell/trade high grown coffee:
Aspinwall & CO. Ltd. Mangalore:+91 824-2211415
Bola Raghavendra Kamath & Sons Karkala +91 825-8230262
Bombay Burmah Trading Corpn Ltd (BBTC), Siddapur +91 827-458368
Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Ltd., Bangalore, +91 80-25589581
Alna Trading & Exports Ltd., Mumbai, +91 22-22874455
or you could contat the Indian Coffee Board itself at +91 80-23536178
you can get more information on various grades here
. : Coffee Board of India - Coffee Regions - India : .

Navin,
I have also tried these guys coffee if I remember right BALMAADI ESTATE. I found them in the certified organic coffee plantations in the coffee board website. I would rate their Arabica the next best after Classic mountain coffee.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

Gotta add my two cents after reading this.

The first thing actually starts with the coffee bean itself. There are two kinds of beans, robusta and arabica. In India we consume more robusta than arabica where as it is the other way round in most other parts of the world. This is one of the main reasons why a "typical Indian" going to the US will not like the coffee there.

Well, I think it is the other way round. In India, we consume more of the Arabica variety than the Robusta. And it is the other way round in other parts of the world. Arabica offers a more aromatic coffee while Robusta is quite bitter comparatively. The perfect coffee should be a blend of both Arabica and Robusta. 100% Arabica coffee is 'sweeter' (for lack of a better word) and many people will not like it. This is one of the reasons why chicory is added to coffee.

Originally Posted by maddy42

From the farming side some info:

Well in India e cultivate 2 varities of Coffee
> Arabica
> Robusta

Majority of the plantations in Coorg(Kar) cultivate Robusta as its easier to cultivate and less of Disease attacks the plants s compared to Arabica. Plus the yield a acre is more than double what an acre of arabica gives.
You can say Robusta is comparitively 'maintenance free' than Arabica.
Chikmagalur area predominantly grows Arabica while Coorg predominantly grows Robusta. The Sakleshpur belt too has more of Robusta. Nowadays, most growers are shifting to Robusta mainly because of reasons listed below

Robusta is more resistant to diseases. It is more 'maintenance-free'. You can get more yield. Not very labour intensive (compared to Arabica)

Price wise Arabica commands a greater price as compared to Robusta.

The curing part of coffee:

As soon as coffee is harvested you could either dry it in the sun or you could go for parchment which means you remove the layer of skin out and dry it the bean on mats for a few days.

Sun drying is done for close to 20 days and the test done for ideal drying is to shake couple of beans in your hand and it has to make some noise. Something like a kids toy or n anklet.

Parchment is better quality as compred to Cherry or sun dried.

Once the curing is done the coffee grading is done.

Grades: A, B and Bits and browns

An ideal cup of coffee will usually have blend of both arabica and robust and the different grades too.

I am no expert on the blending process as the knowledge i gt is upto the drying phase.

Storage: Ideally its stored in a godown in a very warm kind of environment. Moisture content is bad for coffee.

Drawbacks for the farmer:
> Fully dependent on the middle men aand controlled by the interntional prices
> Massive problems due to Labor shortage as its fully labor intnsive process. There is very little scope for mechanisation in the existing plantations.
> Disease: Bugs and a kind of beatle eats the crop from the inside leaving just the cover. Ideal deterrent for the same is not found. Different farmers use different techniques to control the same.

Thank you
Maddy

Well put Maddy. My comments in bold above. You have summed up the coffee process quite well. I wouldn't call it the drawbacks for the grower. They can be more likely called either 'difficulties' or 'problems' faced by a grower.

Originally Posted by srishiva

Baba Budan (of the Baba Budan Hills) should have carried along arabica when he came here(Isn't it?). Chikmagalur grows more arabica than Coorg which grows mostly robusta.

Probably, that is why the name Arabica was stuck since Baba Budan came from Arabia.

[StarVegabond]

+1 to what addy and maddy posted above.

I am cross posting what we learnt at the coffee estate in coorg during our Dec 2009 vacations.

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Anything can happen over a cup of coffee,

I know from my experince that this is a true statement. Once again this got proved when the hostess brought a fresh, hot, aromatic cuppa for each one of us. Aroma itself told that this is one of the best coffee i ever had. one sip confirmed by doubts.

The conversation continued while we took stroll outside the house. I capture below the gist of our conversation with the host (& hostess)

* Major coffee producing countries are Brazil (65% of world production), Columbia, Malasia, Kenya, India (4% of the total world production)

* Coffee is often referred to as Black Gold. It was part of major global trade during previous centuries.

* Black soil is needed for coffee plantation. Coorg is blessed with Black soil, cool weather and mother cauvery provides water needed for growing the coffee. No cotton is grown in coorg.

* Coorg is one of key centers where coffee is grown in India. Coorg is divided as North Coorg and South Coorg with Mother Cauvery making the division herself.

* India grows two variety of Coffee viz. Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is grown in North Coorg while Robusta is a major crop in south Coorg.

* A Coffee plant survives for 90-100 years after which it is uprooted and new plant is grown in it's place

* Generally Coffee is harvested for 45 days startign from Jan 1st week. Once the harvesting is over, water is sprinked for 3 months (Feb-Mar-Apr) over the plants. Every plantation has a pumpset and a set of pipes to fetch the water from the Cauvery. Coffee needs good rains during blossoming, Our Host uses 6 labourers (some part time) round the year in his plantation.

* Cost of Land in and arround Coog is RS 10-15 Lacs for the land having access to water facility and/or access to Cauvery river. The cost goes up depening on the yield and the mix of revenue generating plantation available on the land.

* Pesticide is required to be sprinked 6 times a year. Copper Sulphate mixed with another Amway product is the popular pesticide.

* Coffee plants are procured from Coffee Board. It takes minimum 3 years for a plant to give beans. Generally yield is one ton per acre. Our host grows approx 25 acre per year.

* Coffee which we drink is derived from the following process

1. Plantations produce coffee beans and harvest them
2. Harvested beans are processed using a process "CURING". It includes drying of the beans under sun light, removing the humidity as well as other impurities from the beans.
3. After curing, the beans are GRADED. There are 5 grades from Premium quality to Low quality viz. AAA+ , B+, C, C+, Black&Beats. AAA+ grade commands a price of RS 120/KG where as Balck&Beats command price of RS 70/KG.
4. Beans are sent to the market where auction takes place once in every 15 days. The market is located at Kushalnagar. There are warehouses near the market in case the beans are required to be stored. The transportation and warehousing costs are borne by the growers.
5. The Roasters buy the beans from the market using bidding. They ROAST the beans
6. The roasted beans are POWDERED as needed.

* Host fondly remembered the all time peak price of RS 240 RS/KG during 1994-97. Some of the growers became rich over night, but most just blew the money away. It is said, some of them used to go for lunch to mysore every week-end.

* There is a Coffee growers association in Coorg, which sets the pricing guidelines and monitors the auction process. Generally payment to the growers is done online along with the auction letter in 2-3 days from the actual auction. The Association also helps growers to learn best practices and often deputes teams to other countries like Brazil, Columbia etc. The association also helps the growers to solve problems, conducts awareness seminars among the growers as well as users, sometimes help in raising financing as well.

* The difference between Brazil and India is as below. Most of the Coffee plantatiosn in Brazil are very vast, owned/controlled by the government and use automated systems for watering, pesticide sprinkling, as well as harvesting. The Plantations in India are small, owned by private growers and most of the process is manual.

* Chikmagalur is another district where coffee is grown. Leading Coffee chain owns huge Arebica plantations at Chikmagalur

[ariesonu]

My COFFEE workshop. Its about 3 years OLD & used on D-2-D basis. 'Cloer' is simple water heater, used when I have extra guests OR when my coffee maker is in mood of some I-AM-OFF-DUTY-TODAY games.





Filter paper cone (brown)

Filter paper cone in place.


Raab Rakha.

[maddy42]

@Addy and Star vegabond(I hope i got the name right)

That was a good insight from you guys.

One point which i would like to add about the prices of coffee farms is as mentioned by star vegabond is

1) The price rise at the moment is not due to peoples interest in cultivation but the use of the farms for home stays.

Cultivating coffee at the prices mentioned is too expensive! 10 lacs is a large amount and you wont get back the investment for a long time.

Reasons are
1) Massive labor problem in coorg atleast
2) Timely rains is a problem and so the farmer wholly depends on Pump sets for irrigation
3) Manure is an added costs

Also currently prices are not controlled by coffee board but by local millers. They have better prices and deal in cash which is why they are preffered

[navin]

Originally Posted by ssingri

I would rate their Arabica the next best after Classic mountain coffee.

ZHey where can I get my hands on some of this Classic Mountain Arabica PeaBerry (Plantation PB)?

I am game to try a few kilos (I always buy by the kilo) of roasted beans. Will they ship to Mumbai?

I would like to compare them to what I use today (Nandavan Estate).

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Probably, that is why the name Arabica was stuck since Baba Budan came from Arabia.

Yes this is right.

Originally Posted by ariesonu

My COFFEE workshop..

I'd request you to compare the results of a french press to that of a drip percolator. CCD sells a french press for a few hundred Rs.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Reasons are
1) Massive labor problem in coorg atleast

Oh yes! What's the deal?

This is a phenomenon that is trobling cofffe growers the last few years now.

[ssingri]

Originally Posted by navin

ZHey where can I get my hands on some of this Classic Mountain Arabica PeaBerry (Plantation PB)?

I am game to try a few kilos (I always buy by the kilo) of roasted beans. Will they ship to Mumbai?

I would like to compare them to what I use today (Nandavan Estate).

Navin,
This is the contact details from their website, you could give them a call. I pick it up from a local supermarket.

Classic Synergy India Pvt. Ltd.
6/1, Connaught Road, Queens Road Cross,
Bangalore - 560 052,
Ph: 080 - 22205386,41235648
Fax: 080 - 22375847
Email: coffee@classicin.com
Website: Welcome to Classic Group of Company

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by maddy42

@Addy and Star vegabond(I hope i got the name right)

That was a good insight from you guys.

One point which i would like to add about the prices of coffee farms is as mentioned by star vegabond is

1) The price rise at the moment is not due to peoples interest in cultivation but the use of the farms for home stays.

Cultivating coffee at the prices mentioned is too expensive! 10 lacs is a large amount and you wont get back the investment for a long time.

Reasons are
1) Massive labor problem in coorg atleast
2) Timely rains is a problem and so the farmer wholly depends on Pump sets for irrigation
3) Manure is an added costs

Also currently prices are not controlled by coffee board but by local millers. They have better prices and deal in cash which is why they are preffered

Earlier, the produce had to be sold to the Coffee Board and they used to control the market in India. But now, as Maddy has said, there are 'n' number of coffee traders everywhere who directly deal in cash and also offer better prices.

Originally Posted by navin

Oh yes! What's the deal?

This is a phenomenon that is trobling cofffe growers the last few years now.

There are a few reasons for this. Usually the labour for coffee plantations are from the surrounding villages.

1. Nowadays, most able-bodied people are migrating to the cities in search of work. Even though most of these people indulge in menial work in the cities, they prefer the 'glamourous' city life compared to the boring village life

2. The various socio economic packages of the government. For example, The government provides rice at Rs 2-3 per kg. This, although a pro-poor scheme, is indirectly making people lazy. If a man earns Rs 50-60 a day, he will buy food supplies for an entire week and he will gladly while his time away instead of working. This is the current scenario in villages, where families have children working in cities and send money home. With this kind of luxury, why would anyone want to work.

3. Low pay. Coffee Growers also have to get the labour into their system by giving them a fair pay. They should not exploit their labour as if they were dispensible. This was the scenario many years ago.

4. The labour, however poor they may be, will have some land holding and they will take out loans and try to cultivate some crop on their own. Thus they are disinterested to work for other plantations.

5. Nowadays, the Coffee growers are bringing in labour from non-traditional coffee growing areas like North Karnataka on contract basis at huge expenses, but even that is temporary.

These are a few points that I think are the reasons for labour problem. Others can chip in a bit.

PS: It is not just the Coffee plantations, even Tea & rubber plantations are facing the same problems.

[maddy42]

Addy has summed up the various issues and those stand as perfect.

The problem increases as people with small holdings are willing to pay any amount to just get done with their work and relax. They thus increase the wage price and add food and deserts and drinks for the workers to be over with their job.

So this hike in price is sufficient for the worker to demand the same from everyone.

Add on the system of workers not willing to stay at the plantation. Few taxi operators act as agents and pick and drop them from their houses which can be situated at sometimes upto 100kms away. So the price of the jeep and driver and fuel is added onto the head of the plantation owner.

Last but not least is previously owners used to pay low wages and thus the feeling of being exploited does arise. But nothing in the extreme category.

PS: 1 issue which comes up in our area is the Kar govt has banned the sale of Arrack. This costed Rs 12 per packet.

The number of people who drink still remains the same and the quantity also remains the same. Thus they have to depend on a quarter of brandy which costs Rs 45!

So any small work also people would expect to get something more than 50 bucks

Again
Arrack: Rs10-15 a packet
Brandy: Rs 45 a bottle
Quantity consumed = Same