A small lot of speciality coffee from Karnataka’s famed Coorg region is getting ready to make its limited edition and exclusive debut later this year at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle, America, considered a shrine almost in the world of high-end coffee.
It is for the first time that the leading American coffee company will offer a single-origin coffee from India in the U.S.
While the formal deal has been inked between Starbucks and Tata Coffee Ltd recently, here is looking deeper into what that cuppa might hold, right from where it was grown. For starters, it is said to be intensely fragrant and aromatic, “with notes of caramel, citrus, toasted nuts, and milk chocolate”.
The coffee comes, not surprisingly, from the largest Arabica plantation (394 hectares) in Coorg district, from the Nullore estate owned by Tata Coffee Limited, close to Madikeri. These Arabicas are grown under a two-tier shade system (under local and fruit bearing trees). The shade is carefully managed, which helps the coffee bean mature slowly, absorbing the natural “organoleptic” characteristics within – which gives it the final smell and taste. Coorg is considered to have the perfect agro-climate and soil suitable for coffee cultivation.
“When we cupped the Tata Nullore Estates coffee we noticed this coffee was different from other Indian coffees. The flavour of this rare coffee exemplified the types of unusual coffees we want to deliver under our Starbucks Reserve Programme,” says Andrew Linnemann, Vice President, global coffee quality and engagement at Starbucks Coffee Company. The Starbucks Reserve Programme is an ongoing series of the rarest and most exotic coffees — unique, small-lot coffees that the company creates, roasting them in Seattle. “Each coffee is one-of-a-kind — sourced from small coffee-growing regions in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Pacific Islands. All Starbucks Reserve coffees are roasted with care, at our Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle, to bring out their peak flavour expression,” adds Linnemann.
“Nullore Estate coffee was a microlot,” points out Sanjiv Sarin, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Coffee Ltd. Microlots are generally considered the “cream of the crop” from an estate, and of course come with a unique taste and a story behind it; they are usually sold in small quantities, mostly only a few kilos. Therefore, they are pricier. “We have been working on premium differentiated coffees for some months now and set up a process to identify potential blocks in our estates whose coffees will qualify. Nullore passed our assessment. A small batch of carefully-cultivated coffee was isolated from the regular farm produce, handpicked and sun dried. Producing quality microlots is a meticulous and tedious process,” reiterates Sarin.
It is technology driven too, including using light-sensitive spectrometers to ensure that the coffee beans mature slowly but uniformly. The shade also means that there is natural mulching from the leaves that fall onto the ground, which in turn helps avoid the use of strong fertilizers and pesticides. Sustainable cultivation practices and an endeavour to maintain the ecological balance were also the focus. The Nullore Estate coffee will be available at the Seattle tasting room later this year, and only for a limited period. The pricing has not yet been decided.
Tata-Starbucks first anniversary
The first Indian coffee to be available through Starbucks was introduced in 2013, to celebrate the Tata-Starbucks first anniversary in the India market. Starbucks created a special India-sourced coffee, called ‘India Estates Blend’, as a tribute to its customers, partners, coffee producers, and roasters. But it was sourced, roasted, packaged, and sold in India. Explaining the difference between a blend and single-origin coffee, Sarin describes how a coffee blend is a combination of coffees from different origins that, when put together, create an experience or flavour profile that does not exist by itself.
Taste of place
“A single-origin coffee comes from one, geographic place (country, region, town, community, estate, mill or farm). This gets to a coffee’s very specific provenance. They represent a ‘taste of place’.”
Bhumika K.
