Indian Coffee¡¯s 'Fourth Wave' Is Full Of Fantastic Flavours & Experiments

For a true-blue South Indian coffee purist, filter is the only kind of coffee there is. Other coffee snobs might turn up their noses at that, but there are millions of South Indians who will validate the sentiment. So when I came across ¡°whisky barrel aged coffee¡± sometime ago, let¡¯s just say my scepticism wasn¡¯t mild.

¡°It¡¯s an insult to both whisky and coffee,¡± ran like ticker tape in my head. That is, until the first sip. Rather than being assaulted by flavours, as I had dreaded, hidden memories from years ago tugged at my mind. The palate registered the rich and deep flavour of coffee, but just underneath was the subtle taste of whisky. The m¨¦lange transported me back to a cosy and crusty old pub in Sligo on the Irish west coast. On a wet and cold April afternoon, I¡¯d tasted Irish coffee (a decadent cocktail of coffee, whisky, and sugar topped with cream) for the first time. It had refreshed, stimulated, and cocooned me in its warmth all at the same time. This newfangled coffee offered the same taste, minus the high.

Ripe coffee beans | Photo Credit: Classic Coffee

Drinking the whisky barrel-aged coffee not only chastened me but gently yanked me out of my stubborn position. I also made an important discovery: that India was well and truly in the throes of the next (third? fourth?) coffee wave.

To be sure, specialty coffees are not for everyone. They are not for folks who crave fussy combinations, frothy concoctions, and flavours that are added to a regular cup via syrups. That is combining coffee with chocolate, caramel, or other elements at the last stage, just before serving. Instead, these exotic flavours are not very pronounced, and the producers of these specialty beans seek to take the coffee experience into an altogether different realm.

The flavours are subtle and nuanced and come from processes that rely on science, technology, and sometimes sheer ingenuity. The process goes much deeper, almost to the elemental level. The flavours and profiles are tweaked much before the bean even hits the grinding machine. Think coffees aged in whisky, wine, and rum barrels, fermented under water and near the sea, fermented with orange and watermelon juice¡ªthe combinations boggle the mind.

Exotic Experiments

¡°We began experimenting with fermenting coffee beans in whisky barrels a few years before the pandemic and were probably the first to do it,¡± said Tapaswini Purnesh, director of Harley Coffee LLP, whose brand, Classic Coffee, specialises in both traditional and specialty coffees. Fermenting is an essential process to remove the mucilage layer around the bean. It also helps deepen the flavour, depending on how long it is fermented. ¡°We then expanded to include other kinds of barrels. The process enhances the profiles and brings out the inherent flavours.¡±

Tapaswini Purnesh, Director, Harley Coffee LLP | Photo Credit: Classic Coffee

Purnesh is a fifth-generation coffee planter whose family has estates in Karnataka¡¯s Chikamagalur and Sakleshpur. She is a keen experimenter and is constantly pushing the envelope, attempting to achieve complex flavours. She also does coffee-tasting sessions in the estate as well as in Bangalore, where she demonstrates the different methods of making coffee (such as the French press, aeropress, pour-over, etc.) using different varieties. The beverages are then paired with different foods to bring out each variety¡¯s inherent flavours.

Classic Coffee¡¯s most intriguing offering is a submarine fermentation one, where the beans are pulped and then fermented underwater. The unique flavour is the result of an experiment: after the coffee cherries are pulped, they are put in a specialised container with a strain of yeast developed in-house and stored underwater for an extended period of time. ¡°The process enhances the floral and acidic notes,¡± Purnesh told me.

Purnesh is not the only one carrying out such exotic experiments. On the perpetually busy Ashoka Pillar Road in Bangalore¡¯s Jayanagar area, Ground Up Coffee & Roastery is a modest outlet where the roastery takes up prominent display space. They might be among the newest entrants into Bangalore¡¯s coffee scene, but the founders have been around since 2017, working behind the scenes. Their coffees are sourced from an estate near Hassan and Sakleshpur in Karnataka, and one won an Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award in 2018.

Whisky barrel fermentation | Photo Credit: Classic Coffee

¡°A few years ago, we started experimenting with different processes and began making specialty coffees,¡± said Sharan YK, co-founder of the roastery. ¡°We tried carbonic maceration, honey, naturals, different kinds of yeast, and bacteria... Each made a huge difference in the end product.¡± The third-generation coffee planter, whose family owns about 800 acres of plantations, including the flagship Salawara Estate, has the luxury to carry out these experiments.

Reimagining Coffee

Ground Up¡¯s coffees have notes ranging from dark chocolate, nutty, honey, and citrus to even wine and spice undertones. The latter come predominantly from pepper, which is the largest multi-crop in the plantations. Each of these specialty coffee producers uses different combinations of treatments (pulping, fermentation, or type of yeast) in addition to different terroir and what grows alongside the coffee, such as pepper, cardamom, bananas, or oranges.

Maverick & Farmer Coffee banks on several decades of coffee experience and uses its estates in Coorg as a laboratory to conduct myriad experiments. ¡°Our offerings attempt to innovate and re-imagine what conventional coffee should be all about,¡± said Ashish D¡¯Abreo of Maverick & Farmer. ¡°Be it experiments through cultivation, unexplored methods of processing, inventive beverage offerings, or the pairing of ingredients and flavour notes like never efore,"

Their repertoire includes such eclectic and unconventional experiments as cold-smoked coffee, beer fermented, and beans fermented in shipping containers in the monsoons. The cold-smoked offering is particularly lovely, which magically has a smoky flavour but no bitterness. For this, the beans are placed in a closed room, and smoke is fed through a tiny hole. The smoke is from the leaves collected at the estate. Since the heat source is far away, hence the name cold-smoked.

Cold-smoked coffee in the making | Photo Courtesy: Maverick and Farmer

Over the last few years, India¡¯s coffee scene has exploded. Karnataka, the country¡¯s largest coffee producer, and particularly Bangalore, have proven to be the stomping grounds of innovation. What excites both old and new producers and experimenters is the fact that there is immense room to grow.

According to one estimate, India is one of the lowest per capita consumers of coffee, at around 100 gms. This is compared to Brazil¡¯s 6 kg, Ethiopia¡¯s 2.5 kg, Colombia¡¯s 2 kg, and Vietnam¡¯s 1.5 kg. As Sharan said, ¡°Travel, social media, and knowledge of what goes into coffee have contributed to taking coffee into parts that never used to drink it before. There is huge potential, and it will continue to grow.¡±