The Coffee
Estate : Ram Estate
Roaster : Kapikottai, Chennai
The EsTate : Ram Estate
Located in the village of Kamanur near Thandigudi, Ram estate (called Rothaikadu by locals ) possesses a unique microclimate that is ideal for amazing coffee. Currently managed by the 5th generation of the family, Ram Estate has been growing coffee since the 1860s. The estate is strategically located in the crest of Pulney Hills in Kamanur village. The farm is bordered on one side by a brook, famously known as ‘Panjarathu Oodai’ which derives its name from the fact that the brook has never been dry even during the famine.
In Ram Estate, coffee trees are grown under the two-tier canopy structure ranging from Jackfruit and silver oak to silk cotton trees. Here, the S9 Arabica coffee variety is grown apart from Pepper, Hill Banana and Avocado trees. The entire farm is professionally maintained under the consultation of an agronomist. They also use customised organic fertiliser which ensures that adequate nutrients are provided for the plantation avoiding any oversupply or deficiency in nutrient requirements.
Continuous efforts are undertaken in order to maintain shade density, such as the re-plantation of ‘shade trees’ on a periodic need-basis and the annual pruning of trees. With support from dedicated farm workers, the best practices in the industry are adopted for coffee harvesting; right from picking fully grown red cherries to cleaning, sorting and removing the floaters and drying the beans on beds.
Cleanliness has been a motto of the estate since its inception and is ingrained in each stakeholder involved in the estate’s maintenance. An abundant presence of flora and fauna along with exotic birds lends rich biodiversity to the estate. From its humble beginning, Ram Estate has steadily developed into a state-of-the-art facility that is now geared up to provide high-quality coffee to the coffee connoisseurs of the world. (1)
The Roaster : Kapikottai
Barista on Bike AKA Binny suggested that i visit this roaster a few blocks from home, who was roasting coffee on his OTG. Akshay showed me the whole process, but who undoubtedly charmed me was Bumbles – the amazing doggo and mascot of Kapikottai. Akshay is a musician who plays the Chitravainika and hence the raagams for the names of the coffee. However, he is under strict orders from regulars to never rename Mind=Blown and Curveball. OG Classics. He’s now roasting on a Ailio Bulledt R1V2 which makes his coffee extra superbly awesome but he still drinks half the bag in the name of QC checks.
Started in late 2018 , Kāpikottai (literally coffee beans in Tamil) is an attempt at highlighting the excellence and uniqueness of Indian coffees and getting the conversation started about traceability, social equity and low environmental impact in the Indian coffee ecosystem. We are very committed to trading directly with the farms we source from and establishing a long standing, empathetic business relationship with the planters involved. Growing and processing good coffee in India is hard work and we do our best to understand the challenges this throws up. This venture began life as a passion project (started out of a home kitchen, of all places) in Chennai, where there is a lot of coffee but not much that is either traceable or speciality. Therefore, our main focus is to make excellent coffees more accessible and hopefully get people wondering about the journey taken by their cuppa’ Joe or piping hot tumbler of filter kapi! Based in Kilpauk (a leafy Chennai suburb), Kāpikottai HQ is the base for our green coffee storage, roasting and ops. Green coffee is carefully stored in climate controlled conditions, in hermetically sealed bags. We find that optimum storage goes a long way in ensuring ideal coffee quality (a lot of trial and error was involved to come to this conclusion and set up!) (3)