The Coffee
Estate : Mooleh Manay, SICC
Roaster : Kapikottai
Varietal : Excelsa
Process : Carbonic Maceration
The EsTate : Mooleh manay, SICC
South India Coffee Company (SICC) was founded in 2017 by the husband and wife duo Akshay Dashrath and Komal Sable. As fifth-generation coffee producers from Coorg, one of India’s oldest coffee-growing regions, we established SICC to create a collaborative supply chain focused on sustainably produced Indian specialty coffee with global reach. Our mission is to foster a more equitable and sustainable coffee industry by partnering with producers, roasters, and importers. Inspired by our time in the UK and the limited availability of Indian coffees, we embarked on this journey to put Indian coffee on the world map. Today, SICC operates in the USA, UK, and India, with end-to-end logistics and warehousing capabilities. We also collaborate with partners in Saudi Arabia, Europe, and Singapore. (1)
Mooleh Manay estate is located near the beautiful backwaters of the Harangi Reservoir in Coorg, Karnataka. It takes a data-driven approach to farming and coffee processing, believing that data is essential for optimizing agricultural practices and ensuring the highest quality coffee production. The estate cultivates a variety of coffee species, including Arabica, Robusta Excelsa, and uses meticulous processing methods to bring out the best flavors. The estate is committed to continuous improvement and innovation, and is involved in research on native Indian Coffea species and soil health. (2)
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)
My thoughts
this is my 6th year trying specialty excelsa and I can never get enough. Akshay @chitravainika has mentioned marigold as one of the notes which irks me because I can’t taste florals. this amazing excelsa offering tastes very similar to this navalpalam wine that a friend gifted. sweet, tart, mildly spicy, full bodied and sweetness like karupatti.
Tags: curveball, excelsa, kapikottai, Mooleh manay, SICC