The Coffee

☕️: @harmakkicoffee
🌱:  maldare estate C, @anaikadu
📌 : blinded. UNK
⚙️: blinded. UNK
👤 : coffee coach ; @baristaonbike

the estate : anaikadu

the estate of maldare division c belongs to Kurian, Nisha Thomas and the lovely Anaika, after whom the estate is named as anaikadu. they are stepping into the specialty coffee game this year (2022) and what a dhamaka entry it is. they had coffee coach Binny Varghese (@baristaonbike) with them throughout the processing stage. they presented their babies at the bluetokai new producer’s showcasing event and it’s been hill up since then.
apart from expecting their beans with roasters and customer very soon, they also had some of their beans roasted by Prajwal of Harmakki Coffee and there began the experiment of the blinded samplers.

their journey is beautifully documented on their instagram page – it talks of everyday life at the farm; everything from the majestic anai that come by their estate to the little creepy crawlies that little anaika tries to cast in resin; there’s a lot of coffee talk and learning interspersed by the cutest pictures of her royal cuteness Bella. (1)

 

the roaster : harmakki coffee

Prajwal of Harmakki Coffee grows coffee on his plantation – Sri Kesari Estate. He roasts and sells his coffee as “Harmakki” , named after a village of the same name in Mudigere, Chikmagalur. Sri Kesari Estate is located in Harmakki, a village In Mudigere, Chikmagalur District, Karnataka Is a lush green hilly region of the western ranges of ghats In karnataka , India. 
A small plantation where the Inspiration of coffee to Mr. PRAJWAL (founder Harmakki) began a journey into the vast world of coffee beginning to go a great lenghts in the path of a new experience to the coffee lovers creating a platform to experience the coffees and various other bi-products of coffee. Prajwal is the first generation Specialty coffee worker in the family and working on the coffees we grow.
Harmakki was established In the year 2020 during the period of the pandemic by a motive to give the world an experience about the possibilities of coffee and reap the exclusiveness of a wonder that’s all over the world enjoyed In various forms and methods of brewing and kinds of choices by the people.(2)

the blinded coffees

 

so Nisha of Anaikadu and Srini (@saltedpeppercorn), came up with this idea to put up a bundle blinded samplers for those who were willing to have a go at the coffee before it was officially out. this was a beautiful initiative that was soon taken up by many in the coffee/home brewer community. 

so here’s my take on it (warning : spoilers ahead. i think)

Sample One
this one smelt of rich coffee. the cup was clean, earthy, non-bitter with a mild aftertaste. what i would describe as the “scott rao” coffee. so iam guessing this one a true blue arabica – washed (also evident by the chaff)

Sample Two
processed but not naturals cuz the “processed” aroma is there but it doesnt hit you in the face. this and sample three were similar. Iam going to guess honeys. fruity with a good balance of “coffee earthiness” honey processed. 

Sample Three
same as sample two but this was leaning more towards the nutty-chocolate side than fruity. this could have worked well for even a milked up cup, i think though i only cupped it.  honey processed. 

Sample Four
the aroma on this immediately told me this was a robusta, so if i get this wrong, then iam going back to my notes and having Binny retrain me on the basics. also from the little i have observed, roasted robusta beans are rounded and more curving towards the centre than arabica. the musty almost white-tea like aroma is something iam chalking to robusta. i hope there’s repeatability when i taste more specialty robusta. the cup was superbly earthy, no bitterness, full body that iam beginning to associate with specialty robusta and lingering earthy-nutty aftertaste. you could call that chocolate but iam going to stick to earthy-nutty.   specialty robusta  

Disclaimer
okay so long before Nisha put up the blinded sample packs, i was privy to Srini’s (@saltedpeppercorn) stories of coffees from Anaikadu in which he repeatedly mentioned “kenyan washed, Honeys (red and yellow) and a robusta”
i was also aware that anaikadu was doing honeys cuz i was following binny’s stories when he was working with them during the processing stage.
while sending across the blinded samples, Nisha made it clear that one of the samples was a robusta.

all this helped but i knew the washed (Sample one) and the robusta (Sample four) from the chaff and aroma/notes which meant that by the process of elimination Sample Two and Three were honeys.
By sheer science of the process involved, given that red marinates more -iam going to say Two was Red Honey and Three was Yellow Honey. 

Sample One – Arabica
Sample Two – Red Honey Processed
Sample Three – Yellow Honey Processed
Sample Four – Robusta

 

Source : 1 , 2

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