India Mandarin AB Sethuraman Estate

Sethuraman Estate, Chickmangalur, has been in Nishant Ramesh Gurjer’s family for 6 generations, and under his direct ownership for the last 20. His coffee is grown organically, which means going over and above what a certificate requires in his view, with coffee plants rowing under native shade, cover crops used to control weeds, and secondary crops grown as a continuation of what was already there.

Taking a carefully considered decision to concentrate on Robusta and not Arabica, Nishant has helped create not only top end fine or speciality Robusta but also what are known as R graded coffees – Robustas with the same care and commitment to quality that is recognized in the Q grading system. This has included experimentation with processing methods as well as keeping different varietals and even species on his farm.

The Mandarin process has beans picked at 25 Brix or higher. Hand picked they are brought back to the mill where they placed in to a mechanical siphon machine that removes twigs, dirt and any other impurities as well as any floaters. Cherries then pass through the pulper and directly following that, on to raised beds. They are regularly raked here to allow even drying and prevent fermentation from the thick coating of mucilage that still remains. This dries for the next 48 hours when the mucilage has turned to a wonderful orange hue and continues to dry until at around 1 week, moisture has settled at 11%.

The drying beds are then cleared, and the beans rested in gunny bags for a minimum of 3 weeks before heading off to the dry mill.