Bharath - Espresso from India

How we prepare the coffee

This Old Peridenia is a powerhouse. It brings a creamy, soft texture that perfectly supports the delicate acidity of this Robusta. Skillfully extracted, it produces a sweet, dense, balanced espresso that transports Nadja directly to a winter fireplace. Do not pull for more than 30 seconds, otherwise, it will slowly tip into an unpleasant, slightly metallic bitterness.

The recipe with the vibration pump convinces us completely. Michel's direct quote: "I've never had a Robusta with such incredibly integrated acidity." This is the comment on our brewing with 18.5 g in and 43 ml out in 24 seconds. This gives us an extremely soft, dense, creamy, and balanced cup with incredibly integrated acidity. If we pull the coffee for 32 seconds or longer, we get a standalone acidity due to over-extraction — analogous to Arabica. The slightly longer pre-infusion that the vibration pump inherently provides benefits the coffee.

Our recipe for the vibration pump (18.5 g in, 43 ml out in 24 sec.) is not quite right for the rotary pump. The cup is not balanced enough for our taste. Therefore, we pull the shot 3–5 seconds longer, with the same beverage ratio. Now we have that soft, dense texture again with aromas of walnut, vanilla, and pastry. This leads us to question whether the vibration pump actually requires a longer brewing time — a generally accepted theory that needs to be questioned and pursued.

Why does the coffee taste the way it does?

This coffee comes from Coorg in India, specifically from the Palestina community, at an altitude of 1,000 meters. The Old Peridenia variety has always been cultivated there.

The cherries are hand-picked and then passed through a flotation system at Bharath's farm Craigmore Tinyspot's washing station to remove low-density beans and defects. After that, they are depulped and washed, then dried on sun-warmed concrete.

Why did we buy this coffee?

Nestled in the foothills of the Western Ghats lies Craigmore Tinyspot — a family-run coffee farm, now in its third generation, in the rolling hills of Coorg, Karnataka. Bharath Belliappa is committed to producing sustainably grown coffee that thrives under the dense natural shade of indigenous trees in the Western Ghats.

We met Bharath through Komal and Akshey from the South India Coffee Company (SICC). They themselves manage a sixth-generation coffee farm in Coorg and serve as a knowledge hub for the region with their expertise and wet mill.

The collaboration with SICC and Bharath emerged from our discussions. We were looking for a producer who shared our understanding of coffee and produced high-quality Robusta. Thus, this Old Peridenia is grown by Bharath and processed at his own wet mill, exported via Komal and Akshey, imported by Lennart and his company This Side Up, and roasted by us.

How do we roast this coffee?

As a 20 kg batch on our 30 kg roaster. We usually roast our slightly darker coffees with the full capacity of 30 kg, but this coffee is very hard — Canephoras have hard cell walls and require a lot of heat for a faster roast. So we roast the coffee up to the first crack with 70% energy, which is a lot. We roast it for a total of 13:30 minutes to the same final temperature as our APAS. The roast level is thus similar, but the color is lighter because Canephoras do not get as dark as Arabicas at the same temperature.