About KumbaKonam Coffee

The history and romance of coffee in India dates back to the seventeenth century, when a Muslim pilgrim from India named Baba Budan, smuggled seed out of Mecca.

Tradition says that sometime around 1650, he bound seven seeds to his belly, and as soon as he reached his home hermitage, a cave in the Hills near Chickmaglur in southern India, he planted them and they flourished. India now claims to be the fifth-largest producer of coffee in the world, after Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Ethiopia.

India is a department store for coffee, growing both arabica and robusta, under filtered shade, at altitudes of about 1,500 feet (457 m) to about 4,500 feet (1370 m). The shade comprises evergreen leguminous trees, with nearly fifty different species being found on the plantations.

The total area under coffee cultivation in India was 404,645 hectares. Some 99 percent of the farmers are smallholders with less than 10 hectares of land. The productivity of arabica was approximately 513 pound/acre (575 kg/ha), and robusta was 942 pound/acre (1,056 kg/ha).

The traditional coffee growing areas are the three southern states of Karnataka (Coorg, Chikmagalur, Bababudan, and Biligiri districts), Kerala (Wayanad, Travancore, Nelliampathy, and KannanDevan districts), and Tamilnadu (Nilgiris, Shevaroys, Pulneys, and Anamalais).

South Indian coffee, also known as Kaapi (South Indian phonetic rendering of “coffee’), Mysore filter coffee or Madras kaapi or simply filter coffee, is typically a coffee drink made by mixing frothed and boiled milk with the decoction obtained by brewing finely ground coffee powder in a traditional Indian filter.

The beverage is especially popular in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Outside India, a coffee drink prepared using a filter may be known as Filter Coffee or as Drip Coffee as the water passes through the grounds solely by gravity and not under pressure or in longer-term contact.

The only way to know what filter coffee is, is to taste it. Filter coffee is at its heart a culinary approach to coffee. It is the pursuit of the wonderful, complex and varied flavor that coffee is capable of.

Our Baristas find their way to us through passion, attention to detail, skill and desire to learn more about coffee. We move as one team and evaluate our views in regular coffee meetings.

Our coffees are always fresh and change throughout coffee seasons. We are dialing in all coffees daily by looking at various factors such as Brew Ratios or extracted Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). With the latter we make sure that our coffees are extracted at an optimal range of 18-22%. While all this is relevant, the most important thing is taste and judgment of our baristas who are building on experience and exchange with others.

Next to our search for better coffee shots, we regularly create a Brew Bar Menu for our Single Origin Filter Coffees. All coffees are made-to-order and freshly poured.

Our hand brewed coffees have a spectacular range of notes and flavors. They are roasted lightly and with great care to bring out the individual characteristics of a bean. Freshness is important when serving a perfect cup.

We carefully observe the maturity profiles of our coffee beans. Brew coffee beans are being served as close as possible to their roast date. No good comes out of dirty equipment. It is second nature to us to keep all of our equipment clean at all times.

Our water is being filtered and re-mineralized by a Reverse Osmosis System. Not only improves the water taste it also keeps our machines and boilers clean.

The fresh milk is pasteurized and produced following Demeter rules. It is being delivered to us within 24 hours from cow to cup.

Unfortunately we have decided not to serve cold milk in our hot drinks – it would cool down and deteriorate the taste of the filter coffee. We find that steamed milk has a superior taste and texture. Our milk is steamed individually per order.

Each drink gets fresh milk that won´t be heated twice. It is also important to us not to steam the milk too hot and keep it within an accurate temperature range. This keeps the milk alive and naturally sweeter.

Our special coffees have an amazing and unique character along with tones of flavor and prized, delightful acidity. This also means we love presenting the coffees, offering advice and recommendations as to how they work best.