Coffee Produced by Indian Tribal Farmers Gets French Award

An Indian coffee brand has won a prestigious French award for the best coffee pod in the Prix Epicures OR 2018 in Paris.

The Araku Coffee, part of the Araku Coffee Project, was started to support the tribal youths of Araku Valley, a table land in India’s ecologically sensitive Eastern Ghats, is claimed to be 100% organic and pure Arabica coffee blending together sweetness, balance, and fullness of flavor coffee.

The project, which begun in 2001, made its journey abroad last year to boost the income of the tribal farmers. According to a report in the Hindu, the coffee brand has founds a place besides popular coffee bean varieties from other places like Colombo, Sumatra, etc. The brand has also opened multiple stores in Paris along with delivery across France.

Manoj Kumar, co-founder of Araku coffee and CEO of Naandi Foundation took to twitter to applaud the work of the tribal farmers.

https://twitter.com/manoj_naandi/status/1049605452839948290

according to the Hindu, the coffee estates are situated about 60 km from the nearest railway station beyond a mountain stream in the village of Cheruvupakula.

The brand made its historic 8000 km journey with the help of Naandi Foundation, the publication said. “Harvest from one small area, which has been identified for producing a particular flavor and body, will be processed as one batch. There is a competition between farmers to harvest only the riper crimson red cherries, and not simply red cherries,” Vinod Hegde, member of Naandi told the publication last year. “We keep track of the cherries right from arrival at harvest to pulping, fermenting and drying till it is ready for shipping for roasting and grounding in Paris.”

Talking about the process of making this exclusive organic coffee, Hegde told the newspaper, “Too much, and the coffee will have a very short shelf life. Too little, and there will be no flavor. It will be like boiling wood.The moisture has to be between 9% and 11%.”

Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra, who is one of the directors at Naandi Foundation said, “A more important milestone than might seem apparent at 1st glance. In a land of gourmets, an Indian coffee, grown by Adivasis in an underdeveloped part of India, has been ranked as one of the best coffee brands in the market. It’s time Indian food brands crack the premium segment.”

https://twitter.com/anandmahindra/status/1049884071348891650