Coffee Is So Much More Than A Lazy Morning Hack

Before we get swayed by a delicious coffee smell, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you decide to get into the coffee business?

Kodaikanal, where the Nandanvan Coffee Estate is, has always been an extremely special place to me. Looking back I’ve always been extremely passionate about the environment, and about working with people, and of course, I love coffee.

After college, I was at a crossroads and spent a few days during this time at Nandanvan. At that point, it was driven entirely by passion to create an amazing product with integrity. I spent a lot of time understanding the growing and roasting process and decided then that I wanted to work on this legacy product. Having joined Nandan coffee four years ago, I’ve had more of an entrepreneurial approach where I get to work with so many different people. Whether that’s interactions with the farmers or chats with estate caretakers who help pick out the ripe beans or understanding the end consumer, no two days are the same. For me, it’s a unique position as I’m working on a passion project with a legacy behind it.

What does coffee mean to you? 
Coffee is all about experiences for me. It’s my memory of being at the estate with my grandparents and sipping on a French press coffee while reading or going to a great café and interacting with really passionate people behind the scenes. It’s walking through the Nandanvan Estate and seeing the coffee plants during flowering season and the entire valley covered in a sea of white flowers. The brilliance of coffee is that it helps enhance and create experiences every day, through every cup. So there’s no one memory per se, it’s more about coffee being a constant companion for me.

Tell us something that people usually don’t think about when it comes to their cup of coffee. 
Coffee has long been seen as a commodity product or a quick fix to a lazy morning. But coffee is so much more than that. There’s so much labour that goes into creating an amazing cup of coffee that starts from the soil and seeds and goes all the way to the barista and the type of cup they chose to serve the coffee in. There are so many hands that this product passes through before it reaches the consumer, and when it is a truly amazing cup, you see the effort that people throughout the supply chain put in to make this a reality. This is what the specialty coffee industry and movement is also trying to highlight, to change people’s perspective of coffee as just another commodity and highlight its nuances.

Now for the tastings! Most of us know that there are four types of coffee roasts - light, medium, medium-dark and dark. But are there more types of coffee roasts as well? What are the tasting notes we should look out for when we pick a roast?

Coffee has a lot of nomenclature but the four mentioned here - light, medium, medium-dark and dark, are broadly speaking, the four different types of roasts; these might also be known by different names in different places as well. Within roasts, we also have the bean variety which helps define the coffee, for example, arabica, robusta, etc. Each variety then yields its own flavours and varieties. 

Coffee in this way is a lot like wine, where it’s not just red or white but wines that offer different flavours and notes; where the grapes have been harvested at different times and regions and can impact the tasting notes. 

So when picking out a roast, you’ll need to understand their flavour profiles first.. For instance, light roasts are more fruity, earthy, and bright or they can be green and earthy as well. Medium roasts on the other hand will offer fruity but more milky, chocolate-y, sweetish notes. Then we have medium-dark roasts which offer more caramelised and cocoa notes and then there’s a dark roast, which can be a bit of an acquired taste. Some dark roasts will offer smoky notes, and some really good dark roasts might not give smoky notes.

How does one pick the right roast for them?
You can also look at the tasting notes mentioned on the coffee roasts, which can give you a really good idea of what to expect. For instance, if a packet says it’s blueberry coffee, it might not taste exactly like a blueberry, but you know that blueberry has a very bright, sweet flavour so those are the tasting notes to look out for.

By now we’ve figured out what we want our coffee to taste like. But what should our coffee not taste like? For example, how can we tell if our coffee is not well-roasted, or we’ve got the wrong roast?

A few important parameters you can look out for are the amount of coffee, the water temperature, how long to brew it and how much pressure is applied. 

For instance, in a coffee shop, a very easy tell is to look at the time it takes, from the time the person touches the coffee machine button to the time the final cup comes out. 

If it takes only six to seven seconds, your coffee will taste very sour and sometimes a little bitter. More than 30 seconds and you’ll end up with a really bitter coffee, because if it’s made really fast then that means the coffee is not getting enough time with the water to extract the full flavour and you’ll get really harsh, sharp notes.

And if it takes too long with water? That means you’ve missed that sweet spot when the coffee is brewed perfectly. So your biggest tell is always time.

How does one tell a good cup from a bad one?

Yes, a few things to look out for are  

Fermented tastes: If the coffee has not been processed properly or has fermented and come in contact with another batch of coffee, then the coffee will taste like rotten, spoilt fruit in your final cup. 

If your coffee is too bitter, then it might be because it's been extremely light-roasted, or because the coffee was harvested when it was too green.

According to you, what are the do’s and don'ts when it comes to brewing that perfect cup?
Don’t overheat your water, because that loses a lot of the flavour. Clean your equipment, because coffee has oils and if your equipment is dirty, then that taste will also come in your final cup.  A big tip is to not store your coffee in the freezer. While most people tend to do this, it only works if you’re brewing the whole batch to be frozen and if it’s frozen in a vacuumed, sealed container. Otherwise, if your coffee is in an airtight container, then that would work as well.

Finally, which is your favourite coffee-making tip you’d recommend to us?

My favourite tip is to make sure that you have a cleansed palate when you have coffee. If you have eggs for breakfast and then take a sip of your coffee that would change the way you taste your coffee, so it’s great to have a sip of chilled water and then have your coffee and you’ll see the way the coffee changes based on what you’ve had before it and how you’re experiencing your coffee. 

Another tip would be to explore different coffees because the coffee industry has a lot to offer, there’s a lot of work that goes into making coffee and it is meant to be enjoyed! We in the industry take it seriously but as a consumer, it’s good to just enjoy what you enjoy and savour it well. 

The next time you’re browsing the shelves at Foodstories, stop to literally smell the Nandan Coffee experience at our Brew Bar.