Collection: Karnataka Coffee

Karnataka grows roughly seventy per cent of India's coffee, across Chikmagalur, Coorg and Hassan. Almost everything in this collection comes off estates in the Malnad hills, where the trees grow under a native shade canopy rather than in open sun. That is unusual globally, and it is a large part of why Indian coffee reads as rounded and low in sharp acidity: shade slows cherry ripening, and slower ripening builds sugar without spiking acid.

One practical consequence of monsoon-fed, shade-grown coffee is how it behaves in storage. Keep the bag closed, at room temperature, away from the kitchen window. Refrigerating coffee is the common and expensive mistake, because the bag sweats every time you take it out and condensation on a roasted bean stales it faster than air ever would. Buy a size you will finish inside a month instead of stockpiling, and grind it as you go rather than all at once.

The estates behind these lots are mapped on our Indian coffee estates page.