No. 08of 19

Baba Budangiri

Seven seeds, by legend — and where Indian coffee began.

Every coffee grown in India traces back to one crescent-shaped ridge in Chikmagalur — also the highest ground in Karnataka, which is why the arabica planted there survived and still cups the way it does.

Baba Budan range · Chikmagalur · Karnataka

High point
1,930mMullayanagiri, the highest ground in Karnataka
Legend
Seven seeds from YemenBrought back by the Sufi Baba Budan. The date is not known.
Research station
Balehonnur, 1925Became the Central Coffee Research Institute
Selections from this lineage
S.795 · Cauvery · Chandragiri · SLN series
GI tag
Bababudangiris Arabica, 2019
From the roastery
≈ 1,700kmDelhi, as the crow flies, to the district centre
Green hills under a blue sky, Karnataka hill country
Plate 01Green hills under a blue sky, Karnataka hill countryPhoto by Ravigopal Kesari on Unsplash
J F M A M J J A S O N D Oct TODAY

It is October, and the cherry is ripening on the branch. Picking starts in November.

  • BlossomMar – Apr
  • HarvestNov – Feb

A typical year for this kind of country. This farm's own dates can run a few weeks either side.

Layered ridges and trees, Karnataka hill country
Plate 02Layered ridges and trees, Karnataka hill countryPhoto by Ravigopal Kesari on Unsplash

Seven seeds from Yemen

A Sufi named Baba Budan, returning from pilgrimage, passed through the port of Mocha in Yemen, drank coffee, and decided India should have it. Yemen guarded the coffee trade fiercely — green seed left the country boiled or roasted so it could not germinate — and taking fertile seed out carried the death penalty. Baba Budan is said to have strapped seven seeds to his body and carried them back to the hills above Chikmagalur, where he planted them near the caves he settled in. No one knows the date; the story is older than any record of it.

Roasted coffee beans on a wooden surface
Plate 03Roasted coffee beans on a wooden surfacePhoto by Eko Sutrisno on Unsplash

A research institute, and a GI tag

The colonial-era research station at Balehonnur, opened in 1925, went on to become the Central Coffee Research Institute — almost every Indian arabica selection you'll see on a bag, S.795, Cauvery, Chandragiri, the SLN series, comes out of that lineage. In 2019 the Government of India granted Bababudangiris Arabica Coffee its own geographical indication, a separate tag from the wider Chikmagalur Arabica GI covering the central area around the range itself.

“We don't buy a coffee called "Baba Budangiri" — we buy from the ring of family estates on its slopes. This page exists so a customer can understand why so many of our single-estate coffees, and so much of Indian coffee generally, trace back to this one range.”

The estates on these slopes

Notes and sources

  1. BROOT's earlier notes on this origin, written August–September 2026

The contour lines behind the title are decoration, not survey data. Distances are great-circle, measured from Delhi to the point shown in the ledger.

Photography

Plate 01, Photo by Ravigopal Kesari on Unsplash · Plate 02, Photo by Ravigopal Kesari on Unsplash · Plate 03, Photo by Eko Sutrisno on Unsplash.

Photographs show the country around the estate unless a caption says otherwise. We are asking the growers for their own; when they arrive they replace these.