RatnagiriEstate

Ratnagiri sits in the Attigundi area of Chikmagalur district, on ground that drains off the Baba Budan range — the same hills where coffee entered India in the first place. Elevation runs about 1,300–1,450 m, annual rainfall 1,750–2,200 mm, and temperatures swing roughly 14–32°C across the year.

Shade is dense, on the order of a hundred trees per acre, targeting around half of full sunlight, with black pepper trained up the canopy — standard across the Western Ghats and a meaningful second income for the farm.

Ratnagiri accumulates cultivars and process variants the way a house accumulates furniture. The backbone is SLN 9 — an Indian Coffee Board selection combining Ethiopian Tafarikela with Hibrido de Timor, large bean, good acidity — alongside Cauvery (India's Catimor), Catuai and Chandragiri in the plots.

We buy both ends of what the farm makes: a full washed lot for clean cocoa and defined sweetness, and natural and fermented cuts — a 54-hour lactic culture natural among them — pushed for red fruit and jam. Same farm, same varietal in places, one variable changed at a time.