OUR STORY
Find More Coffees by this Roaster
Some Coffees by the Roaster
Let there be light
Kapi Kottai
Praline, Milk Chocolate, Berries
Medium Light
Bhūshāvali
Kapi Kottai
Jaggery, Citrus, Candy, Berries
Medium Light
Hamīrkalyāni
Kapi Kottai
Sweet Lime, Brown Sugar, Cashew
Medium
Where we source our Coffees from?
Throughout the years we have come to work with a lot of great estates that have supported our journey, We are very committed to trading directly with the farms we source from and establishing a long standing, empathetic business relationship with the planters involved. Growing and processing good coffee in India is hard work and we do our best to understand the challenges this throws up.
What we believe in...
Patience, a lot of it. Starting from a work, then going to a small, modified oven that could just roast 200 grams at a time to having a proper roasting machine. It took a lot of time and a lot of trial and error (read burnt and underdeveloped beans). Chennai wasn’t too responsive in the initial days so I had to quickly adapt and we were always cash strapped. Access to roasting knowledge was also quite limited. Being able to overcome all these challenges requires a lot of patience and that is what defines Kāpi Kottai.
How we started...
Personally, an investigation into why my cup of filter coffee tastes good one day and like dirt the next, led me to specialty coffee. There is a lot of coffee in Chennai but very little from it, is done with care. I only realised that when I brewed a cup using the coffee from Kalledeverapura estate. The attempt with this venture is to highlight how good Indian coffee can be, when done with care both at the farm and the roasteries. Hopefully, we can also foster a community around this idea and make specialty coffee more accessible in off beat areas like Chennai.
Where are we headed...
The better my roasting got, I found that people were liking my coffee more and more. Word about me spread and now thankfully I’m in a reasonably comfortable place. I learnt to be adaptable (something that I didn’t think I was). Initially I wanted this to be a Chennai only venture (to keep costs down and keep my carbon footprint low). But that changed quickly when I started getting orders from Bangalore and Mumbai. Thankfully, now the Chennai crowd has warmed up to me a lot more and have a good bank of local clientele.
Kapi Kottai
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Specialty Coffee, artisanally roasted, sourced directly from farms that grow their coffee sustainably under a forest like canopy. The roasting is done by a Carnatic musician, who guarantees consonance in every cup.