This festival has become one of the highlights of the year for my industry and this year I took two members of our team to experience the energy and enthusiasm that currently resides in our industry.
In 2015 I visited Araku Valley which lies in the state of Andhra Pradesh in South East India. There I came across this incredible social and environmental “experiment” being organised by the NGO NAANDI. They are endeavouring to keep the culture and traditions of the peoples who live in this area alive by ensuring that the farmers get a sustainable price for their produce. On top of that they are re-building the eco-system through the planting of 1 million trees each year. For more insights take a look at my book “Big ideas for a small world”.
I wrote a blog about this coffee and its origins on the 5th January 2018 where I described it as a bit “Marmite”. Well a few weeks ago I was over in London and visited a famous Indian restaurant called Dishoom which can be found at 4 Derry Street, Kensington, London.
Monsooned Malabarcoffee doesn’t have the “sex appeal” of the fully traceable, single estate / farm coffees that are so millennial but it does have longevity, and in many ways is probably a coffee classic. Never really in or out of fashion.