India - Hulikere Natural
Origin: India
State: Karnataka
District: Chikmagalur
Region: Baba Budan Giri/ Western Ghats
Producer/Farm: Hulikere Estate – Shreedev and Sushmita Hulikere
Process: Natural
Varietals: S795, Chandragiri
Elevation: 1100-1370 MASL
Roast Level: Light/Medium
Tasting Profile: Blueberry, Pastry, Cream
Additional Information:
This marks our third year sourcing some incredible and truly distinctive coffees from India via our relationship with KaadKaapi coffee collective. We brought in two separate lots this year from Hulikere estate, one a washed processed coffee and the other a natural processed coffee.
Hulikere Estate is nestled in the legendary hills of Baba Budan Giri of Chikmagalur. The estate is managed by producer Shreedev Hulikere, a third generation farmer who has run his family’s farm for three decades. Although his family’s connection to this land and growing coffee extends back five generations. Alongside him, his wife Sushmita manages Woodway Homestay, located within the family's ancestral home, where visitors come to experience life amidst the estate's forests, coffee, and wildlife.
Environmental stewardship is woven into every aspect of the farm. Coffee is cultivated within a thriving ecosystem that supports remarkable biodiversity. More than 200 bird species have been recorded on the estate, alongside several ungulates and the region's three apex predators—the dhole, leopard, and tiger. Wildlife corridors and movement pathways are consciously preserved, allowing animals to move freely through the landscape and enabling a rare model of coexistence between agriculture and nature.
KaadKaapi is a collective of coffee farmers in India who all share a love of their land and a passion for wildlife, nature and coffee. The members of KaadKaapi are dedicated to ensuring the long term sustainability of coffee and a commitment to supporting wildlife conservation on their ancestral lands. They provide farmers with access to finance, advisement to produce high quality coffees, and handle exportation of these specialty coffees to international markets.
Their coffee estates are cultivated in the hills of the Western Ghats of India, which is recognized as one of the world's eight biodiversity hotspots. It is extraordinarily rich in unique species and contains more than 30 percent of all plant, fish, reptile, amphibian, bird and mammal species found in India. The southern Western Ghats has the largest contiguous tiger and single largest Asiatic Elephant populations in the world.
The lots we selected share some truly distinct characteristics that we have found to be a staple in representing the style of coffees we have sourced from India over the past couple years. Each offering has some really nice textural elements and contain what we would best classify as a pastry/malty sweetness like character within each of them. This natural processed coffee is a bit more fruit forward where we are picking up some blueberry notes along with a creamy mouth feel. All in all it closely resembles memories of fresh blueberry pie, which is super enjoyable.