The Audio version of In My Mug, the weekly coffee subscription podcast from Hasbean
Episodes
Sunday Mar 27, 2016
Sunday Mar 27, 2016
Five hours' drive towards the coast from Bangalore lies the small town of Suntikoppa (population: 20,000), among the Coorg Hills of southern India. This is the heart of the coffee growing area in Karnataka state, and all around lie small-to-medium sized farms. Located at 600-800 metres above sea level in these fertile hills is Faiz Moosakutty’s Bibi plantation.
The 250 acre plantation has been in the Moosakutty family since 1960, and it is named after Faiz’s mother. Faiz took over in 1990 and has since embarked on replanting the entire estate, aiming to create a model coffee farm. This process is now 98% complete and the Bibi plantation produces some of the region’s finest coffee. Faiz lives on the farm with his wife, Sonia, and their two children – Rihan and Tara.
Faiz does not cut corners and runs his farm in an environmentally and socially responsible way. The coffee is grown in the shade of indigenous silver oaks, jungle figs and rosewood trees, which provide habitat for a vast array of bird and insect life, and also the occasional elephant from the nearby forest!
While the estate is not officially certified organic, no chemical weed killers are used. Instead, weeds are removed by hand so that the cut plants form a natural green compost. Micronutrients, manure and compost produced from the skins of pulped coffee cherries are important and organic fertilisers widely used on the estate.
Some 100 people work on the plantation, around half of whom live on-site. The farm provides free electricity, free housing and free medical assistance. Faiz also offers interest free loans to assist with the education of workers’ children, and pay-back schedules are kept flexible and worked out on a case-by-case basis. As Faiz told us on a recent visit to London, ‘It is a big responsibility – like looking after a family of 100 people!’
In the cup expect bold flavours, big body, and a chewy mouthfeel. There's leather / tobacco to start, but then there’s a sweetness and nuttiness that takes over in the aftertaste, which goes on and on.
- Country: India
- Region: Karnataka State
- Town/City: Sunticoppa
- Farm: Bibi Plantation
- Varietal: Red Catucaí
- Processing: Fully Washed and dried on patio
- Altitude: 600 - 800 metres above sea level
- Owner: Faiz Moosakutty & family