Where coffee grows, in India and around the world: altitude, harvest, what each region's coffee tastes like, and the bags in the catalog from each.
India grows coffee in the shade of the Western and Eastern Ghats and, increasingly, the Northeast. Around 70% is robusta; the specialty scene runs mostly on arabica, and now fine robusta too.
Bars show typical farm altitude. The number is how many coffees in the catalog come from each region. Higher usually means slower ripening, more acidity and more complex sweetness.
Where Indian coffee began. Legend has Baba Budan planting seven seeds brought from Yemen around 1670. Today it is the heart of Indian arabica: shade-grown under silver oak with pepper and cardamom, home to many of the estates specialty roasters buy from.
In the cup: Chocolate, caramel and spice in washed lots; bright fruit in naturals and ferments.
439 coffees from Chikmagalur →The high hills above Chikmagalur and the birthplace of Indian coffee. Among the highest farms in the country, with slow-ripening cherries and some of India's most prized arabica.
In the cup: Mild acidity, full body, chocolate and fruit; excellent naturals.
106 coffees from Baba Budangiri →Kodagu grows more coffee than any other district in India, mostly robusta with pockets of arabica. Estates are often family-run for generations and intercropped with pepper and oranges.
In the cup: Robusta: cocoa, nutty, heavy. Arabica: mellow, spicy, sweet.
113 coffees from Coorg →The Manjarabad region around Sakleshpur and Hassan. Mixed arabica and robusta, with several experimental-processing estates (Harley, Salawara) that Indian roasters love.
In the cup: Balanced, chocolatey; wild in anaerobic and barrel-aged lots.
36 coffees from Sakleshpur →The 'white hills' south-east of Mysore, named for the mist. High, forested and home to Attikan estate. Grows S795, S9, Cauvery and Kent.
In the cup: Sweet, nutty, balanced acidity.
18 coffees from Biligiriranga Hills →Kerala's coffee district, overwhelmingly robusta, largely small family holdings. Fine robusta from here is some of the best in the world.
In the cup: Cocoa, nutty, low acid, heavy body.
13 coffees from Wayanad →Southern Kerala including Idukki and Nelliampathy. Mostly robusta with some high-grown arabica.
In the cup: Mellow, spicy, full body.
0 coffees from Travancore →The Blue Mountains, better known for tea. Coffee here grows high and cool, often alongside tea gardens.
In the cup: Bright, clean, light-bodied.
6 coffees from Nilgiris →The Yercaud hills in the Eastern Ghats. Almost all arabica, grown under a dense shade canopy.
In the cup: Mild, sweet, citrus and chocolate.
23 coffees from Shevaroys →Around Kodaikanal, with some of the highest coffee in India. Arabica from here can be very bright.
In the cup: Floral, fruity, lively acidity.
17 coffees from Pulney Hills →The Valparai plateau, bordering Kerala. Coffee shares the hills with tea and rainforest.
In the cup: Balanced, sweet, mild spice.
2 coffees from Anamalais →Eastern Ghats coffee grown by Adivasi farmers, largely organic and sold through cooperatives and FPOs. Put India on the specialty map with international awards.
In the cup: Sweet, fruity, clean; naturals can be jammy.
34 coffees from Araku Valley →Just north of Araku, a young origin in the Eastern Ghats driven by tribal farmers and the Odisha government. Increasingly common on specialty menus.
In the cup: Fruity, sweet, light body.
49 coffees from Koraput →The newest frontier. Small farms in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal, many organic by default, with roasters like 7000Steps building direct links.
In the cup: Delicate, floral, tea-like; varies a lot.
13 coffees from Northeast →Browse the estate directory: who roasts which farm →
India grows about 3–4% of the world's coffee. This is the rest: where each origin's coffee comes from, what it tastes like, how it sits next to Indian coffee, which bags Indian roasters import, and what 192 specialty roasters around the world are selling right now.
Where arabica comes from: the plant still grows wild in the forests of the south-west, and most farms are a hectare or less, selling cherry to a local washing station.
In the cup: Washed: jasmine, bergamot, lemon, black tea, light and delicate. Natural: blueberry, strawberry, wine, heavy and sweet.
30 coffees from Indian roasters · 623 from roasters abroad →Grown on the slopes around Mount Kenya, mostly by smallholders who deliver cherry to cooperative factories.
In the cup: Blackcurrant, grapefruit, tomato-like savoury acidity, winey and intense. Among the brightest coffees anywhere.
5 coffees from Indian roasters · 218 from roasters abroad →A thousand hills of Bourbon trees, most planted by the colonial administration and now farmed by families with a few hundred trees each.
In the cup: Red apple, orange, black tea and a syrupy sweetness. Lighter and softer than Kenya.
9 coffees from Indian roasters · 65 from roasters abroad →Grown on Kilimanjaro's southern slopes and in the southern highlands.
In the cup: Bright citrus and blackcurrant like a softer Kenya, with a rounder, sweeter finish.
2 coffees from Indian roasters · 26 from roasters abroad →Robusta is native to Uganda's forests, and the country is Africa's largest exporter of it.
In the cup: Elgon arabica: winey, chocolate, dried fruit. Rwenzori naturals: jammy. Robusta: heavy, dark chocolate, earthy.
1 coffee from Indian roasters · 39 from roasters abroad →Coffee was first farmed and traded here, shipped from the port of Mokha in the 1500s.
In the cup: Winey, dried fruit, dark chocolate, spice and a wild, fermenty edge. Unlike anything else.
No Indian roaster stocks it · 3 from roasters abroad →Small family micro-mills, hundreds of them since the 2000s, process their own cherry and sell lots under their own name.
In the cup: Clean, bright and sweet: honey, red fruit, orange, milk chocolate.
3 coffees from Indian roasters · 132 from roasters abroad →A tiny origin made famous in 2004 when Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha won the Best of Panama auction and tasted like nothing judges had met before.
In the cup: Geisha: jasmine, bergamot, peach, tea-like body. Other varieties: clean, sweet, floral.
2 coffees from Indian roasters · 62 from roasters abroad →Old Bourbon trees on volcanic slopes, kept when other countries replanted with higher-yielding hybrids.
In the cup: Sweet, balanced, milk chocolate and soft fruit; Pacamara adds a savoury, winey depth.
5 coffees from Indian roasters · 109 from roasters abroad →Shade-grown in the northern highlands by cooperatives and a few large estates.
In the cup: Mild, chocolate, nuts, a gentle citrus; big-bean Maragogipe lots are soft and sweet.
4 coffees from Indian roasters · 49 from roasters abroad →Central America's biggest producer, once a bulk origin and now a source of fine lots from Santa Bárbara and Marcala, which was the first Central American coffee to get a protected designation of origin..
In the cup: Sweet caramel and milk chocolate, with stone fruit and florals in the best lots.
No Indian roaster stocks it · 92 from roasters abroad →Eight named regions, each with its own climate, from the volcanic bowl of Antigua to the dry, high Huehuetenango near the Mexican border.
In the cup: Antigua: chocolate, apple, spice, full body. Huehuetenango: brighter, wine and stone fruit.
No Indian roaster stocks it · 220 from roasters abroad →Three Andean ranges give Colombia harvests nearly year round and a huge range of microclimates.
In the cup: Caramel sweetness, red apple, a round, balanced acidity. Huila and Nariño lots lean to tropical fruit.
15 coffees from Indian roasters · 645 from roasters abroad →The world's biggest producer by a distance, about a third of all coffee.
In the cup: Chocolate, hazelnut, caramel, low acidity, heavy body. The classic espresso base.
3 coffees from Indian roasters · 350 from roasters abroad →Smallholders on the eastern slopes of the Andes, many certified organic because they never could afford inputs anyway.
In the cup: Mild, sweet, nutty with gentle citrus. Good Cajamarca lots show stone fruit.
2 coffees from Indian roasters · 131 from roasters abroad →The Dutch planted coffee on Java in the 1690s, decades after Baba Budan reached Chikmagalur, and Java was once a byword for coffee itself.
In the cup: Earthy, herbal, cedar, tobacco, dark chocolate, very heavy body and low acidity.
8 coffees from Indian roasters · 86 from roasters abroad →The world's second-largest producer and by far the biggest robusta grower, almost all of it planted in the Central Highlands since the 1980s.
In the cup: Strong, dark chocolate, bitter-sweet, heavy. Da Lat arabica is mild and clean.
3 coffees from Indian roasters · 3 from roasters abroad →A young origin on the Himalayan foothills, planted mostly since the 1980s by farmers with a few hundred trees each.
In the cup: Mild, sweet, nutty, with gentle citrus. Clean rather than complex.
4 coffees from Indian roasters · 2 from roasters abroad →Coffee has grown in the Shan hills for a century, but the specialty story started in 2014 when a development project taught village groups to produce sun-dried naturals.
In the cup: Sweet, fruity naturals: dried mango, red fruit, chocolate.
No Indian roaster stocks it · 1 from roasters abroad →Arabica came to the northern hills in the 1970s through royal projects that replaced opium poppies.
In the cup: Mild, nutty, milk chocolate, with soft fruit in honeys.
1 coffee from Indian roasters →Most coffee is garden coffee: a few dozen trees behind a village house in the highlands, picked by the family and sold as cherry or parchment.
In the cup: Fruity, winey, full-bodied, with a tropical sweetness.
No Indian roaster stocks it · 18 from roasters abroad →The world's biggest coffee importer grows very little: Kona and Ka'u on the Big Island of Hawaii, a little on Maui and Kauai, Puerto Rico's old Yauco farms, and a few experimental acres in southern California.
In the cup: Kona: smooth, mild, nutty, gentle acidity, clean. Ka'u: brighter, with more fruit. Priced like a luxury.
No Indian roaster stocks it · 1 from roasters abroad →Roasters around the world, and what they sell →
Harvest months are the main crop; most origins have a smaller second picking. Altitudes are typical farm ranges, not limits.