Tuesday, August 22, 2017

A cloud in my coffee


An online service that delivers gourmet coffee straight from the Shevaroy Hills to your doorstep
Who doesn’t like their coffee fresh from the plantations and touched by the mist?
Coffee connoisseurs have reason to cheer, as one of the country’s oldest coffee estates, Cauvery Peak, has now started an online delivery service of their premium coffee — planted, picked, pulped, roasted and packed — all on the estate, and then delivered to your doorstep.
The online service, which went live on July 3, has already garnered an ardent following, with orders pouring in from cities such as Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Virudhunagar. With this service, consumers can order coffee that is freshly roasted and ground just before being shipped.
Perched 5,000 feet up on the steep slopes of the northern end of the Shevaroy range of the Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu, Cauvery Peak Estate has been producing premium Arabica Coffee for 150 years. The estate was founded by European planter Eustacho Joachim in 1867, who gave the estate its name, because of the clear view of the Cauvery River meandering at a distance.
The estate was bought by the Rajes family in 1957, and has now been in the family for four generations.
In 2004, the Coffee Board of India commissioned Kenneth Davids, co-founder of Coffee Review, to select the top 10 Indian coffees.
Cauvery Peak Estate was rated in the top three and Davids says, “Cauvery Peak Coffee has a sweetly round aroma, richly low-key acidity, and full body. There are hints of fresh-cut cedar, lemon and chocolate in the aroma. In the cup, mid-toned with distinct, clean fruit leaning toward chocolate. Rich, long finish.”
Vijayan Rajes, managing director of Cauvery Peak, says that the coffee from each of his three estates, which are located in different parts of the Shevaroy hills, have their own distinctive flavour.
Rajes explains, that the amount of rainfall, soil quality, elevation and terrain play a major role in imparting flavour to the coffee. “Everything is so interconnected,” he says, adding, “There can be no coffee without the soil, no coffee without the sun and no coffee without the clouds that bring the rain.”
As he pours me a cup of steaming coffee from a slender swan-necked pot, I nod in agreement as I take a sip... and taste the cloud in my coffee.

++ Should one then quit coffe in the morning and go for dark cocoa powder? A friend (whose name skips me for the moment ) has suggested that I drink a cup of cocoa evry day, along with the morning coffee and the afternoon tea, and perhaps, include a glass of red wine in the evenings, so as to meximise benefit-sound advice!

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