India - Pearl Mountain Lot RM 59

Ashok Patre, owner of Ratnagiri Estate is a third-generation coffee producer. He began his work in coffee as head of the estate towards the end of the 1980s, six decades after his grandparents acquired the land and established their first highland plantations in the 1920s, initially growing fine pepper and eventually inter-cropping with native coffee varieties and locally developed cultivars, including Cavery, Hemavathi, Chandragiri, SNL 9, and SLN 6, and more recently foreign varieties, like Catuai.

In the 2023 India National Barista Championship, the Gold and Silver trophies were won using Catuai that went through a Carbonic Maceration, Extended Fermentation, Natural process.

Ratnagiri’s specialty coffee journey commenced in 2015 when honey-processed lots they produced — as a result of persistent, intentional experimentation inspired by Ashok’s coffee producer friends from Costa Rica and Colombia — turned out well and were warmly received in Europe. Eager to build on this success, Ashok proceeded to explore anaerobic processing methods in 2017.

Throughout nearly a century, the Patre family has, with passion and perseverance, preserved the environmental abundance and biodiversity of their corner in the lush and idyllic South Indian Western Ghats, proximate to the reputed seat of coffee cultivation in the country, Bababudangiri.

Ratnagiri, meaning Pearl Mountain, was named after the dense, high-altitude woodlands comprised of towering silver oaks that naturally allow the coffee plants to thrive, shade-grown, beneath the natural forest cover. From a distance, the silver-hued canopy of the clustered trees resembles the inimitable sheen of pearls.

The terroir, meticulously maintained as a biodynamic farm with the official Rainforest Alliance Certification, its three stories of shade and two freshwater streams, coupled with the primacy placed by Ashok on excellent quality — from cultivation all the way through to post-harvest processing — can be credited for the elevated quality and distinctive profiles specialty coffee lovers everywhere are increasingly taking notice of and craving.

Cognizant that sustainable success in specialty coffee hinges on the well-being and health of the community that underpins it, Ratnagiri Estate — as a major player in the producing side of the specialty coffee value chain— extends socio-economic support to its workers by funding their local primary school, providing them with free healthcare, and also paying higher wages than the stipulated rate.

They also have a regular, albeit informal, system of reinforcing practical messages to guide their workers toward improving their quality of life, by emphasizing the importance of keeping their children in school and encouraging them to start a habit of saving.

The Catuai variety is a hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo that is native to Central America, characterized by a compact stature that allows it to be planted at a higher density within a given area compared to other varieties like Bourbon. Its size also makes it easier to attend to — for the treatment of diseases and to rid of pests — and to harvest.

Catuai is regarded as a reliably productive crop with the potential for good cup quality generally known to express straightforward nutty and sweet notes when wash-processed.

Adapting Catuai to the soils of Ratnagiri started in the late 1990s after receiving seeds from a friend who had acquired them during a visit to Colombia. Intrigued with its yield data and resistance to disease at the time, Ashok decided to cultivate Catuai in a larger part of the estate.

For this micro-lot from the Linne Patte block, Catuai went through a 72-hour Yeast Fermented Natural Process that started with the selective handpicking of coffee cherries at 25.2 on the Brix meter, flotation, and further sorting to ensure only the good quality cherries would proceed to the fermentation phase in stainless-steel tanks.

A specific strain of yeast was added to the cherries as they fermented for 72 hours in the carbon dioxide-rich environment generated within the tanks. Following this, the coffee was taken out of the fermenters and directly laid out on raised beds for a slow-drying phase that lasted for 26 days.

The result of this process is a distinctive South Indian-grown Catuai with a dark, syrupy, and chocolatey character balanced by barely-there acidity. It’s delectable straight up as espresso, extra luscious with milk, and so satisfyingly silky and sweet on filter.