The January / February 2012 issue of Roast Magazine article features the emerging specialty coffee markets of China, the Middle East, Russia and India. Be sure to read Nishant Gurjer’s quotes on the current state of India’s booming specialty coffee development and gives his outlook for the future in: The New Frontier, Specialty Coffee’s Emergence in China, India, the Middle East and Russia

Come see us in Korea at the 10th International Seoul Cafe Show at Coex exposition center, November 24-27. Look for us at the Coffee Board of India exhibit, we will have samples from the 2010-2011 season and will be discussing plans for the 2011-2012 harvest that is just about to get underway.

See you in Seoul!

Since first learning about the service at the 2011 SCAA Show in Houston, we were impressed about Koffeelink, a web-based sourcing system for locating and promoting green coffee inventory available for purchase in the U.S.A. and practically anywhere else. Each listing contains important information, such as the type, grade, processing method, place of origin and varietal, as well as the currently available quantity and present location (warehouse, afloat, at origin, etc.).

We are pleased to announce that we have now listed our remaining 2011 U.S. inventory online at Koffeelink and will shortly be launching the forward contract available inventory from our 2012 January harvest and inventory available in U.S. and European warehouses. Future entries will include independent cupping scores and profile spider sheets for each available coffee.

Links to available coffees are also found in the “coffees” section of this website.

Be sure to check out the listings and let us know what you think!

We are excited to announce that the highly respected green coffee and coffee roasting supplier Sweet Marias now carries our Sethuraman Estate RKR (Robusta Kaapi Royale) Nirali, which is available for purchase online.

From Thompson Owen’s cupping notes:

The aftertaste is extremely long and persistent, turning pungent in the finish as would a bittersweet chocolate. It’s an amazing robusta, and actually has a maple syrup sweetness lingering in the cup.

You can read a complete set of Tom’s cupping notes and recommendations for roasting at Sweet Marias.

Our friends at Muddy Dog Roasting Company were mentioned today on Fortune Magazine’s list of “nation’s best small coffee” roasters. Congratulations to Jim Pellegrini and his team for consistently serving excellence!

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA (August 1, 2011) – Beginning this month, Vournas Coffee Trading will import coffees from Kaapi Royale Coffee of Karnataka, India to The Annex warehouse location in Oakland, California.

Offerings from Kaapi Royale Coffee include top scoring traditional and special preparation arabica microlots from India’s key growing regions, as well as ultra-premium robusta (conventional, biodynamic and organic certified) and rare liberica coffees from Sethuraman Estate.

“We had really never tasted anything like the Sethuraman robustas before,” remarked Vournas Coffee Trading co-founder Andrew Vournas, “clean, sweet, delicate acidity and a rich buttery mouthfeel, but without the rubbery or bitter aftertaste normally found in robusta. These are exactly the sort of high-end but under the radar coffees that we look for to provide value to our clients.”

A coffee from Sethuraman Estate is the highest-ever robusta reviewed by CoffeeReview.com, with a score of 94 points from Ken Davids when evaluated as a single origin espresso.

“Indian specialty coffees are still relatively unknown in North America,” admits Kaapi Royale Coffee Managing Partner Nishant Gurjer, “so we are very pleased to have Vournas Coffee Trading as a new partner who can help to give our coffees greater visibility and a stable home in America.”

For additional information or availability, visit the Vournas Coffee Trading website at http://vournascoffee.com or call 818-879-1443.

About Vournas Coffee Trading
Vournas Coffee Trading is a family run, full-service specialty green coffee importing company founded in 2002 by brothers Andrew and Michael Vournas. Known for an old world style of helpful service, Vournas maintains a selection of conventional, shade grown, certified and decaffeinated green coffees on both U.S. coasts. For more information, visit http://vournascoffee.com.

About Kaapi Royale Coffee
Kaapi Royale Coffee of Magundi in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, India, exports specialty Indian coffees and is the exclusive representative of Sethuraman Estate coffees. Sethuraman Estate is the three-time winner of “Best Robusta” in the Coffee Board of India’s Flavour of India competition and received the highest-ever rating for a Robusta coffee of 94 points from coffee reviewer Ken Davids. For more information, visit http://indiancoffee.wordpress.com.

“Coffee in conversion” is an independently audited designation given to coffees that are grown using organic and/or biodynamic practices, but have not yet completed a prerequisite 3 year crop cycle necessary to be certified, labeled and sold as organic.

“Nisarga is the Sanskrit word for nature,” said Nishant Gurjer, Managing Partner of Kaapi Royale Coffee. “We take steps each season to make our Sethuraman Estate farm ever-increasingly environmentally friendly,” notes Gurjer. “Our coffee is all shade grown, uses 100% of our own worm-compost fertilizer and we recently deployed highly efficient new pulping equipment that will save thousands of gallons of processing water each year – a block of certified organic and biodynamic coffee is the natural next step.”

Nisarga coffee in conversion can be sampled at the Kaapi Royale Coffee booth #805 during exhibit floor hours April 28 – May 1 at SCAA’s Event held in Houston, Texas’ George R. Brown Convention Center.

Sethuraman Estates and Kaapi Royale Coffee Managing Partner Nishant Gurjer was featured earlier this week in an interview for the Hindu Business Line in the article “Estate-branded Coffee Enters the US Market.” Specialty coffee estate branding is a topic of particular interest within India, having only relatively recently been opened to direct trade.

‘Estate-branded’ coffee enters US market
by Anil Urs

Sethuraman Estates, coffee plantation company based in Chikmagalur and focusing on ‘single-origin, estate-branded’ coffees, has managed to break into the United States coffee market by selling 7.5 containers (about 135 tonnes) of washed robustas directly, and also through exporters.

The US, traditionally arabica-consuming country, has begun to replace part of the robusta coffees sourced from various countries for their blends.

Washed robusta coffee has begun to get a toehold in the lucrative US market. Earlier, Indian robusta faced an uphill task to get the US roasters’ attention. Due to this, only sporadic amounts of coffee were being exported.

“We entered the US market in 2006 by participating in the Specialty Coffee Association of America event. Then we exported two containers (36 tonnes), again in 2008 we doubled it to four containers (72 tonnes). Today in 2010, we have reached 7.5 containers level (135 tonnes), said Mr Nishant R Gurjer, Managing Partner, Sethuraman Estates.

“Our participation in the specialty coffee expo in America helped us gain entry. Before that, we were exporting only small amounts,” he added.

Sethuraman Estates, located at Magundi in Chikmagalur, began its operations in 1950s with an aim of producing good quality Robusta coffees. In the US market, the company is marketing estate-branded coffees – the Sitara Parchment Robusta and the Ne Plus Ultra of Robusta coffee brands.

“To suit the US market, we focussed on the preparation and attention to details in the coffee processing, backed by shade trees under the arecanut and coconut trees wrapped in pepper vines. The coffees are hand-harvested and sorted. The beans are then pulped, naturally fermented, double-washed, and then patio-dried,” pointed out Mr Gurjer.

The ‘single-origin estate-branded’ coffee of Sethuram Estates fetches a premium of 30 per cent over what is traded in the domestic Indian market. Robusta coffees in the domestic market are currently traded at around Rs 90,000 a tonne.

According to the Coffee Board, as on September 16, exports of different forms of coffees such as instant and bulk forms of both Arabica and Robusta from India to the US market this calendar was 5,116.2 tonnes or 2.46 per cent of the total Indian coffee exports.

An article in today’s Hindu Business Line discusses the growing trend of coffee certification in India and quotes Kaapi Royale Coffee’s Nishant Gurjer on the subject:

Mr Nishant Gurjer, Managing Partner, Kaapi Royale, a speciality coffee player, said: “The fastest growing sector in speciality coffee is certified coffee. There isn’t much of a premium at present on certified coffee, but between two coffees of equal quality, certified would be preferred. In the US and Europe, it is a growing trend. What was a whisper and murmur is growing louder and louder.”

Although much of Kaapi Royale’s Coffee is organically grown, the organic certification process is currently underway at Sethuraman Estate and certified coffees will be available in future crop seasons.