Top 10 Major Coffee and Tea Plantation Regions in India

[Jamwal's]

Major Coffee Plantation Region: South India dominates the other states in coffee plantation, Hills of Western ghats receive plenty of rainfall during themonsoon season which makes these region best place for coffee cultivation.

Chikmagalur
Chikmagalur is first place in India where coffee was introduced, It is also known as coffee land of Karnataka. Chikmagalur is one of the famous hill stations in Karnataka state, located in the foothills of Mullayanagiri range. Its geography and climate makes it one of the largest coffee estates in Karnataka followed by Kodagu, coorg and Hassan. Mullayanagiri is the highest peak of Karnataka situated in the Baba Budan Giri Range of the Western Ghats and tallest peak between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris,known as best place for trekking in Karnataka.

Wayanad
The green paradise of Malabar region,Wyanad is located between the mountains of the majestic Western Ghats. Wayanad is the one of the best hill station of Kerala followed by Munnar,nalliyampathy and Rajamala. The beautiful hill region is surrounded by ever green forest, Pookkode Lake and Karapuzha Dam near by,Its pleasant climate is best for coffee and tea cultivation so also known as Coffee County of Kerala. Major variety of coffee cultivated in this region are Rubusta and Arabica. Malabar region is known for its beautiful hill, green valleys and cool climate which makes its one of the best place for flora and fauna.

Yercaud
The small and young hill station of Tamil Nadu is located in the Salem District.Yercaud is situated in the Shevaroys range of hills in the Eastern Ghats and got its name due to forest near the lake mean to Lake Forest. Cool climate and silent valley of Yercaud known as the best coffee forests in India. Nilgiris District, Coonoor and Kodaikanal are other place in Tamil Nadu which are known for coffee plantation in India, Nilgiris District is also known for tea cultivation.

Araku
Araku is a hill station in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, in the Eastern Ghats of India inhabited by different types of tribes. Coffee Plantation in Araku is known for its first tribal growers’ organic coffee brand. Coffee cultivation industry is secondary here, as pepper and rubber are cultivated by the tribal all around the state. The amazing Araku valley is surrounded by Galikonda, Raktakonda, Sunkarimetta and Chitamogondi mountains and Anantagiri and Sunkarimetta Reserved Forest. Other coffee producer regions of Andhra Pradesh are Chintapalli, Paderu and Maredumilli in the Eastern Ghats of India. The area from Visakhapatnam to East Godavari districts are also known for coffee plantation in the state.

Daringbadi
Daringbadi is known as Kashmir of Orissa,located in the hill region of Orissa and the only hill station of state. Daringbadi is one of the youngest coffee plantation region in India followed by Chintapalli, Himachal Pradesh and Assam. This beautiful region is gifted with dense pine jungles, long coffee gardens,majestic Mountain and amazing valleys. Daringbadi offers cool climate, landscape beauty, deep dense forest, Tribal people and pleasant environment, still unexplored and untouched. Koraput district in Orissa is another place known for most traded commodities, the rich coffee plantation.



Major Tea Plantation Area: India is the world’s largest tea-drinking nation and its tea culture is well famous around the world. North east India is known as major tea plantation states along with Himachal Pradesh. Sikkim and tea garden of Tripura are known for its perfect taste and aroma.

Assam
Assam Tea is a black tea produce from large-leaved of tea plants. The world’s largest tea-growing region is situated in the side of great Brahmaputra River and receive high downfall during the monsoon. Tropical climate of Assam gives a unique feature to its tea,a malty taste for which this tea is well known in the world. Region of Cachar,lowlands of Assam and Barak Valley are also produce small quantities of green and white teas. Assam is the only region with native tea plants in India and second in the world after southern region of China.

 

[Jamwal's]

Darjeeling
Darjeeling, the beautiful hill station of of West Bengal, located in the Mahabharat range is known for major tourist destination along with its tea industry. The Himalayan city produce tea from small-leaved, which is known for its taste and aroma. Darjeeling tea is also known as black teas but now oolong and green teas are also becoming popular in the state to produce, some area is also producing white teas. Each tea garden of Darjeeling produce teas of different characteristics in taste and aroma such as Arya,Badamtam,Ging,Happy Valley Pussimbing and Kaley Valley.

Nilgiri
Nilgiris is a District in the Tamil Nadu, and a mountain range spread across the Tamilnadu Karnataka as well as Kerala. Nilgiri tea is famous for its dark color, fragrant and flavored, Generally grown in the hills of the Nilgiris or blue mountains. The blue mountains of India is home to many beautiful hill stations like Ooty, Queen of hill stations and Coonoor. Coonoor tea garden and Ooty tea gardens are famous as one of the popular tourist attraction.

Munnar
Tea County of Kerala, Munnar is a famous hill station located on the majestic Western Ghats of India. The hill city is a range of mountains situated at the confluence of three mountain streams Madhurapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers in the Idukki district. Scenic Tea gardens of Munnar are one of the major attraction along with beautiful flora and fauna around. Munnar is also known as one of the best monsoon destination in India. Tea plantation is spread from Munnar to Central Travancore and further south in state of Kerala. Apart from lush green hills and tea plantations Idukki is famous for its 168.91 m tall arch dam, stands between the two mountains on the Periyar River known as Idukki Dam.

Coorg
The most popular hill station of Indian state Karnataka is located in the Western Ghats. Kodagu or Coorg, the popular monsoon destination of south India is well known for its coffee cultivation in the world, but Tea is another crops cultivated in the hill regions of Western Ghats along with including para rubber, teak, and cocoa. Thippanahalli and kudremukh are also famous for tea plantations,Eco-tourism and trekking.

Tea culture of India makes us one of the highly tea consumption country in the world. South Indian states are traditional coffee growing regions rest of the states including Orissa in the eastern coast, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh of Northeastern India are the non-traditional areas for coffee plantation but good for tea. The seven sister states are best place for tea plantation and offers a wide range of tea includes herbal tea,green tea etc.

 

[Jamwal's]

Baba Budan and the seven wonder seeds

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Coffee in India is not as widespread as tea, but its cultivation has a much longer tradition: it was brought as early as the 17th century from Arabia to the South Indian state of Karnataka by Baba Budan, a Mecca pilgrim! Thus, as a general rule, today you get good filter coffee in South India and tea in the North. Indian coffee is known for its fine aroma, because, in comparison to other coffee-growing countries, it grows more in the shade and less under direct sunlight. Over 90 percent of the Indian coffee-growers are small farmers – there should be roughly about 250,000 of them. For this reason, I looked in particular for a small farmer to get the most typical possible impression of coffee cultivation in India. In Mr. Suresh Chengappa and his farm “Honey Valley” in Karnataka, I finally found him! Thus, in the beginning of February 2014, I set upon the increasingly-tedious way from Mumbai to Mysore via Bangalore and then onwards towards Madikeri (Coorg District Town) and then further on to Kabbinakad. From here onwards, the only way to go any further was by asking the direction as there were no sign posts any more. Based 1,300 meters high, the coffee plantation is surrounded by rain forests and besides coffee, it also grows pepper. Both plants are in a symbiotic relationship with one another. Pepper is a climbing vine, which climbs up the trees that provide shade to the coffee.

Coffee farm in Karnataka – where even pepper grows

After Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and Columbia, India is the fifth largest coffee producer in the world. In 2013 India produced over 320,000 tons of coffee, which is roughly 4.5 percent of the world's coffee production. Of this, over 216,000 tons are Robusta coffee and 104,000 tons are Arabica coffee (ratio '67/33'). Coffee in India is traditionally grown in the mountainous regions of the southern states.

Over 50 percent of the country's coffee is grown in Karnataka, followed by around 30 percent in Kerala and 10 percent in Tamil Nadu. New coffee-growing areas are located in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa on the east coast of the country as well as in some of the north-eastern states such as Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, etc.

Around 80 percent of this coffee is exported largely to Italy (21 percent) and to Germany (13 percent) but also to Russia, Belgium, Spain etc.
All coffee species and varieties in India are generally grown in shady conditions and between different spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Consequently, they often take on the flavours of these spices on account of the close cultivation and storage. Robusta coffee is cultivated at 500-1000 meters and Arabica at 1000-2000 meters.

The ideal climatic conditions for Arabica coffee are temperatures between 23 and 28 degrees Celsius with a rainfall of about 1.5 to 2 m, followed by a dry spell lasting 2 to 3 months. Temperatures near freezing are absolutely unsuitable for coffee. The ideal humidity for Arabica coffee is between 70-80 percent, and for Robusta coffee, it is between 80-90 percent.



Map courtesy of "www.mapsofindia.com"

Ripe Robusta-Coffee

The colours of the ripening process:
green, yellow, orange, red, brown, black

Green (unripe) pepper

The colour of the pepper depends upon its degree of
ripeness at the time of harvest. The unripe green pepper
is the most spicy, followed by the ripe one (red) and the
pepper that has dried up on the plant itself (black).









One of the main problems with coffee cultivation in India is low productivity, as a result of which the competitiveness of the coffee is compromised. Under the control of the Indian Government, the Coffee Board of India provides small farmers with various subsidies to increase their coffee production and improve the quality of the green coffee. This includes, for example, subsidies for replanting the coffee fields, water conservation and other such measures to improve production quality. According to forecasts of the Indian Coffee Board, after this year's coffee blooming, the production of Arabica coffee in the year 2013-14 will increase by 12 percent compared to last year, and that of Robusta by around 7 percent. In 2014, the Association of Coffee Farmers of Karnataka hired Brazilian coffee experts for a research project that aims to help address this problem.* The focus of this project is the development of plants that generate higher yields and are more resistant to pests, such as the larvae of the 'European corn borer'.
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* Source: Bureau de Inteligência Competitiva do Café, Relatório Internacional de Tendências do Café / Vol. 2, Nº 12 – 20/01/2014, www.icafebr.com)
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Field of Robusta-Coffee

 

[Jamwal's]

One of the main problems with coffee cultivation in India is low productivity, as a result of which the competitiveness of the coffee is compromised. Under the control of the Indian Government, the Coffee Board of India provides small farmers with various subsidies to increase their coffee production and improve the quality of the green coffee. This includes, for example, subsidies for replanting the coffee fields, water conservation and other such measures to improve production quality. According to forecasts of the Indian Coffee Board, after this year's coffee blooming, the production of Arabica coffee in the year 2013-14 will increase by 12 percent compared to last year, and that of Robusta by around 7 percent. In 2014, the Association of Coffee Farmers of Karnataka hired Brazilian coffee experts for a research project that aims to help address this problem.* The focus of this project is the development of plants that generate higher yields and are more resistant to pests, such as the larvae of the 'European corn borer'.
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* Source: Bureau de Inteligência Competitiva do Café, Relatório Internacional de Tendências do Café / Vol. 2, Nº 12 – 20/01/2014, www.icafebr.com)
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Field of Robusta-Coffee








Coffee-Farm “Honey-Valley”

In Kannada, the official language of the state of
Karnataka, “Honey-Valley” translates as Kaddinakad – which
is also the name of the small township.
The workers' home in the middle of the farm.

The state provides transport to and fro school, as well as
school uniforms and one meal a day for school-going children.








The period between the flowering of the coffee and the ripening of the coffee berries differs for both varieties significantly depending on the climate; Arabica flowers in May and requires about seven months to ripen while Robusta flowers in April and requires about nine months. Thus, the harvest of Arabica coffee in Karnataka takes place from November to January, while robusta coffee is harvested from December to February. The crop yields, especially of Arabica coffee, are affected due to coffee pests such as the "white stem borer" or the "berry drill" by about a single-digit percentage range. By using pest control, farmers are currently trying to replace the use of chemical substances with environment-friendly organic pesticides.

Departing for the harvest in the morning

 

[Jamwal's]

The coffee farmers harvest the crop by hand as always, using the so-called 'stripping method', in which all the cherries are harvested regardless of their degree of ripeness. Of course, the coffee farmer waits until the bulk of the coffee cherries ripen, in other words, until they are red, but a certain percentage of the cherries remain unripe - green to yellow - or even dry up on the tree - dark brown to black. The alternative manual harvesting method, the selective method, in which only the ripe cherries are harvested in multiple stages, is simply too time-consuming and labor-intensive, and consequently, too expensive.

On his farm, Suresh Chengappa grows Arabica as well as Robusta Coffee, approximately in a 50/50 ratio. But in the recent years, he has been growing more Robusta, although the price for Arabica is higher. According to him, the maintenance costs, manpower requirements, crop resistance and crop yield for Robusta coffee make Robusta a better deal, while the additional expenses required for Arabica would not be compensated for by higher sales.








With the tarpaulin for the coffee-harvest
Harvesting Robusta coffee






At the time of visiting the farm in the beginning of February, Robusta coffee was just being harvested and the harvesting of Arabica was over. Unlike the harvest of Arabica coffee, the workers do not stand next to the tree, instead they must crawl under the Robusta trees and spread out their tarpaulins to collect 'the stripped' coffee cherries. This process is far more tiring and cumbersome than the one used for harvesting Arabica, but I was nevertheless surprised how quickly 10-11 people manage to harvest a fairly large area in a single day! These are very hardworking people, many of whom are members of tribes from the surrounding area, some even living on the farm itself. During conversations in the evenings, I find out that they party just as hard as they work .

They always receive their weekly salary on Tuesdays, and of course, the same evening, they immediately celebrate and squander away a major portion of their earnings in having a rollicking good time. There is a lot of dancing and drinking, in which both men and women, participate equally. Still later in the evening, there is often some quarreling in which fisticuffs feature regularly on the agenda – mostly it is the womenbeating up their men! Needless to say, nobody can make it to work on Wednesdays and Thursdays are also spent staying at home. But because they need money again, Saturdays and Sundays are spent working – in a way, they have simply postponed their weekend! In any case, not every holy book in the world marks the seventh day as being sacred!

Speaking of Robusta coffee: Like many coffee drinkers I also have a - cultivated - prejudice against Robusta coffee. This is probably down to the consumption of coffees, which were blended with cheap Robusta coffees before roasting or grinding. While this is done simply to reduce costs, the accompanying loss of quality is clearly discernible to the coffee drinker. There have been drastic responses to this in the past. For instance, the american “Specialty Coffee Association”, categorically stopped the mixing of Robusta-Coffee in their premium coffees! I have myself tasted 100 percent Robusta Coffees and have to say that the flavour is similar to that of old, wet cardboard boxes with a generous shot of well worn-out car tires!

'Stripping method'




Coffee connoisseurs from India claim that this view is the result of the consumption of low quality and cheap robusta coffee, but there also exists very high-quality Robusta coffee with a fine aroma. Keen to be convinced of this, I feel quite excited! The most famous Indian brands are Anamalais, Araku Valley, Bababudangiris, Biligiris, Brahmaputra, Chikmagalur, Coorg, Manjarabad, Nilgiris, Pulneys, Sheveroys, Travancore and Wayanad. The coffees are named after the regions from which they come. There are also a couple of special brands such as Monsoon Malabar AA, Monsoon Nuggets Extra Bold and Robusta Kaapi Royale.

The coffee is separated from leaves and twigs

 

[Jamwal's]

The four main botanical varieties of Indian coffee today are 'Kent' (named after the Englishman L.P. Kent), 'S.795', 'Kaveri' and 'Selection 9'. The most commonly grown Arabica variety in India and Southeast Asia is 'S.795' because it combines its balanced aroma with the subtle flavors of mocha coffee. (Here, mocha refers to the Yemeni coffee blend, not the Arab or Austrian method of coffee preparation.) 'Kaveri' also known as 'Catimor', is a cross between 'Caturra', which is frequently grown in Brazil with 'Hybridomas de-Timor', while the award-winning variety 'Selection 9' a cross between 'Tafarikela' and 'Hybridomas de-Timor'. It is also interesting that two of these varieties, namely 'Kent' and 'S.795', go all the way back to the very first varieties brought (more likely, smuggled!) into the Baba Budan Giri hills of Karnataka in the 17th century! See below for more!

The coffee is reloaded in sacks for transport






The "Indian Monsoon Malabar coffee" (Indian Monsooned coffee), an Indian specialty, is produced mainly on the Malabar Coast aroundMangalore in the south of India. Monsoon-coffee gets its special taste through a unique preparation method called "monsooning" – a process of ripening at high humidity. The harvested cherries are exposed to the high humidity of the heavy rains and winds of monsoon for a period of about 3-4 months, causing them to swell and lose their original acid, which in turn leads to a subsequent beverage having a near neutral pH. This coffee is very gentle on the stomach due to its minimal acidic content; the processing method gives it a full body with a velvety-smooth flavour. This coffee is unique to the Malabar coast of Karnataka and Kerala, and its brand is regionally protected, just like Parmesan cheese, for example. The opinions about its flavour range from "absolutely the best Indian coffee" to "well, maybe a little bland."

Leaves and twigs are removed








The history of the Indian Monsooned Coffee is quite interesting. For centuries, the Indian coffee was shipped from the Malabar coast in sailing ships headed for Europe, initially mainly toward England. The trip to England took almost 6 months, and the coffee was exposed during the entire duration to the changing, harsh climate, high humidity, salt air, the monsoon rain, the cold at the Cape of Good Hope, then again the heat along the African coast. These conditions allowed the green coffee to swell, which, as described above, changed its properties. With steam navigation and the construction of the Suez Canal, the travel time to England was reduced to just a few weeks and the storage facilities also improved. Suddenly 'regular' coffee began to arrive in England, but by then the coffee drinkers there were accustomed to the former taste of the swollen coffee – and wanted to have it again. Thus began the practice of exposing coffee after harvest to the wind and humidity of the monsoon on the Malabar coast of India for weeks to artificially re-create the previous taste. This method has survived till date and with it, a fair bit of the old coffee tradition, keeping a part of the long history of coffee alive.

Robusta-Coffee, Karnataka – Farm Honey-Valley

 

[Jamwal's]

Of course, coffee farming in general has a much longer history that begins in Ethiopia, and in the 15th century leads to Arabia and from there to Yemen. The coffee cultivation began in India in the 17th century - so it goes - with the Indian Muslim saint Baba Budan, who after his pilgrimage to Mecca in the year 1650, brought seven germinable coffee seeds to Chickmaglur in Karnataka, from where Indian coffee cultivation began to spread. At the time, it was illegal to bring coffee seeds from Arabia but because the number seven is a sacred number in Islam, the smuggling of seeds was classified as a religious crime. The significance of his action must be assessed in light of the fact that the Arabs at that time strictly controlled the export of germinable seeds of coffee. Baba Budan planted his coffee trees in the Chandragiri Hills (1,829 meters high), today named after him "Baba Budan Giri" (giri = hill). After these initial, isolated plantings, the first systematic cultivation by private owners followed in 1670.

Coffee harvest

The coffee is repacked into sacks for transport








The first "real", larger coffee plantations were set up 1840 onwards at Baba Budan Giri and the surrounding hills of Karnataka. From there, the coffee spread to the surrounding areas around Wynad (today: Wayanad, Kerala), the Shevaroy Hills and the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu. With the consolidation of the British colonial power in India in the mid-19th century, the cultivation of coffee for export grew steadily. Thus, the coffee culture spread more decisively in South India than in the North, where tea is mainly grown and drunk. In the initial phase, the plantation of Arabica coffee was very popular. But after a serious infestation of coffee rust, a small species of fungus, a more 'robust' coffee variety was grown as an alternative (subsequently named Robusta-Coffee), alongside a fungus-resistant hybrid, a cross between Liberica coffee* ('Coffea Liberica') and Arabica coffee.
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* = In comparison to Robusta and Arabica, pure Liberica-coffee has less economic importance. It is grown in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Benin, Philipine and Indonesia. Compared to Arabica or Robusta, Liberia fruits are harder, less juicy and contain less sugar but more caffeine. For this reason, the beans are considered to be comparatively inferior. After Excelsa-coffee, Liberica requires the longest ripening process of about 12-14 months. The variety is considered highly resistant to parasites, and in terms of production volume and life expectancy, it is superior to Arabica and Robusta.
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Lunchboxes – the 'dabbas'










In the year 1942, the government decided to regulate the export of coffee to protect the small farmers from falling prices. 'Coffee Law – VII' brought into existence the 'Coffee Board of India' which immediately assumed control of the coffee exports, selling and exporting home-grown coffee at fixed prices. As this took place entirely without any quality control, and the prices were very low, the small farmers no longer had any incentive to produce high-quality coffee. It was only post-1991 that the government began to liberalise the coffee market. In 1996, the last hurdle to the free trade of coffee was eliminated. Since then, farmers can sell their coffee wherever they wish.










The sacks weigh between 30 to 60 kg
First the coffee, then the people

The coffee is loaded ...

Baba Budan and the seven wonder seeds 1 - by Jochen Weber