Coffee geeks ‘unlock’ new brews during the lockdown

When not practicing music, Carnatic musician Akshay Vaidyanathan polishes his coffee brewing skills at home. Founder of Kapi Kottai that sells artisanally roasted coffee, he has launched three products during the lockdown, namely Curveball, Mangifera and Persea. “Curveball is a specialty grade Excelsa that has been specially processed to remove the harshness that is usually associated with this type of coffee. The cherries have been double fermented and the beans dried with all the mucilage intact. This is a coffee to be savoured at leisure — the colder it gets the more pleasantly citrusy it becomes. The coffee beans are from Mooleh Manay estate in Coorg. The beans were harvested during March-April and I got the first sample in June. Another product, Persea is a red-honey processed coffee from Kerehaklu estate in Chikmaglur. This estate prides itself on not using any agrochemicals, so the coffee is free from any sort of pesticide or insecticide residue. Mangifera, another brew, is washed, specially fermented arabica from Kerehaklu estate,” explains Akshay.

Lakshman Sevugan started Farmgate to offer a range of unique and delectable blends, each of which is made from fine arabica and robusta coffee beans that are grounded and fine-tuned. During the lockdown, the young coffee roaster wanted to target people who consume instant coffee at home. “We have come up with a ready-to-have decoction called The ‘X’ Brew. You can make filter coffee, black coffee and cold coffee with this blend. The 110 ml product is delivered in a glass bottle. The brew was ready by mid-July and after that, we did multiple trials and launched the product two weeks ago. So far, the feedback has been amazing,” shares Lakshman.

For the past few years, coffee consultant Viggnesh V has been collecting various coffee equipment from traditional coffee makers. “I wanted to make use of the lockdown. I was finding out how different grind sizes, temperatures and different volumes between coffee and water will affect the final cup. I experimented on various equipment like filter coffee maker, Moka pot, Japanese pour-over dripper, cold brew maker and hand-pulled espresso maker. I was trying to find out how different proportions of coffee work with different proportions of water, how is it extracted and does that extract make a difference in the final cup. I also experimented with Australian designed equipment called Delter Coffee Press. It is a variation of the traditional US equipment Aeropress,” says Viggnesh.