Kurinji

The Sirangalli Community Project is a sustainable coffee farming initiative by the South India Coffee Company (SICC) that works with small coffee farmers in the Pushpagiri Range of Coorg. These biodiverse farms range from 1 - 10 acres  and are family run operations. The lots selected for the project have been processed at Mooleh manay estate. We had featured the coffees from Sirangalli last year under our Anuswaram series and liked them enough to bring one back for this year as a perennial offering.

The lot we chose from the Sirangalli set was the honey and boy did it have an interesting processing journey!

Cherries of a mix of arabica varietals(SLn 06, SLn 09, Chandragiri) were picked ripe and floated to remove low density coffee.

For the first fermentation step, the cherries are put in anoxic fermentation tanks and fermented for 60 hrs with a custom yeast culture.

The cherries are then pulped carefully., i.e  the outer skin is removed. This process is done with a lot of care and very little water as the coffee is delicate from the fermentation.

The pulped cherries are once again put in the anoxic tanks and a custom yeast culture is reintroduced, this time for 36 hrs(bringing the fermentation grand total to 96 hrs).

Post fermentation,  the coffee is transferred to a controlled-environment polyhouse for drying. It's spread on raised beds to ensure even moisture removal throughout the process. Estate staff regularly turn the coffee with rakes for optimal drying.

All the care taking during the extensive processing has resulted in a phenomenal cup that brims with complexity and a wonderful balance. We taste the acidity of mulberries a and a vanilla like sweetness, making this coffee very drinkable(we chugged multiple cups of this in the name of testing and throughly enjoyed every drop!). The sweet and berry like nature of this coffee reminds us of the rāga Kurinji which possesses a short and achingly sweet musical gait.

Kurinji the coffee is a delight across all manual brews , especially over ice!