HALLI & ITS BERRI

She created Halli Berri and started retailing her estate coffee to high-end stores and resorts, Amazon, etc. This student of banking and finance from Monash, Tejini Kariappa is the fourth generation from the Kandi Halli Estate in Chikmagalur. Finding her way back to the plantation, she is behind the retail growth of Halli Berri and her Trip Advisor-rated cafes. An all women-run estate, her mother Nalima Kariappa and Tejini helm the show. “I got involved when my dad passed away nine years ago. I was the youngest, my first sister lives in New York and the other is a pilot with Indigo, so I decided to come back and take our rich legacy forward. We started the Coffee Barn Café at the estate, and customers would ask us for our coffee, and we would end up giving them a goodie bag. Four years ago, we started Halli Berri as a gourmet coffee,” says the girl who also started another Coffee Barn Café in Chikmagalur Town. The girl whose heart was in banking threw it all, and even started Estrada, that works in branding. “I wanted to leverage this legacy and go beyond just being a planter. One’s inheritance is something most take lightly, and with such a rich legacy, I wanted to take it further,” says the tall 29-year-old who does not believe in talking numbers, but says, “Halli Berri is not just a brand, it is my life,” stressing on the need for leadership skills to take any venture forward. “I want to take this tradition of coffee making, and embellish it to ensure it is in my family forever,” she adds. “Halli Berri has inspired many coffee front-runners. We are trying to build awareness around gourmet Indian coffee. Our’s is an overall bean to cup story,” she says.