The amazing journey of Araku coffee
FROM tribal hamlets to Paris, Araku coffee has come a long way and is set to lure the taste buds of New York’s coffee aficionados this year.
Started as a livelihood project for tribals by the Naandi Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, it has given to the world a top-notch coffee with a distinct aroma.
The picturesque valley, about 100km from Visakhapatnam, is today a synonym for world-class coffee.
Mahindra&mahindra chairperson Anand Mahindra, who is also chairperson of the 0Naandi Foundation, introduced the coffee in Paris with a flagship store in 2017. Araku Originals, a social enterprise formed by him along with three other life trustees of the foundation, is now looking to take the unique brand to New York and Tokyo.
A month ago, the company started selling the coffee online in India and plan to open cafés in Bengaluru and Mumbai this year.
Famous for delicious fruit flavour intertwined with caramel and a finish of bitter-sweetness, Araku coffee scores 88-90, the world’s highest rating on a scale of 100 in quality marking by Speciality Coffee Association, a non-profit organisation that represents coffee professionals, from producers to baristas all over the world. Naandi procures 100 tonnes of Araku coffee every year.
Nowhere in the world is speciality coffee produced in such a huge quantity. The region’s unique environment, bio-dynamic agriculture and the involvement of the world’s top coffee experts in every stage of production makes it a world-class coffee.
“There are 21 steps, and in every step, we are best in the world. Ours is not industrial production,” Naandi chief executive Manoj Kumar said. The Foundation originally started its work in the tribal belt in 2001 to check the high maternal mortality rate.
It later started giving coffee saplings to provide some cash to tribals. Offering double wages to farmers growing dark red cherries, it motivated them to strive for the best quality. The experts grouped 6 000 farms on the basis of their characteristics exactly the way the French group wine according to the “terroir” (earth, soil) of the grape farms.
The project also uses bio-dynamic agriculture, which looks at the impact of the moon on weather, which was introduced by David Hogg, Chief Agriculture Adviser of Naandi. With 25 000 farmers across 720 villages, it is said to be the largest organic cooperative in the world, helping 100 000 tribals. On average, farmers earn Rs 1 lakh every year.
They get another Rs 1 lakh from black pepper, which they have planted as a shade tree. The pepper also gives the coffee a special aroma. As Araku was found to be too good a coffee, Naandi realised that, in India, no one would buy coffee at that price, and hence, started building the brand abroad.
“If you have to create a brand, you have to create a place where they appreciate quality,” said Manoj Kumar, who is also Araku Originals co-founder. Currently, it has 50-55 distributors in Paris. The four variants of Araku coffee are sold in France for a price range of Rs 2800-Rs 7000 a kg. It sells the same coffee at a third of the price in India
“The coffee, the brand and the story are all a tribute to the legacy of the Aadivasis. It was something emerged out of integrity, beauty and the philosophy of the adivasis. We only happen to be a medium,” Manoj Kumar said.