Almost everyone in the coffee business is aware that India produces a large quantity of coffee. However, the end-consumer is to a large extent totally unaware of this fact. Most adults in North America can remember when they were first allowed to drink their first cup of Folgers or Maxwell House. Then Yuban came on the market and was promoted as this wonderful tasting coffee of the highest quality. Coffee came from South America and was grown in the mountains, and this was all the coffee -drinkers cared to know. Even though they drank large quantities of this wonderful beverage it was in a category of necessary but not exciting products that was always on the shelf in the kitchen. Little did we know that over a forty-year time span coffee would evolve into the wonderful tasting substance we have today! Much of this change can be credited to the blending of coffee beans from all over the globe, which allowed for subtle preference differences to be satisfied in a way similar to that of the cola products. COFFEE FROM INDIA With this in mind we now can return to the Coffee from India title of this disjointed discourse. India has indeed been in the coffee growing business for over 150 years. Due to the strong influence from Great Britain, coffee plantations were well laid out and operated in a most organized manner. In volume, India has long been one of the top ten producers in the world.More importantly these well managed plantations consistently provide a high quality coffee with very little deviation year after year. Our Arabica beans are grown at altitudes of 3000 to 5000 feet and our Robustas are grown at 2500 to 3000 feet. A FEW DETAILS. Shade Grown: Shade-grown coffee In India is not an afterthought for marketing, it is an absolute requirement! Due to the very high temperatures as well as the monsoon rains the shade must be in place to protect the plants from the sun and must be pruned somewhat at the start of the rainy season. With this in mind the growers employ three tiers of shade that create filtered light for the coffee plants. Walking or driving through an Indian coffee plantation is like being in one of our National Parks. You hear the birds, see bees and dragonflies and often will see an elephant or two which always entices you to stay longer. Wet Processing: Most of Tariero Coffees are wet processed and patio dried to assure consistently good looking tasting beans our consumers demand. The raking of the beans on the drying floor is even done at different angles so the ridges do not create shade on some of the beans during the day. Environmentally Pro-Active: All our growers follow our Balanced Plant Nutrition guidelines, which allow the coffee plants to remain healthy for many years of production. We limit use of pesticides when absolutely necessary. It is quite normal for our plants to be in production for forty to fifty years. There are a few plants still in production at ninety years of age. Water from the wet processing is treated and then re-circulated back to the plantation as a supply for irrigation rather than being diverted in to the rivers and streams. So come explore a range of coffees from Tareiro Artisan Roastery!
