A cup of coffee can dissolve many a trouble—agree? Our hunt for the best homegrown coffee brands in India brought us to the three-day Mumbai Coffee Festival at Jio World Drive and lucky for you, we found some unique joe blends you must try to upgrade your coffee list!
The way I remember my java from this morning—a sip of piping-hot coffee touching my tongue, trickling down the throat and reigniting a sense of fervour I thought was misplaced on some hidden rack in my kitchen, or on the work-from-home desk! Then, I can’t also move on without mentioning my evening cuppa, a cold coffee blend, that quietly and elegantly revivified my energy that was fast receding post-lunch. This little coffee jaunt every day is not just limited to our homes anymore. The coffee culture across cities in India is on a ubiquitous bloom, a term that also refers to foaming or bubbling when the first touch of hot water hits the ground coffee. It is the beginning of the caffeine rush—which we recently witnessed at the Mumbai Coffee Festival at Jio World Drive in BKC in the company of over 20 homegrown coffee brands from around India.
A happy but inebriating aroma of coffee soused the air at the venue pulling in an excited crowd of willing (and unwilling) coffee-loving folks to dive into the pool of homegrown coffee brands in India. We cruised around the Mumbai Coffee Festival in the hunt for some too-cool-for-school coffee players too, and found some solid gems!
Check out seven homegrown coffee brands in India roasting and brewing adventurous tales of joe for you to try!
Dope Coffee, Mumbai
Life’s too short for a bad cup of coffee, and Mumbai-based Dope Coffee wants to save you from such caffeinated mistakes! A brand launched in 2017 by restaurateur and trained chef Rizwan Amlani (also brother to restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani) and co-founder Nitu Pohoomul, Dope Coffee is pouring versatility into every cup, from coffee blends, equipment and coffee starter kits to subscriptions and logo-inspired face masks. Pinning Indian coffee on the global map as one of the homegrown coffee brands in Mumbai—Dope Coffee’s joe collection rounds up Single Estate Origin, Indian speciality, blends and limited-edition, with the coffees named after the estate of their origin. Extra points to the uber-cool illustrations on their packaging!
- Where: Mumbai—at the Social outlets
- Must-have: Bartchinhulla Coffee is a medium roast with notes of Maple Syrup, Honey, and Cocoa Pods. Tribe-O-Koraput is a light roast with notes of Ripe Banana, Candied Orange, and Cane Sugar.
- Instagram: @itsdopecoffee
Maverick & Farmer, Bengaluru
They call themselves one of the few farm-to-cup homegrown coffee brands in India, where experimental brews meet some of their signature ones. Maverick & Farmer was launched in 2018 by three co-founders Ashish D’abreo, Sreeram G and Tej Thammaiah, to quench the snowballing palate for unique coffees in India. A big chunk of the Maverick and Farmer coffee comes from the Pollibetta estate in Coorg that creates their flavour-packed library of interesting brews like beer barrel-aged coffee, honey sun-dried coffee, orange pulp fermentation, lactic acid bacteria fermentation and more. At the Mumbai Coffee Festival, I tried the Cold Smoked Coffee, a blend that was imbued with cold smoke in an isolated room for eight hours for a whole week. It is touted as India’s first-of-its-kind flavour, and with every sip, it kept getting subtly robust with a light smoky nose to it.
- Where: Bengaluru— Maverick & Farmer cafe, Ulsoor and 1MG Mall, Foodhall
- Must-have: The Maverick & Farmer micro-lots are a fun way to experience their one-off, small-batch brews, as is the Dark and Fruity cold brew. Try Rohan Bopanna’s Masterblend, too, which is a medium-dark roast Arabica from the Indian tennis star’s coffee estate in Coorg.
- Instagram: @maverickandfarmer
Kaffa Coffee Roaster, Ahmedabad
While cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune have been basking in the burgeoning wave of the coffee and café culture, in Ahmedabad, Kaffa Coffee Roaster is stirring up something special for its locals, too. Launched in 2022 by Anand Thakkar, Kaffa is the city’s first live roastery café and the brand dubs itself as the official drink of a dry state—apparent in its assembly of coffees and brewing techniques of espresso and manual methods like Mokita, Syphon, Aeropress and V60 pour over that it brings forth. Tucked in easy proximity to IIM Ahmedabad in Vastrapur, some of Kaffa Coffee Roasters recommended brews are made from coffee beans sourced from estates in Karnataka.
- Where: Kaffa Coffee Roaster, DR Vikram Sarabhai Marg, IIM Road, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
- Must-have: Orange Zest Mocha, French Vanilla Latte, Vietnamese Shakerato, Double Barrel aged brew and Guava cold brew.
- Instagram: @kaffacoffeeroasters
Quick Brown Fox Coffee Roasters, New Delhi
Coming across Quick Brown Fox Coffee Roasters, one of the emerging homegrown coffee brands in New Delhi, two things especially stand out—one, the brand roasts in small batches, a method that trickles into how fresh and crisp each cup of coffee tastes here. Two, the cafe is pet-friendly! Quick Brown Fox Coffee Roasters nestled in New Delhi first launched in 2017 in a retail-only format, then subsequently transpiring into a cafe that roasts and brews coffee from over four different estates in India such as Badnekhan estate and Baarbara estate in Chikmagalur and Ratnagiri estate in Maharashtra. To get your cosy cup of coffee here, the folks at Quick Brown Fox suggest you to choose your beans first and then your drink!
- Where: Quick Brown Fox Coffee Roasters, Dhan Mill Compound, 23A, Chhatarpur, New Delhi
- Must-have: Piccolo latte, Hot drip, Nitro coffee, Affogato, Iced mocha and Iced cascara fizz
- Instagram: @qbfcoffee
ALT Coffees, Online
You’ve seen tonic water in a can, cocktails in a can and even wine in a can. You have also, obviously, seen coffee in a can. With an unhindered vision to step up the game for coffee in a can, the first and only product helming the coffee revolution in the house of ALT Coffees founded by Tejas Agrawal is the ready-to-drink cold brew in a can, which with its signature deep greed hue drew my and many other coffee savants’ attention at the Mumbai Coffee Festival. Officially launched in 2022, ALT Coffees’ cold brew is robust and refreshing with an easy to like palate that is black and unsweetened but hits the right spot. If black coffee isn’t up your alley, then the brand suggests playing around with the can and adding some milk, cream or condensed milk to it to make another drink for yourself.
- Where: For more details and to order online, visit ALT Coffees
- Must-have: Cold brew in a can
- Instagram: @altcoffees
HumbleBean, Bengaluru
There’s a lot of caffeine action flowing in the veins of HumbleBean, one of the promising homegrown coffee brands and a concept cafe in Bengaluru that does not pull full stops at just brewing coffee. More than relishing coffee sip after sip, HumbleBean wants you to experience the art of coffee with a multi-sensory approach—be it the sight of your coffee getting manually brewed against an aesthetic background, a consuming sniff of the coffee’s robustness or tasting the fresh run of joe in your mouth. HumbleBean, which directly sources its beans from small and medium-scale Indian farmers, has also newly built an in-house artisanal patisserie to dish out some palatable coffee-food pairing options. Founded by Soomanna Mandepanda and Pooja Soomanna in 2019, one can bring HumbleBean home too, with their selection of freshly ground and roast Arabica and Robusta coffees including cold brews, limited edition and blends that are had best black or with milk.
- Where: HumbleBean, 3165, 60 feet, 12th Cross Rd, HAL 2nd Stage, Defence Colony, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka
- Must-have: Cortado, Nitro Cold Brew and Ginger ale cold brew paired with their all-day breakfast (vegan and gluten-free options available too!)
- Instagram: @humblebeancoffee
Bean Song, Bengaluru
It is all the more memorable when a brand adds a unique characteristic to its repertoire that makes it stand apart. Stumbling upon Bean Song, a coffee brand from Bengaluru at Mumbai Coffee Festival at Jio World Drive was a delightful discovery of coffee that makes you want to push yourself and experiment. Launched in the closing month of 2020, Bean Song currently has an intriguing mix of six specialty blends made with cherries from plantations in Chikmagalur. Available to buy across major e-commerce platforms in India, one can expect varieties like South Indian filter coffee with chicory, pure filter coffee, Red honey blend from Crystal Valley estate, Mulled wine blend and Barrel brew blend. However, the dealmaker was the set of lightweight, sustainable coffee mugs I spotted, which Bean Song crafts from the coffee husk from the coffee plantation that farmers usually burn due to several reasons.
- Where: For more details and to order online, visit Bean Song
- Must-have: Barrel brew coffee, Mulled Naturals, South Indian filter coffee and the assorted pack with six easy pour flavours
- Instagram: @beansongcoffee
Which of these homegrown coffee brands are you adding to your progressive pantry next?
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