Festive Espresso

Festive Espresso

This year’s Festive Espresso is from the Ratnagiri Estate in India. The Hindi word ‘Ratnagiri’ translates literally to ‘Pearl Mountain’, a reference to the dense silver oak canopy which crowns this farm. Ratnagiri was established in 1920 and is owned and operated by Ashok Patre, having been passed down from Grandfather, to father to son. Ashok describes the process for this lot as follows:

“This is a 96-hour extended carbonic maceration natural processed coffee. It is from the Hemavathi varietal grown on our farm at 4500 feet from the block called Sivermara Patte. The Brix of the coffee cherries was 25.9 when harvested and they were put in the Bio fermenters after floater removal. The coffee was inoculated with a mix of different lab-grown cultures. The tanks were then purged with carbon dioxide gas, and the coffee was fermented for 96 hours. After removing the coffee, they were directly put on raised beds for slow drying. The coffee was then dried slowly with constant stirring over the next 31 days ”

Ashok Patre is a progressive. Well-travelled and bursting with initiative, he has drawn inspiration from elsewhere to step beyond the boundaries of traditional Indian coffee cultivation and processing. Brix levels are tested before harvesting. Processing includes natural, honey and a growing number of fermentation experiments alongside the traditional washed. In recent years Ashok has invested heavily in laboratory equipment in order to scale his experiments with precision. Such techniques include anaerobic fermentation, carbonic maceration and innoculation with lab-grown yeasts and bacterial cultures.

For all intents and purposes Ratnagiri Estate is an biodynamic farm and also maintains official Rainforest Alliance Certification. Quarterly soil tests and organic corrections to soil are applied. Ionic seawater and sea weed extract are applied to improve plant immunity and sugar levels of the fruit.

The estate is a lush shaded environment with 3 stories of shade. It is home to over 48 recorded bird populations, monkeys, leopards, wild boar, tigers, mongoose and – on occasion – elephants. The rich biodiversity demands that Ashok and his family have an approach to farming which places ecology and harmony with the environment at the forefront. This is a world class farm!