Golden Beans

Freshly brewed and roasted to precision, artisanal coffee is fast becoming the preferred drink of young India, driving the growth of the country’s premium beverage market.

- Phorum Dalal

On a busy day at one of the popular high-end food stores in Mumbai, a representative from the TGL Co. (The Good Life Company), Mumbai, carefully grinds the aromatic Cuba Serrano Superior coffee beans to a coarse, grind size of 10.5, in a five-kilo roaster, for an onlooking consumer. “I want it for my French press,” says the client, in his mid-thirties, taking a whiff of the ₹3,000-a-kilo, AAA grade, Monsoon Malabar, while biting into the bitter-sweet bean.

The discerning customer belongs to the growing community of Indian artisanal coffee connoisseurs that are driving the demand for what is now known as ‘couture coffee’ grown, sourced, roasted and brewed a certain way. From millennials to young professionals, the elite consumers of artisanal coffee are well-travelled, aspirational and enjoy finer things in life. They want their coffee their way — dark or light roast; nose imbued with vanilla or spice and the blend more Arabica, robusta or balanced — and are willing to pay a premium (₹1800 to Ì€ 20,000 a kilo), to enjoy the 1,250 taste notes of coffee. “The millennials are not only interested in tea and coffee, but also in anything that is premier and healthy. India is not money conscious anymore, it is value-conscious,” says Bhuman Dani, Co-founder and Director of TGL Co.