Kerehaklu Lot N, India

*We roast every Tuesday. All orders placed before Monday 11:59pm (AEST) will be roasted and fulfilled that Tuesday. All orders placed after that will be roasted the following week.

Country - India
Region - Chikmagalur, Karnataka
Producer/s - Ajoy & Pranoy Thipaiah
Washing Station - on the estate
Processing - Anaerobic washed (sequential fermentation)
Varietal/s - Selection 9
Altitude - 1,200 masl
Harvest - Feb 2026

Flavour Notes - Sweet almond, lime & custard

I love that we have this coffee. Earlier this year, we hosted a night at Brighter, our roastery home, exploring Indian coffee and getting a much deeper understanding of the innovation, environmental care and genuine curiosity taking place across India's specialty coffee industry. It was really inspiring to see how much thought is going into not only improving coffee quality, but also developing more considered approaches to farming and processing. We couldn't help but buy this coffee, along with another experimental lot that we'll release later in the year.

Kerehaklu Estate is located in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, and is run by father and son Ajoy and Pranoy Thipaiah. Ajoy focuses primarily on the health of the plantation and its agronomy, while Pranoy has spent the past five seasons exploring the potential of post-harvest processing. What I particularly love about their approach is that the experimentation isn't simply about creating louder or more unusual flavours. There is a genuine intention to better understand how fermentation can develop complexity while still allowing the coffee's genetics and growing conditions to remain at the centre of its flavour.

This Selection 9 lot undergoes sequential fermentation, beginning overnight in whole cherry before being pulped and fermented for a further 35–37 hours using a starter culture cultivated from the coffee's own native yeasts and bacteria. It's a little like sourdough, using the microorganisms naturally present on the coffee to guide fermentation. The coffee is then washed and carefully dried, initially under heavy shade.

I think this is a wonderful example of how processing can be used with real intention. Rather than introducing something completely foreign to the coffee, Pranoy is exploring the microorganisms already present in its environment and using them to bring out more of its potential. It's this kind of curiosity, care and ongoing refinement that makes us excited about building relationships with producers and exploring coffees from origins we haven't traditionally worked with.

Espresso Recipe: 1:3 ratio
In: 20 grams dry dose
Out: 60 grams beverage weight output
Time: Contact time of 30+ seconds

Filter Recipe: 1:16.5 ratio
In: 20 grams dry coffee
Out: 330 grams brewing water
Time: 2:45-3:00 minutes