India Pearl Mountain Estate Peaberry

Wet process India Arabica coffees are pleasantly mild coffees when they are correctly picked and processed. But much of the coffee is grown at relatively low altitudes and poorly processed and prepared. There is a lot of regular commercial grade India Arabica. Even when well done, the coffees can be "softish" physically and in flavor. Soft coffees from low altitudes are more difficult to roast (especially in small home roasters I believe). The result can be ashy flavors, and greater risk of scorching or tipping the coffee. That's why I have been very impressed with this new crop arrival of Pearl Mountain Peaberry. This coffee plantation was planted in 1920 by Shivappaiya Patre, who cultivated the estate and called it Ratnagiri which when translated to English means Pearl Mountain. This estate has now been passed on to the 3rd generation of Estate owners, Rohith and Ashok Patre. The coffee is planted between 1200 and 1500 meters in a zone of the Western Ghat mountains that gets consistently heavy rainfall. The coffee on the farm is interplanted with pepper vines (which are grown on the canopy of large shade trees) and cardamom groves. The Patre family is extremely quality conscious. The coffee is grown under shade trees midst pepper vines and cardamom groves. The carefully picked cherries are sorted prior to pulping, fermented between 42 and 72 hours and hand-washed in water from clear mountain streams. The mild vibrance and clean cup taste really sets this Indian Arabica coffee apart from the mirky, unclean flavors we find often in India wet-process coffees, which are generally more commercial-level coffees.