About Us

Coffee and the Indian Subcontinent: A Brief Historical Perspective

Contrary to popular perception coffee was not introduced to India by the East India Company, though commercialisation of the crop did infact occur under the Raj. However, it is interesting that India’s tryst with the beverage began a little before the arrival of the British on Indian shores, somewhere around 1600 A.D/CE when the Indian Sufi saint Baba Budan returned from a pilgrimage in Mecca, smuggling seven green coffee beans home. He planted these beans in what today is known as the Bababudangiri Hills in Chikmagalur, renamed as a homage to the indigenous introducer of coffee to the Indian subcontinent.
However, the fact is, while tea and coffee and the plantation culture for both was introduced around the same time in India, the former has entrenched itself far deeper in the national consciousness. Before British Raj is an attempt to promote this local history of coffee cultivation, production, brewing, consumption and its veritably Indian heritage. We aim to take away coffee’s image as a foreign beverage.

Who We Are and What We Hope to Achieve

We are a group of coffee enthusiasts whose pure love for coffee has led us to delve deep into the world of coffee production and learn how a myriad of different intricacies and factors such as the moisture content, roasting time, brewing temperature etc. affect the taste and texture of the drink in the subtlest but most meaningful of ways. We understand that coffee preference is an extremely subjective matter and hitting the right notes depends on getting the mixture of the blend right. We pride ourselves on our knowledge of the many different coffee beans produced in India and how to achieve a complex blend of flavours that would please most palettes.
With these uniquely crafted blends, most importantly, we aim to fill the vacuum in the indian market for good coffee at a better price. Our enthusiasm for coffee gives us such abundant joy that we wish to revolutionalise the experience of coffee for all by demystifying the process of creating your perfect cuppa. This is why each of our blends are accompanied with optimal brewing suggestions.