India - Ratnagiri Estate LBS-01

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter/Espresso

Lightest Roaster Influence: We do find the coffees from Ratnagiri benefit from a smidge more dev - this sits somewhere between Light and Lightest. It's mainly the cultivars involved that tend to taste best when not right on the edge! Slightly slower and a slightly hotter end temperature.

Best Rested: 3-4 weeks 

Filter: 62g/L, 96°C when fresh but when well rested you can go down to 92-93°C

Espresso: 18g/48g/20-22s. Brilliant turbo/soup.

We’re tasting: Big punchy aromatics - sherry cask whisky, freshly baked hot-cross buns, caramelised pineapple. In the cup it's like a bowl of sweet, tropical rum punch (with a particularly high-ester rum serving as the base), alongside vanilla, peach barley water, and a long finish that reminds us of chocolate orange. Super unique and delicious

Traceability

The Story

Ratnagiri is a 117-hectare speciality Arabica coffee farm in Karnataka's Chikmagalur district. The estate has transformed from traditional commercial coffee production into a speciality powerhouse, now producing 60% speciality grade coffee through pioneering processing techniques rarely seen elsewhere in India. The estate's century-long family stewardship, from its 1927 founding through three generations, positions it as both a guardian of Indian coffee heritage and a trailblazer reshaping the country's reputation in the speciality coffee industry.

The estate sits nestled in the Western Ghats mountains near Bababudangiri, the legendary birthplace where coffee cultivation in India began in the 17th century. Ratnagiri means "Pearl Mountain", named for the silver oaks that provide shade cover across the farm. This location in a UNESCO World Heritage biodiversity hotspot, combined with the family's commitment to organic farming and rainforest conservation, creates an incredibly biodiverse farm with lush shade cover and protected forests. The estate operates within a tiger reserve, home to 48 bird species, active wildlife corridors, and a three-storey forest canopy.

Patre K. Shivappaiya founded the estate in 1927, purchasing mostly untamed jungle land from British officials. The early years required clearing forest, preparing soil, and establishing infrastructure before the first coffee seeds could be planted in 1929. The estate achieved its first harvest in 1934, seven years after establishment. The estate passed to Shivappaiya's son in the mid-20th century, who maintained traditional washed processing methods through several decades of commercial production. The transformative third generation began in 1989 when Ashok Patre assumed ownership. Initially focused on replanting with improved varieties, Ashok spent the 1990s modernising infrastructure. The Indian government's liberalisation in 1994 opened export opportunities, prompting the incorporation of Ratnagiri International in 1993 as the estate's export arm.

The pivotal transformation began around 2010, when Ashok observed the emerging "third wave" speciality coffee movement during travels to renowned coffee farms worldwide. In 2016, he produced his first honey-processed coffees, marking the estate's shift from commodity to speciality focus. By 2019, Ratnagiri had launched an ambitious high technical intervention programme, designing and building custom stainless steel tanks specifically for controlled fermentation protocols. By 2020, the estate was producing coffees that could punch their weight with the best in the world, and changing perceptions of just what Indian coffee could taste like.

Today, Mr Ashok manages the estate alongside his wife Divya Patre, who oversees harvesting protocols and workforce training, ensuring only perfectly ripe cherries are selected across 5-6 selective picking rounds each season. Their son Rohit Patre manages Ratnagiri International's export operations from Bangalore. The family's long-term stewardship approach, combined with Ashok's vision to "truly put India on the map as a contender for specialty coffee," drives the spirit of continuous improvement at Ratnagiri.

At the heart of the estate sits a processing facility that would put some Colombian rockstar producers to shame. As of the most recent harvest, Mr Ashok & Divya have invested significantly into upgrading these facilities. Custom-built stainless steel bioreactors allow temperature, pH, and atmospheric control including flushing with different gases, as well as mosto recirculation. An on-site microbiology lab enables the team to isolate specific microbes for use in coffee fermentations. A "dark-room" dryer provides precise temperature and humidity control as well as protection from UV.

What distinguishes Ratnagiri is its scientific approach to fermentation, working with two microbiologists to monitor every aspect of coffee processing across 15+ unique methods. These high technical intervention techniques allow a relatively "low" altitude farm at 1300 metres above sea level, with less hyped varieties, to produce coffees that have earned recognition from international buyers as some of the highest-scoring coffees globally.

This level of technical infrastructure requires substantial capital investment. The custom bioreactors, microbiology lab, and controlled drying environments represent resources most producers cannot access. Ratnagiri produces exceptional coffee at an altitude and with varieties often overlooked elsewhere, all whilst maintaining the protected forests, wildlife corridors, and biodiversity of a tiger reserve.