Coffee
Break
Coffee beans are far from ripe during monsoon. But the rain
adds a dimension of graceful silence to the sprawling
plantations that surround the Serai Chikmagalur. Payal Dhar
puts on her gumboots for a memorable introduction.
in Karnataka’s Malnad region. This is a lush
and abundantly rain-fed belt, ideal for growing
coffee. Not to belabour the point, but The Serai
Chikmagalur is, in their own words, ‘inspired by
coffee’, tucked into a 70-acre estate that grows
spices and fruits as well. On arrival, you are
welcomed with the local bellada coffee—filter
coffee brewed with jaggery, taken black. The
proper South Indian way to drink the beverage,
I am told numerous times by different people
over the next two days, is without milk. It is a first
for me, and—spoiler alert—little do I know then
that I would eventually leave town with two kinds
of coffee and a filter to brew it in.
This grudging respect kindles on the estate
walk through the plantation the next day, a
complimentary add-on if you’re a guest here.
It isn’t raining just then, but Mohan, our guide,
insists we carry the long-stemmed umbrellas as
walking sticks. Later, he narrates how, in the 17th
century, Baba Budan, a local Sufi saint, sneaked
in seven coffee beans from Yemen on his way back
from the Haj, and planted them in these regions,
thus introducing coffee to India. One legend has it
that he smuggled the beans in his walking stick.
Monsoon has the region in a vice-like grip, and
when there isn’t rain, there’s slush underfoot and
moisture dripping from trees to contend with.
But as Mohan starts to point out the differencesA TEA LOVER GOES ON A COFFEE RETREAT. Sounds
like an oxymoron at best, the opening bars of a
tired joke at worst. Coffee is no laughing matter
in Chikmagalur, though. They take the beverage
very seriously in these parts, nowhere more so
than at The Serai. For starters, the resort is run
by the Coffee Day group, a fact you are reminded
of almost diidently as you turn in at the gates.
The bigger surprise is when you find yourself
plunging into the heart of a coffee plantation.
India’s coffee capital, Chikmagalur, is
located on the foothills of the Western Ghats,Mullayanagiri, near
Chikmagalur, offers
sweeping views of the
Western Ghats.CHECKING INSHUTTERSTOCKtravelandleisureindia.in