Gundikhan
CountryIndia
RegionChikkamagalur
FarmGundikhan
Altitude1 400 m
Size of the farm90 akr
Saif is part of the third generation to grow coffee. After earning a Master’s degree in Management from Leeds Beckett University in 2015, Saif worked briefly for Tesco in Leeds, UK before returning to India to manage a coffee farm. He lives with his parents and wife.
He grows coffee with a special emphasis on sustainability and uses environmentally friendly growing practices. The coffee trees are grown under the shade of several different species of trees, which are mostly native.
The farm is located in the Baba Budan Giri area of India. The story goes that Baba Budan, a Sufi saint who was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1670, smuggled seven coffee beans back to India from Yemen (at that time it was illegal to export coffee seeds from Arabia) and planted them in the Chandradrona mountains of Karnataka.
The farm is adjacent to the Bhadra Tiger Reserve and provides shelter to many species of birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians. It also acts as a corridor for many wild animals.
PROTECTION OF WILD ANIMALS
KaadKaapi is a collective in South India which keeps animals free to move and passage in the countryside and around farms.
It supports long-term sustainability by working with farmers in Chikmagalur and Coorg districts to implement wildlife-friendly cultivation methods, providing financial and advisory support, and ensuring access to premium international markets. This approach benefits both wildlife conservation and local farmers economically.
Traditional coffee agroforests in this region help preserve local biodiversity by providing alternative habitats for wildlife. However, market changes and rising cultivation costs are driving farmers towards practices that harm biodiversity.
About the coffee
All the varieties offered by the KaadKaapi farmers regardless of the location of their farm are 100% arabicas. But maybe to make it easier to understand the potential of those, not so well known cultivars, it is good to see what the letters and numbers in their names stand for.
All the lots from the Gundikhan farm are of the chandragiri variety.
Chandragiri – is a cross between varieties Villa Sarchi and Hibrido de Timor. It is a relatively new variety gaining a lot of interest in the past years. The beans are larger than other Indian cultivars and the cup quality is often superior to them. That is the reason why many of the farmers, when the time comes, use chandragiri for replanting their farm blocks.
IN-25-051 Gundikhan 46 N
The Chandragiri variety is processed using the natural anaerobic method. The process begins with the manual harvesting of ripe coffee cherries, which are carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation, and the selected cherries are fermented for 72 hours in plastic barrels under anaerobic conditions with the addition of Lallemand Oro yeast. After fermentation, the coffee is dried for 18 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used within the dryer to keep the temperature below 38 °C throughout the process, and the coffee is turned every 2–3 hours to ensure uniform drying.
IN-25-054 Gundhikan 39 N
The natural anaerobic process begins with the manual harvesting of ripe coffee cherries, which are carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation, and the selected cherries are fermented for 72 hours in plastic barrels under anaerobic conditions with the addition of Lallemand Oro yeast. After fermentation, the coffee is dried for 18 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used within the dryer to keep the temperature below 38 °C throughout the process, and the coffee is turned every 2–3 hours to ensure uniform drying.
IN-25-055 Gundikhan 50 N
The natural anaerobic process begins with the manual harvesting of ripe coffee cherries, which are carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation, and the selected cherries are fermented for 72 hours in plastic barrels under anaerobic conditions with the addition of Lallemand Oro yeast. After fermentation, the coffee is dried for 18 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used within the dryer to keep the temperature below 38 °C throughout the process, and the coffee is turned every 2–3 hours to ensure uniform drying.
IN-25-056 Gundikhan 41 N
The natural anaerobic process begins with the manual harvesting of ripe coffee cherries, which are carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation, and the selected cherries are fermented for 72 hours in plastic barrels under anaerobic conditions with the addition of Lallemand Oro yeast. After fermentation, the coffee is dried for 18 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used within the dryer to keep the temperature below 38 °C throughout the process, and the coffee is turned every 2–3 hours to ensure uniform drying.
IN-25-057 Gundikhan 61 N
The Chandragiri variety is processed using natural carbonic maceration. The process begins with the manual harvesting of ripe coffee cherries, which are carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation, and the selected cherries are fermented for 72 hours in stainless steel tanks with the addition of CO₂ and Lallemand Briosa yeast. After fermentation, the coffee is dried for 18 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used to maintain the temperature below 38 °C throughout the process, and the coffee is turned every 2–3 hours to ensure uniform drying.
IN-25-058 Gundikhan 60 N
The Chandragiri variety is processed using natural carbonic maceration. The process begins with the manual harvesting of ripe coffee cherries, which are carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation, and the selected cherries are fermented for 72 hours in stainless steel tanks with the addition of CO₂ and Lallemand Briosa yeast. After fermentation, the coffee is dried for 18 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used to maintain the temperature below 38 °C throughout the process, and the coffee is turned every 2–3 hours to ensure uniform drying.
IN-25-059 Gundikhan 01 W
The Chandragiri variety is processed using the washed method. Ripe coffee cherries are manually harvested and carefully sorted to remove immature or defective ones. This is followed by flotation and depulping of the cherries. The depulped beans are fermented for 18 hours in fermentation tanks, after which the softened mucilage is washed away with clean water using a mechanical washer. The coffee is then dried for 14 days on raised beds inside a solar dryer. Shade nets are used to maintain the temperature below 38 °C, and the beans are turned every 2–3 hours throughout the process to ensure even drying.
