Sirangalli Community Project, Carbonic Maceration Natural

The whole cherries were sealed in a tank flooded with carbon dioxide at 0.2 bar, a technique borrowed from winemaking. They fermented there for 48 hours with added cultures of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the lactic-acid bacterium Lactobacillus casei. After fermentation, the cherries were dried whole on patios with the fruit still on the seed. The natural drying method usually enhances the perception of body and allows the fermentation to continue for longer, developing deeper fruit flavours. The controlled fermentation stage with yeast is responsible for the vivid, aromatic character behind the plum notes.

South India Coffee Company (SICC) started the Sirangalli Community Project in 2021 with five smallholder farms in the Pushpagiri Range of the Western Ghats. It now works with around eight, each between one and eight acres, mostly tended by families. The farms sit at an elevation range between 1,100 and 1,600 metres and coffee grows under a layered canopy of native jungle and fruit trees, averaging about 55% shade cover, alongside black pepper, cardamom and citrus. SICC provides market access, training in farming and post-harvest work, infrastructure, extra labour at harvest, and soil testing, plus free fertiliser matched to each soil report. This lot credits thirteen growers from long-established Kodava families. Several of these families have farmed coffee for 60 to 90 years, and the Pasura family has lived in Sirangalli for nearly three centuries. Before coffee, many of them grew paddy, cardamom and oranges, gathered wild honey, and kept cattle. Several families also have a strong tradition in Kodava folk song, particularly Balo Paat. While working in the area, SICC also found what appears to be a natural Arabica mutation, which won the Coffee Board of India’s Know Your Kapi award for Best Arabica Natural in 2024.