Fresh-roasted coffee beans, delivered in Kolkata.

Kolkata taught the rest of India how to sit with a cup and talk. The city has had its coffee houses for a century, and it still has its afternoons. We roast for those afternoons.

A bag ordered from Kolkata is roasted in our kitchen after the order comes in, rested for a day, and sent by courier. It usually arrives within the week.

The weather here, and what it does to a bag of coffee

Kolkata is humid for most of the year. April, May, and June are hot, around 35 to 40 degrees, with the kalbaishakhi storms in the evening. The monsoon runs from June into September, and October is still damp when the pandals go up. From November to February the air dries out, and those months, with mornings around 12 to 15 degrees, are the best coffee weather in the country.

Damp air is hard on roasted coffee. The beans take in moisture, the grind clumps, and the aroma goes flat. We seal every bag with a one-way valve, so keep it closed, keep it out of the fridge, and grind only what you are about to brew. In the wet months order the 250 g bag and finish it within three or four weeks.

Kolkata's water is softer than in most Indian cities, which suits coffee. Soft water lets the acidity and the sweetness through, so the light roast tastes cleaner here than it does in Delhi or Bengaluru. In winter, a pour-over on the balcony is what we would make.

Where in Kolkata the bags go

The bags go mostly to Salt Lake and New Town, where many people who work in the Sector V offices brew at home, and to Ballygunge, Gariahat, Southern Avenue, and the lanes off Park Street. There are regulars in Jadavpur and Tollygunge, and a few in Behala, Dum Dum, and across the river in Howrah.

The courier reaches every part of the city on the same schedule. A bag roasted on a Monday usually reaches a Kolkata address by the weekend. Shipping is free.

Festivals, and the roast we would pour

Durga Puja is the week the city stays awake. People walk from pandal to pandal until dawn, and the coffee at home is made at odd hours for whoever is up. The dark roast in a moka pot or a steel filter, with milk and sugar, is the cup for that week. It stays clear through sugar and it is quick to make at three in the morning.

Poila Boishakh in April and the Book Fair in late January ask for something else. The Book Fair is a fortnight of afternoons in the Central Park grounds, and the coffee that goes with a new book is the light roast as a pour-over, with the citrus and honey showing. Christmas on Park Street and Saraswati Puja in the cold weeks are the same kind of coffee for us.

For Kali Puja and Diwali evenings, when there are sweets on the table and people coming and going, the medium roast in a French press is easy to make a litre at a time, and it sits well beside mishti.

Which roast, when

These are the pairings we would make for a Kolkata week. Tell us your brewer when you order and we will grind for it.

A winter morning with the newspaper

Light roast, pour-over. Kolkata's soft water shows it well.

Puja week at three in the morning

Dark roast, moka pot or steel filter, with milk.

A monsoon afternoon with a book

Medium roast, French press.

An adda that runs past dinner

Medium roast in a French press for the table.

A filter coffee habit

Dark roast, ground fine for the steel filter, without chicory.

How the coffee reaches you

We buy green arabica from one small farm in the coffee hills of Karnataka, a few kilos at a time. We roast it at home on a small drum roaster, in batches of a few hundred grams. We roast your bag after you order it, so it leaves within days of the roast and not months.

You choose light, medium, or dark, or you tell us the notes you like and we roast toward them. You can have whole beans, or tell us your brewer and we will grind for it. A 250 g bag is ₹750 and a 500 g bag is ₹1,200, with free shipping in India.

Who you are buying from

We are a small roastery with one roaster in a home kitchen. There is no cafe and no warehouse. When you write to us about a grinder or a shot that came out sour, the person who roasted your bag writes back, and has made the same mistakes at the same counter.

Questions people ask