About Coromandel Coast

Sustainability is our backbone. We are the first, and possibly the only coffee roaster in the UK (and perhaps rest of the world) to be aligned with the Global Goals. We source and roast shade-grown, speciality-grade coffee from the ancient lands of southern India. India is a land steeped in history, myths and legends. One such legend has it that in the 17th century, a saint named Baba Budan secretly carried seven coffee beans from Yemen, Arabia and brought it to India. He was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, and with the holiest of intentions, planted these seven beans in the hills of Chikmagalur in Karnataka, South India. Today, those magical coffee beans have evolved into sixteen distinct varieties cultivated across thirteen geographical regions. Four centuries on, coffee in this ancient land is still grown as nature intended. Did you know that the coffee shrub is an understory? That is, it is a plant that requires the shade of trees to flourish. For hundreds of years this is how coffee was historically cultivated, just as nature intended. With rising coffee consumption in the 1970s, sun-tolerant strains of coffee were developed which produced higher yields. The problem is, a sun-grown farm has a lifespan of only 15 years after which new land is sought out, rainforests are razed, and the vicious cycle of deforestation and biodiversity loss begins. Read their story