Process first, again. Of the 51 additions, 15 are fermented or experimental lots: 9 logged as experimental, 5 anaerobic and 1 carbonic maceration. Five are washed. Another 19 do not list a process at all.

Three more Excelsas. Three Excelsas were listed this fortnight, taking the directory to 18, and one of them is in the spotlight below. Across the directory, Excelsa and liberica are mostly sold as process showcases. Arabica is not.

Funky processing, and the notes that don't show up

A drinker who keeps returning to Indian coffee made a careful argument. They have no problem with estates chasing fermentation, since most coffee here is grown for yield and disease resistance, and processing is how it builds character. The complaint is narrower: the cup rarely delivers what the bag promises. Their latest example was a Wild Ferment lot from Home Blend, but the thread is about how tasting notes get written, not about one roaster.

Specialty on a stipend

A student drinking two or three moka pot cups a day, at about 20g each, gets through a 200g bag in a week, and asked what is affordable beyond Café Coffee Day. Replies converged on Hunkal Estate, and one person asked whether Hunkal had recently raised its prices. Budget questions were the most common topic in the sub this fortnight.

Indian Specialty Coffee Reaches More Than 400 Stores in Greece and Cyprus

Business Wire India (press release) · 5 Oct 2026

The Coorg Coffee Club and Greek retailer Coffee Island launched The Origin Box in Athens on International Coffee Day: five processed lots, one from each of five Coorg estates and each named for its grower, spanning arabica, robusta and Excelsa. It is now on sale in more than 400 Coffee Island stores across Greece and Cyprus.

CM Naidu Aims to Transform Araku Into a Global Coffee Destination

Deccan Chronicle (PTI) · 1 Oct 2026

On International Coffee Day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the state is investing to make Araku a global coffee destination, with the Girijan Cooperative Corporation pushing for international recognition for the tribal growers behind it.

Have you tried an Indian Excelsa yet, and did it taste like the notes on the bag?

Most of the 18 Excelsas in the directory are fermented or experimental lots, so it is hard to tell the species apart from the process. Reply with either one: what the cup was actually like, or whether the notes matched what you tasted.