Great news, A&E coffee fans, there’s a new coffee at the roastery, from the Poabs Estate in India, specifically, from the Nelliyampathy Hills, in Chittur Taluk, in the Palakkad District. Not familiar with Indian geography? Nelliyampathy is a town in India, located in the state of Kerala, at the southwestern tip of the country. It is well-connected to 
transportation, and so we hear, a nice place to picnic and hike.
Poabs Estate is located in the hills of Nelliyampathy, an area with ideal weather and climatic conditions for growing the variety of spices, coffees, and other agricultural products that the estate produces. About 60 local planters are located in the immediate area – and one government operated orange farm. The area served as modern plantation lands beginning in 1896 – as a tea estate, and a little later, as a coffee estate. The land was eventually divided up into the smaller estates of today. The Poabs family took title to their land in 1988.
According to their website, “The Poabs family had taken up the challenge to solve the pending severe workers’ disputes of the former owners, and to revive the estate by securing work to the existing 150 families.” Within 12 years, they had grown to around 400 families living on the estate. They replanted the land with improved varieties of coffee, tea, cardamom and pepper plants. They also began growing organically. “Poabs Organic Estates offers a range of ‘certified organic, biodynamic’ socially and environmentally cultivated teas and coffees, with distinctive cup profiles.”
Their list of awards in the past decade is impressive, to say the least:
POABS Organic Estate is the proud recipient of the coffee Quality Awards in the last five consecutive years at the Flavour of India, The Fine Cup cupping competitions organized by the Coffee Board of India.
2003: Best Organic Robusta Coffee – finals held alongside SCAA convention at Boston, April 2003.
2004: Best Organic Robusta Coffee and the Best regional coffee from Travancore (Nelliyampathy) region finals held alongside World Barista Championship at Trieste, Italy, June 2004.
2005: Best Organic Arabica Coffee-finals held alongside SCAA convention at Seattle, April 2005.
2005: Golden Leaf India Award for best organic Tea (CTC).
2006: Best Organic Robusta Coffee.
2007: Best Organic Robusta Coffee – finals held alongside SCAA convention at Long Beach, California, May 2007.
As always we’ll be roasting the best cup possible from their organically produced beans. Come in and try it out! You can also cyberstalk it here, online.
