Summer Shade

SL9 traces back to the Scott Agricultural Laboratories — the same programme that gave specialty coffee SL28 and SL34. Catimor brings density and structural body that holds its shape under extended processing. Together, they're built for exactly this kind of work: high altitude, long fermentation, slow dry. At 4600 ft, both varietals mature slowly and evenly. The body Catimor is known for becomes an asset here — a vessel substantial enough to carry 192 hours of fermentation without losing its shape. The process has something real to work with.

Selectively handpicked at Brix 24 — only fruit at peak sugar content makes the cut. Floaters and underweight cherries removed. The lot washed in fresh stream water before anything else. From there, the cherries enter an anaerobic fermentation tank with sugarcane juice introduced at a 1:10 ratio. Temperature held below 21°C. pH monitored throughout. 192 hours — eight days — sealed in. When the tank opens and pH is confirmed, the cherries move to raised beds under 50% shade. Raked every 15 minutes. Dried slowly over 23 days to 12% moisture. Rested for 60 days before any further processing. Precision picking. Controlled fermentation with a deliberate input. A patient dry. A long rest. The sugarcane isn't a flavour addition — it's a variable. The mango, the sweetness, the spice that arrives late: this sequence is why.

The PKC family has farmed the Shevaroy Hills since 1975 — three generations on the same land in the Eastern Ghats. The estate sits between 4000–4600 ft, receiving 65–80 inches of rain annually. Coffee grows here within an agroforest intercropped with mango, pepper, jackfruit, and orange — the biodiversity maintained deliberately, not incidentally. The mango note in the cup isn't a coincidence. A team that holds fermentation for eight days when the lot calls for it. A family that's been on this land for fifty years. Some things are just built different.