Profile Overview
Pavan Nanjappa, along with his wife Shilpa, leads Venkids Valley, one of the first estates in Coorg to establish a 100% specialty coffee estate. Building on a legacy that began with his grandfather Muckattira Nanjappa and continued with his father Cariappa’s meticulous record-keeping and precision planting. Pavan and Shilpa transformed the estate’s anonymous commodity coffee into internationally recognized specialty lots, reimagining Robusta along the way. Their mission: elevate Indian coffee globally while setting new standards for quality, traceability, and sustainability.
In the early 1900s, Muckatira Nanjappa bought a patch of dense forest in Coorg. It was untouched land, covered in towering trees and thick undergrowth. Every morning, he set out with a goodali on his shoulder and worked for hours, cutting down the forest and clearing the ground. Bit by bit, he replaced the wild growth with young coffee plants, until the first outlines of a plantation began to emerge.
His son, Cariappa, carried that work forward but in his own way. He had started out in the corporate world, first with HML, then with ITC’s tobacco division, where discipline and structure defined everything. When he came back to Coorg, he brought that mindset with him. Rainfall was logged, crop history maintained, and coffee blocks planted with precision. People who trained under him became known for their calibre. Over time, he expanded the family’s holdings and, in 1991, purchased an estate in Suntikoppa— Venkids Valley.
Pavan, Cariappa’s son, grew up on the estates, where pulpers ran late into the night and parchment was left out to dry in the sun. Harvests set the pace of daily life, and for him, this was simply routine.
Lessons Written in Rain and Ledgers
By 2001, after finishing his studies, Pavan Nanjappa, the third generation at Venkids Valley, decided to see life in Coorg. He took a month-long corporate job in Bangalore, but the city felt distant, and the work unfulfilling.
It wasn’t long before the pull of the estate brought him back home. His father welcomed him with a simple arrangement: ₹7,000 a month and a place in the daily grind. No special treatment, just the expectation that he’d learn the work from the ground up.
“He was a taskmaster,” Pavan says. “Six months in, I’d handled everything from running the pulper to making wage payments. I learnt more in those months than any course could teach me.”
In 2007, Pavan married Shilpa, who left city life behind for the estate, trading streetlights for monsoon mists and the slow rhythm of plantation life. She quickly became an active partner in daily operations and estate growth. Life on the estate had its own rhythm. Rainfall was logged in neat columns in hardbound ledgers, and yields were tracked block by block. Afternoons were a chorus of metallic pulpers and the sweet-sour smell of fermenting mucilage. Each varietal was planted in its own block, never mixed. At the time, it felt overly meticulous; years later, that discipline would prove priceless, allowing them to trace every lot from tree to cup—something rare in India then.
“No Excel sheets,” Shilpa points out. “Everything was handwritten. Those books are still here.”
That habit of meticulous record-keeping stretched back two decades, long before the family ever launched their brand, Papakuchi Coffee.
Pavan and Shilpa, who lead Venkids Valley Estate.
Venkids Valley Estate — among Coorg’s first 100% specialty coffee estates.
From Anonymous Beans to a Named Cup
As Pavan and Shilpa settled into the rhythm of estate life, their coffee disappeared anonymously into the commodity market.
“You give it to the buyer, that’s it,” Pavan says. “We didn’t know where it went.”
One day, during a golfing trip with his father, the conversation turned serious.
“We produce so much coffee,” his father said. “We’re not getting any premium. Why not put our name on it?”
At the time, Pavan wasn’t sure. Specialty coffee felt far away from the day-to-day grind of running an estate. But the idea stayed. Then, in 2012, everything shifted. His father passed away unexpectedly, leaving Pavan without his guide.
“The old man wasn’t here,” he says quietly. “Decisions were mine now. No one to double-check with.”
There was no time to hesitate. Before the season slipped away, he ordered a larger wet mill, installed new machinery, and attended a course under India’s most respected coffee cupper, Mrs. Sunalini Menon. Her assessment was blunt:
“I looked at the beans and thought, not promising at all. But when I roasted and tasted them, I realised — you’re sitting on a gold mine.”
The words stayed with Pavan, a mix of challenge and encouragement. Mrs. Menon was more than a teacher — she was the bridge between Indian growers and the world, carrying the country’s coffee into conversations where it had never been taken seriously before.
“We must really value the effort that Mrs. Menon has put in,” Shilpa reflects. “Our growth was in tandem with how she pitched Indian coffee to the world. She brought a value-add that no one else could, and she did it single-handedly.”
That turning point in 2012 marked more than just an upgrade in processing. It signaled Venkids Valley’s shift into specialty coffee, making them one of the earliest estates from Coorg to fully commit to quality-focused production. Within a few years, they would evolve into a 100% specialty coffee estate.
At global expos, Indian coffee was being projected with confidence and authority, ensuring that when buyers compared beans from Central America, Africa, or Asia, India too had a place at the table. That larger momentum framed their own first step into exports. In 2013, with Badra Estates handling logistics, the estate sold out just eight bags — 480 kilos — to a roaster in South Korea.
“After doing so much, we ended up with just eight bags. I was almost in tears,” Pavan recalls.
The figure felt small against the months of preparation, samples, and outreach. Most of their coffee that year was still sold locally, yet those eight bags marked the estate’s entry into the international market.
Coffee cherries starting their processing journey.
Pulped coffee being fermented.
Our growth was in tandem with how Mrs. Sunalini Menon pitched Indian coffee to the world. She brought a value-add that no one else could, and she did it single-handedly.
- Shilpa Nanjappa.
Breaking Into Global Markets
Even after the estate’s first specialty export in 2013, the path ahead was far from easy. Between 2013 and 2016, Pavan and Shilpa were making only small sales, each one hard-earned.
“It was quite hard,” Pavan admits. “But we kept pushing.”
The work was relentless. Emails went unanswered, and samples got stuck in customs. And long days were spent traveling to Geneva, Dublin, attending global events, meeting roasters, and slowly building relationships. Every handshake and conversation felt like laying another brick in a foundation that had to hold.
One of the most memorable events came at a World of Coffee expo, where a blind tasting was organised at the Coffee Board’s stand. On the table were two Arabicas, a Monsooned Malabar, and a Robusta from Venkids Valley’s Sapota block. Tasters, influenced by the common perception that Robusta is harsh and bitter, approached the cups with low expectations. As they tasted, nearly 80% recorded it as “Arabica” or “Monsooned Malabar,” surprised by the smooth and nuanced flavor. One devoted Arabica lover even refused to believe it, saying, “No, no… you’re just telling us this is Robusta.” Only when the flask code was revealed did they realize the truth—they had been tasting Robusta all along. The tasting quietly challenged the assumption that Robusta could not be refined or complex.
“That’s when we realised Robusta could be something special,” Pavan says.
For one of Coorg’s earliest specialty estates, it was yet another step in redefining what Indian coffee could be.
We could sell it all domestically now, but we started this to put Indian coffee on the world stage, and we’re not stopping.
- Pavan Nanjappa
Robusta, Reimagined
While most of the industry chased Arabica prestige, Pavan doubled down on Robusta.
“We’re called the Robusta Champions,” Shilpa says. “We scream it from the rooftops.”
It was a gamble. Eight years ago, Robusta was destined for blends. But they treated it like a fine wine. Pickers were trained to keep green cherry counts under 5%, fermentation protocols tailored to each block’s varietal and microclimate.
The results spoke for themselves. Japanese buyers began skipping Arabica altogether for Venkids Valley’s Robustas: naturals, honeys, anaerobics. Processing, Pavan says, “changes everything.” That commitment to quality helped Venkids Valley emerge among the first estates in Coorg to focus entirely on specialty coffee, at a time when Arabica still dominated the region.
Holding the Line Against Climate and Change
Recognition on the global stage brought pride, but it also brought new challenges. For Pavan, “raising the bar” had always meant matching or surpassing last year’s quality, season after season. Since 2018, however, climate change has rewritten the rules.
One year brings failed monsoons. The next, rain falls until December, dropping 10% of the Arabica crop to the ground before it can be picked. Skilled labour is harder to find each season. Some harvests have even seen Pavan himself driving tractors or vans when no driver was available, ferrying workers or his own children to school before heading back to the fields. The estate’s solution has been careful, long-term adaptation.
“We’ve moved 60% of the estate to Robusta,” Pavan says. “By 2027, it’ll be 80% Robusta, 20% Arabica.”
It’s both a futuristic move and a statement: resilience can go hand in hand with quality. Yet even as domestic demand for specialty coffee surges, Pavan’s vision remains global.
“We could sell it all domestically now, but we started this to put Indian coffee on the world stage, and we’re not stopping,” Pavan says.
His words capture the estate’s aim: to showcase the best of Indian coffee globally while keeping its standards high.
The team behind the work at Venkids Valley Estate.
The Legacy Continues
The hills of Coorg still hum with the life of the estate. Handwritten ledgers record every detail even today, while the estate’s name now travels the world on coffee bags bound for Tokyo, London, and Germany.
From a grandfather’s dawn walks to a father’s meticulous records to a son’s bold experiments, Venkids Valley’s story and its Papakuchi brand is one of discipline meeting innovation.
“Reaching a certain level is one thing,” Pavan says. “Meeting it, year after year, that’s raising the bar.”
Today, after more than a century of growing coffee, Venkids Valley stands as one of Coorg’s first estates to fully embrace specialty coffee. And in the pale light of another Coorg morning, the bar is still rising.
