Profile Overview
Nisha Thomas and Kurian George are the coffee growers behind Anai Kadu Estate in Coorg. Though Kurian comes from a family of planters, the couple truly stepped into coffee cultivation during the Covid-19 lockdown. What began as weekend visits turned into a full-time passion for growing and processing traceable, small-batch specialty Robusta. Together, they are reimagining what Indian Robusta can be—honest, sustainable, and distinctly its own.
Driving through the snaking roads of Coorg, with tall native trees casting a shade along the way, it’s easy to miss the discreet turning that leads to Anai Kadu Estate. Nestled within is Nisha Thomas and Kurian George’s home, which is a charming blend of Coorg-style architecture with subtle nods to their Malayali heritage.
As the couple, accompanied by their labrador, Bella, walked us through parts of their coffee plantations, their deep involvement in every part of the process was unmistakable. What made it even more compelling was knowing they had only begun this journey during the pandemic.
Somewhere in Anai Kadu
From City Rush to Estate Roots
As we made our way toward the estate, a small walkthrough with two elephant sculptures as pillars greeted us.
Nisha sensed our curiosity.
“Anai Kadu is actually a bit of a wordplay,” she explained. “In Malayalam, ‘Anai' means elephant and 'Kadu' means jungle. Since we’re right in the middle of an elephant corridor, the name felt fitting. And funnily enough, our daughter’s name is Anaika—so it all just came together.”
Earlier, based in Bengaluru, Nisha and Kurian had always kept a distant connection to Kurian's ancestral estate in Coorg while they followed their corporate passions.
Kurian belonged to a planter family from Kottayam, Kerala, which dabbled with rubber plantations. They slowly expanded to coffee cultivation when the family moved to Coorg in the 1950s and 1960s.
Anai Kadu was a part of the larger family property named Pottamkulam Estate/Maldare Estate, which was bought by Kurian’s grandfather, the late K. J. Kurian, in 1959.
Over the decades, the estate underwent its share of transitions. For the most part, it was tended to by Kurien’s uncle, Jose Kurian—a seasoned planter with deep roots in the region—while Kurian and his cousins lived in the city, occasionally visiting to lend a hand but remaining largely detached from the day-to-day life of the estate.
Kurian and his daughter Anaika spread and rake the small lot of Arabica Naturals
What began as quick escapes from the city soon transformed into something deeper for Kurian and Nisha—a reconnection with land, roots, and a quieter, more meaningful way of life. They began spending weekends at the estate.
In early 2020, as the world grappled with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and lockdowns brought life to a halt, they found themselves stuck inside their tiny apartment in Bengaluru.
“Cabin fever was going strong there,” Nisha laughs.
That’s when Kurian decided to get the necessary approvals and move the family to the estate until things settled down. Nearly a year passed, and when their daughter was asked to return to Bengaluru for in-person classes, the family faced a pivotal choice: return to city life or embrace the slower, more grounded rhythm of the estate.
They chose to stay.
The slow-paced life, the stillness of the pandemic, spending time at the estate, and looking after the coffee plantations had a different effect on the family. They began appreciating this life with their perception of coffee changing from a beverage you pick up on the way to the office to an almost-meditative and experimental process.
Nisha overlooking the raking process at Anai Kadu
A Coffee Awakening
With a background in biology and agriculture, Nisha found herself drawn not just to the bean but to the science behind it. The microbial worlds of fermentation, the biology of ripening, and the nuances of drying and roasting caught her attention.
Initially, the couple continued selling most of their beans to bulk traders. But they kept aside small batches for themselves—roasting them for Christmas gifts.
The feedback was unexpected and immediate: “This is better than anything in the market.”
The house that became Nisha and Kurian's home during the pandemic
Nisha and Kurian also do bee keeping that help them to polinate their coffee
Growing, Learning, and Failing Forward
Venturing into coffee processing was a leap into the unknown. The estate lacked infrastructure, and knowledge was scarce. But a pivotal encounter changed their course: Binny Varghese, renowned Indian coffee consultant and founder of the Barista Training Academy.
“Binny broke it all down,” Nisha recalls. “He helped us understand that we didn’t need high-tech equipment to start. We needed intent, patience, and a willingness to learn.”
With Binny’s guidance, they began experimenting with rudimentary raised beds, sometimes dragging them into the verandah or car shed during unpredictable Coorg rains. From trial batches to drying mishaps, every step became a lesson. Over time, they began refining their process—sorting out floaters, identifying ripe cherries, and studying post-harvest science.
So far, their coffee has been spotted on the shelves of Blue Tokai, El Bueno, Bloom Coffee Roasters and more.
The people and pupper behind Anai Kadu
From Commodity to Craft
Kurian and Nisha’s estate primarily grew commodity Robusta, which makes up to 99.5% of their crop—typically sold in bulk to traders and compan. However, as they learned more about coffee, a word kept popping up: specialty coffee.
“Can we ever grow specialty coffee in Anai Kadu?” Nisha wondered.
What followed was a deep dive into the chemistry and potential of the bean. Their first specialty trials were small—three or four raised beds—but the results were promising. They experimented with natural, washed, fruit-infused, and yeast-fermented methods, gradually evolving into a space they never imagined they would occupy.
The View on Robusta
Most Robusta is dismissed as inferior to Arabica, but chemically, it is a different being altogether, says Nisha.
"It has a higher amount of caffeine, is richer in chlorogenic acid, and is far more resilient," she adds.
And the philosophy of Anai Kadu is simple: don’t compare, differentiate.
“Robusta isn’t a substitute for Arabica. It’s a category of its own. So when the messaging is wrong, someone who drinks a fine cup of Robusta, will try to find Arabica notes; then they are missing the point,” Nisha explains.
Back to the Soil: Rediscovering Organic Roots
As they deepened their understanding of coffee, Kurian also turned his attention to the soil. Slowly but steadily, he is transitioning parts of the estate to organic practices—reducing chemical inputs and experimenting with old-world methods like introducing parasitoid insects to naturally control pests.
Parasitoids are larvae of organisms that develop within or on another organism (the host) and eventually kill it. This was a popular method of removing unwanted pests from plants and crops before the Green Revolution.
“It’s not an overnight change,” says Kurian, who is overseeing the process of parasitoids at Anai Kadu. “The soil and the plants need time to adjust. Again, you have to time the application well. But that’s okay—we’re not in a rush.”
For Nisha, while she looked after the specialty coffee processing, she also got drawn towards medicinal mushrooms.
“I really got drawn into the medicinal mushrooms because of the potential of some of these mushrooms to reverse the early onset of neurodegenerative diseases, help with the nerve growth factor. And along with that, they give mental clarity, focus and a bunch of other things. While we need more studies on the benefits, the market for mushrooms is slowly growing.”
Mushrooms are also a way to replenish the soil with nutrients at Anai Kadu. Nisha ensures that all the discarded parts of the mushroom are turned into compost that is later added to the coffee plants.
As lifelong learners, they are experimenting and creating a balance between maintaining conventional methods where needed while nurturing parts of the estate into a future that’s both sustainable and scalable.
Follow
us on
