Profile Overview
Founded by siblings Aditya and Ritika Sharma, Pour Over Coffee Roasters has quickly emerged as one of Delhi’s most promising new-age coffee brands. Backed by co-founders and partners Jonathan Jefferson, Joanna Gideon, and Deepender Thapa, the head of brand, the company stands on the pillars of craft, authenticity, and an unwavering commitment to quality. What began as a small experiment with a one-kilogram home roaster has grown into a serious coffee company that blends craft with science. Less than a year after opening their first café in Khan Market, Pour Over is now whispered about among Delhi’s coffee faithful. Their vision is simple: make exceptional coffee accessible, honest, and unpretentious. Not as another café chain, but as a roastery that puts craft first.
A Machine, a Sibling, and the Beginning
Some stories start with a café. This one began with a coffee machine that refused to work.
When Ritika returned from college in the U.S., she purchased an automatic coffee maker from India, determined to recreate her morning ritual. But the machine would not cooperate. The settings were off, the coffee came out wrong, and frustration filled the kitchen.
Aditya, her brother, was not a coffee drinker. Yet when he saw Ritika struggling, he stepped in. He watched tutorials, read up on espresso extraction, and experimented late into the night. Between the hissing of steam and scribbles of brew ratios, he fell down a rabbit hole, driven to understand coffee in depth.
“Once he gets into something,” Ritika laughs, “he becomes both the engineer and the artist behind it.”
That moment, a broken machine, a determined sister, and a curious brother marked the quiet beginning of Pour Over Coffee Roasters.
Aditya Sharma, co-founder and the artist behind Pour Over Coffee.
Ritika Sharma, co-founder, the strategist and business force behind Pour Over Coffee.
From Curiosity to Obsession
Aditya’s curiosity soon became an obsession. He wanted to understand every element of a great cup: the science, the timing, the roast curves. His journey took him to Florence’s Espresso Academy, where he learned from the city that gave the world espresso.
When he returned, Ritika, then working at NITI Aayog, recognized that this was more than a hobby. India’s coffee culture was shifting after COVID. Young professionals were swapping chai for cappuccinos, and conversations about tasting notes were expanding beyond cafés.
“People were starting to care about what was in their cup,” she says. “I knew Aditya was onto something bigger.”
Pooling their savings, the siblings bought a one-kilogram Bullet roaster and set it up in their living room. What started as experimentation quickly became a mission to master the craft of roasting.
In India, coffee is still seen as a luxury, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be your everyday cup, affordable, approachable, and honest.
- Ritika Sharma
A Home-Grown Roastery
In the early days, every cup was an experiment. They sourced green beans from Chikmagalur, roasted them in small batches, and invited friends and family to taste and give feedback. Every sip was logged, discussed, and adjusted.
“It was our own kind of R&D,” Ritika recalls.
Their efforts drew serious attention when a batch was sent for a blind tasting at a café in Ahmedabad. Tested alongside three established Indian brands, half the tasters chose their roast.
“That was the moment we knew,” Ritika smiles. “We had something real.”
Encouraged, Aditya continued refining his craft by hand, graphing roast curves on paper rather than completely relying on software.
“Technology can show you numbers,” he says, “but it’s the manual touch that tells you the truth.”
Education gave structure, teaching the fundamentals of roasting and cupping. Experience taught the rest. Even today, he experiments with new beans and roast profiles, trusting sensory cues and manual control over automation.
Serious Coffee, Simple Philosophy
The siblings opened their first outlet in Khan Market, it was not built to dazzle. The space was designed to take coffee seriously but never make it intimidating.
At the heart of Pour Over is a roastery, not just a café. Aditya experiments with roast profiles every day, adjusting airflow, temperature, and time to find the perfect balance. Their focus is coffee suited to the Indian palate: low-acid, smooth, and easy on the stomach.
“We roast specialty coffees including fermented,” Aditya explains, “but we don’t want to throw the word ‘specialty’ around. We just want people to enjoy good coffee.”
They source beans from India’s top estates and import small lots from Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Honduras to learn from global processes. Each batch is cupped and scored. Every discovery, every improvement, comes from practice rather than marketing slogans.
“Our larger vision is simple: we want everyone to experience good coffee, without making a big deal about it. If there was a Pour Over at every corner of the street, that’s what success would look like to us.”, Jonathan explains.
We want everyone to experience good coffee, without making a big deal about it.
- Jonathan Jefferson
Moments That Brewed Confidence
Pour Over’s coffee began speaking for itself. One memorable moment came when a creative director from the brand Valentino ordered an espresso and paused after the first sip.
“Who roasted this?” he asked.
When he learned it was done in-house, he smiled. “This is the best espresso I’ve had in India.”
For the team, these moments are not about applause. They are validation that their method works.
“We’re in this to impress,” Aditya says, “but with a lot of backing from our own research and development.”
You can teach technique but you can’t teach curiosity.
- Deepender Thapa
The Team Behind the Roast
As the brand grew, so did its circle. Jonathan and Joanna were the first to join, bringing energy, warmth, and a rare sense of rhythm.
“They became the soul of the place,” Ritika says. “The ones who made Pour Over Coffee Roasters a truly wholesome space for everyone.”
Then came Deepender Thapa, head of brand, a legend in Delhi’s coffee circles, with over two decades of experience and years at Perch Wine & Coffee Bar. He wanted a new challenge, to build something from scratch.
“Aditya brings the fire,” Thapa says. “I bring the process.”
Together, the five of them became an unusual blend, a team that debates, disagrees, and then gets coffee after. They’re brutally honest with one another, unafraid to say, “That roast didn’t work,” or “We can do better.”
The result? A company that feels less like a business and more like a band, everyone playing their own instrument, but in perfect sync.
Ask anyone at Pour Over what keeps them going, and the answer comes easily: it is ownership.
“Pour Over isn’t mine or yours,” Jonathan says. “It’s ours. Anyone who joins, whether it’s a barista or a cook, this place belongs to them too. Everyone shines in their own element. There’s no stealing the spotlight here. Everyone has their moment.”
They hire young, hungry baristas, people with questions, not résumés.
“You can teach technique,” Thapa says. “but you can’t teach curiosity.”
Inside their cafés, mistakes aren’t punished; they’re shared, laughed over, learned from.
“We know each other’s weaknesses,” Joanna admits. “That’s what makes us strong.”
It’s this team spirit, grounded in trust, openness, and shared ownership that gave them the strength to face their fair share of challenges.
A candid moment with Jonathan, the heart behind the brand experience.
Joanna brings warmth, ensuring every guest leaves with the right cup and a smile.
Firefighting and Forgiveness
Their journey hasn’t been easy. Getting the Khan Market café running was one of their first big hurdles. The building was half-done, and during the monsoon, the roof leaked.
“Every morning we came in with a plan,” Ritika recalls, “and by afternoon we were fixing something that had broken.”
Yet, customers stayed. Some encouraged them, forgiving the chaos. One regular even suggested raising prices because the coffee was “too good for what it cost.” Those moments reminded them that they were not just serving coffee, they were building trust.
We’re in this to impress, but with a lot of backing from our own research and development.
- Aditya Sharma
Deepender Thapa, head of brand, bringing with him a depth of expertise.
Bonding beyond business, a candid moment of the team.
Pour Over: The Roastery That Feels Like Home
Today, Pour Over is preparing to open five new outlets across Delhi-NCR and Himachal Pradesh, including McLeod Ganj. Scale will never come at the cost of craft.
“We roast our coffees in small batches, taking care of every little detail, that’s what makes us different,” they explain.
Their vision is simple: make coffee a part of everyday life.
“In India, coffee is still seen as a luxury,” Ritika says. “But it doesn’t have to be. It can be your everyday cup, affordable, approachable, and honest.”
Behind every cup is the same spirit that started it all: a sister who loved coffee, a brother who could not stop experimenting, and a team treating roasting as equal parts art and science.
At Pour Over, perfection is not the goal. Persistence is. Every batch begins with curiosity and ends in care. In every cup, from the smoothest espresso to the simplest pour-over, lies a quiet promise: to take coffee seriously without losing its soul.
And when things slow down, the two girls step up like true taskmasters and get things rolling again.
As Joanna says, “You can always trust the girls to get it done.”
