Profile Overview
Atharva Deuskar is a coffee consultant and oversees the quality control of Pune-based Kumaradhara Coffee’s specialty wing. His journey began with South Indian filter coffee and deepened after discovering specialty beans from Poabs Estate and Blue Tokai. Today, Atharva is focused on asking deeper questions around value, access, and ethics in coffee.
Most people discover their passion in their twenties. Atharva Deuskar was already five years in by then.
He was just 14 when he volunteered at a coffee stall at a music festival in Pune, helping serve decoction to a crowd more interested in beats than brews. The stall belonged to Pune’s Kumaradhara Coffee—a name he wouldn’t realize the significance of until much later.
Today, at just 25, he is a key part of their specialty coffee wing overseeing quality control and sourcing. But more than his résumé, it is his mindset that reflects a generational shift happening in Indian coffee.
Brewing coffee and meeting like-minded people across the world
First Touch with Coffee
Atharva’s first touch with coffee was pouring filter coffee for strangers at a music festival in Pune. At barely 14 years of age, he was just a school kid trying to earn enough for concert tickets. The stall he volunteered at, run by Kumaradhara, served decoctions in steel tumblers. But something about the ritual stuck with him and set him on a different path.
“Few days after my volunteering work, I got myself a huge filter coffee decoction tumbler and began experimenting at home. For a year, I couldn’t get it right for a year,” Atharva says, remembering how he tried to perfect his father’s morning brew.
“After a long time of experimenting, I noticed that my dad is actually liking the coffee that I was making,” he added.
Around 2017, Kumaradhara opened a small cafe in Pune’s Aundh, which strictly served filter coffee. Fresh out of 12th grade, Atharva began working there.
Some time later, he came across a YouTube video of award-winning photographer Peter McKinnon, who also happens to be a coffee enthusiast.
“In one of his videos, I saw him make coffee in a Chemex, and I found it super cool. That got me excited to understand more about coffee beyond filter coffee,” he recalls.
My goal is to better understand the social and philosophical sides of the coffee industry. There are a lot of questions I don’t have clear answers to yet, but I want to keep asking them.
- Atharva Deuskar
The Cup That Changed Everything
For Atharva, a single cup of coffee shifted how he thought about the drink entirely.
A friend once gifted him a bag of Blue Tokai’s Kalledevarapura Estate coffee beans. It introduced him to the world of Indian specialty coffee brands and made him realise there was more happening with coffee in India than he had assumed.
“And then all of a sudden, coffee started becoming acidic, which I did not really expect. I did not really expect that a good coffee could have acidity,” he said.
Around the same time, he received another bag of coffee beans, this time from Mumbai’s KC Roasters.
“The coffee was from Poabs Estate,” he says. “It tasted like blueberries. I didn’t expect coffee to be acidic or fruity.”
These experiences challenged what he thought coffee could be. From there, he started experimenting more at home and brewing seriously.
In 2021, Atharva moved to Paris for eight months to work as an English teaching assistant. With plenty of free time, he began visiting specialty cafés across the city. It was the first time he tasted international coffees, including Geisha—something he had only heard about until then. He started paying attention to terms like terroir, varietals, and processing methods, and how each one affected the cup.
“Paris made me realise coffee isn’t just a drink—it’s a system. Everything from how it is grown to how it is brewed matters.”
After returning to India, he joined Kumaradhara as a consultant. Today, he is involved in quality control and sourcing decisions for their specialty wing. But through all of it, one thing has stayed with him: the importance of asking questions. Not just about flavour, but about value, access, and decisions across the supply chain.
Pour-overs and a couple of questions
The Price of a Cup
Having entered into the world of coffee at a very young age, Atharva’s experience of close to a decade has made him appreciate and question the industry.
In fact, his value lies in how persistently he asks better questions. What does sustainability look like when your margins are thin? Can small farmers improve their coffee without the financial backing big estates have? What do we owe to the coffees we reject?
For him, one of the biggest challenges in coffee today isn’t just about quality or sourcing—it is about clarity.
“Consumer awareness is everything,” he says. “Prices went up last year, but it's still not clear who’s absorbing the cost. Is it the farmer? The roaster? The café?”
He points out that the economics of specialty coffee are still murky, even for people working in the industry. And that is precisely why education matters. When customers question why their coffee costs ₹250, it is an opportunity to educate.
“It’s not as simple as ‘pay farmers more’ or ‘roasters deserve more.’ Cafés have unavoidable costs—rent, electricity, salaries. A lot of what you're paying for isn’t just the coffee in the cup.”
Atharva believes the key lies in transparency—helping consumers understand what goes into their cup and why it is priced the way it is.
It is the kind of reflection that often comes from years of lived experience, but Atharva had the benefit of starting early. He has already spent years brewing, observing, and questioning. Now, with nearly a decade in the field, his focus is shifting toward the broader systems behind the coffee we drink.
Paris made me realise coffee isn’t just a drink—it’s a system. Everything from how it is grown to how it is brewed matters.
- Atharva Deuskar
Asking the Uncomfortable Questions
In his role managing quality control, Atharva often cups dozens of coffees—sometimes more than 50 in a day—while selecting only a few for purchase.
That process has led him to ask questions that go beyond taste.
“If all these coffees were grown with care and effort, what does it mean when we only choose five or six?” he says. “What happens to the rest?”
For Atharva, it is a reminder that decisions made at the cupping table can have real consequences across the supply chain.
“It’s not about right or wrong choices,” he adds. “But it makes you think about how those choices affect smaller producers who don’t always have the resources to meet shifting preferences or trends.”
For Atharva, these aren't just quality control questions—they are social ones. How do we define value in a way that also respects effort, context, and intention? And is there a way for quality systems to account for more than just what's in the cup?
Visiting Pune's Gorus Farm
Atharva wishes to go deeper into understanding coffee processing
AeroPress and the Rise of Home Brewing in Small-Town India
It is easy to assume that India’s specialty coffee movement is concentrated in big cities—Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. But the growing popularity of the AeroPress Championship, especially in places like Pune, is starting to tell a different story.
Held annually and now in its fourth edition in the city, the championship has become more than just a brewing contest.
“The energy is different,” says Atharva, who attended this year’s event. “You have people from Nagpur, Nashik, even smaller towns showing up—not just to watch, but to compete.”
This year’s winner, for instance, is a first-time home brewer who had barely opened her coffee packet the day before the event. She hadn’t fine-tuned her grind size, didn’t tweak her water chemistry, and wasn’t following any expert playbook. She brewed a cup she liked—and so did the judges.
What surprises Atharva most is how far Pune has come. “Five years ago, we weren’t sure if there was even a real coffee market here. Now we have 60 people signing up to compete. That says something.”
A lot of what you're paying for isn’t just the coffee in the cup.
- Atharva Deuskar
The Way Forward
For Atharva, the next phase of his journey in coffee isn’t just about refining techniques or scaling operations—it’s about exploring the deeper questions that continue to surface through his work.
“My goal is to better understand the social and philosophical sides of the coffee industry,” he says. “There are a lot of questions I don’t have clear answers to yet, but I want to keep asking them.”
He plans to document and share his reflections—whether through writing, conversations, or community events—so that others navigating the same uncertainties have something to build on.
“I’m not trying to provide the final word on anything,” he explains. “But if someone else is thinking about the same challenges, maybe my perspective can be a starting point for their own.”
