Established in 2023 by father-daughter duo Dinesh MJ and Shriya Dinesh, Native and Natural is an organic coffee producer. Based in Devarunda in the Chikmagalur district in Karnataka, they rely on naturally available resources to grow their coffee. Currently, they retail a blend of washed Arabica and single-origin Robusta beans that are grown without any chemical inputs.
Dinesh, who is a third-generation coffee-grower, has been growing conventional coffee on their plantation in Devarunda since 2000. With Native and Natural, he is shifting towards a more organic and sustainable way of growing coffee.
This involves converting any waste generated at the stage of pulping coffee fruits into compost. They also maintain native varieties of trees such as jackfruit, jamun, and soap nut that provide ample shade for the coffee plants, and prevent them from the harsh sunlight in summer. These trees invite birds and smaller organisms like earthworms that encourage cross-pollination and seed dispersal, resulting in changed chemical composition of the coffee, and in turn, enhancing the flavour of the coffee. In order to remove the fruit from the coffee berry, washed coffee undergoes a fermentation process, which provides it a nutty flavour. Natural coffee beans, on the other hand, are dried with the coffee fruit intact, allowing the beans to adapt floral and fruity notes of plums, citrus, banana, or even jackfruit.
Currently, Native and Natural has dedicated around eight acres to growing organic coffee. According to Dinesh, organic coffee in India, unlike conventional coffee, lacks a dedicated package of practice or standardised guidelines. This, along with the fact that growers often do not receive a fair price, makes it difficult for them to grow organic coffee in large quantities.
Typically, growers start picking ripened coffee cherries by the end of November or in early December. At Native and Natural, all the cherries, once they turn red, are carefully plucked by hand. The beans are then dried over elevated beds with mesh coverings at the height of about two-and-a-half to three feet. This allows for ideal air circulation and results in evenly dried coffee. Fermented coffee takes anywhere between five to seven days to dry, depending on the availability of sunlight, whereas the natural cherries take about 10 to 12 days.
The Locavore Bite
TL Bite offers a glimpse into how a partner producer runs their operations, and reflects their core principles and values. The idea is to provide insights into their practices and highlight their positive efforts descriptively. We have identified seven key areas of assessment – origin and source of ingredients, composition and integrity of the products, workforce policies, production practices, community-related initiatives, approach towards preserving or celebrating traditional knowledge and the materials used in packaging. While this assessment may not be entirely comprehensive, we hope it helps you make an informed decision about why you might want to support them, and the ways in which to do so.
The information below offers you a snapshot of where Native and Natural Naturals stands on these parameters. We have put this together based on several rounds of conversations with Shriya Dinesh. Click on a piece of the pie below to find out more.
Why We Love Native and Natural
Shifting from non-organic to organic coffee: Upon realising the severe environmental impact of growing coffee conventionally, Native and Natural started growing chemical-free coffee in 2023, despite 23 years of having a non-organic, conventional coffee plantation. They are developing a package of practice for organic coffee— such as using manure made with cow dung and coffee waste, as well as taking care of the ecosystem by maintaining a green cover in the region—that they can encourage other smallholder growers across India to take up.
Meticulous harvesting process: Before harvesting, Native and Natural checks the sugar content of the coffee fruit, and then carefully handpicks each berry. If the berry turns deep red in colour, it means that the sugar content is high and it has ripened completely. The berries go through two rounds of sorting, and only then are they fermented and pulped. For Native and Natural, it is important to ferment their fruit in order to remove mucilage, a sticky substance surrounding the bean inside the fruit. Upon fermenting, the fruit starts dissolving, resulting in the coffee bean.
Preserving local flora and fauna: They maintain fruit trees such as soap nut, areca nut, avocados, coconuts, jackfruit, pepper vines, and banana, ensuring that local tree diversity is preserved and their coffee is grown under ample shade.
Why is it important to grow coffee without any chemical inputs? What is the difference between organic and specialty coffee?
I think coffee has the ability to adapt to multiple conditions and climate, hence, growing it organically helps enhance this trait, and highlight its characteristics. Coffee grown in different regions varies in taste based on the climate, soil condition and weather making coffee from every region a unique entity. This gives us all the opportunity to taste coffee in multiple ways rather than a single taste or profile. It acts as an experience rather than a product.
Growing organic coffee involves a method of farming where the major stakeholders are soil, weather, and elevation, while specialty coffee takes into consideration how the coffee beans are treated post-harvest, and how (to) extract the best coffee from what has grown (on) the land. The question then becomes: what kind of coffee do you want to use for specialty coffee: organic or non-organic?
—Shriya Dinesh, Co-founder of Native and Natural
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If you would like to learn more about Native and Natural, or try their products, check out their website. If you’re interested in supporting them in other ways, please contact us at connect@thelocavore.in.
This is a paid partnership with Native and Natural. We strive to keep the practices of a producer transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships. At The Locavore, we strive to keep the practices of a producer transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships.
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