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 Stamp
The Locavore Stamp offers a closer look at how Native and Natural works—not just what they produce, but the practices, choices, and compromises they make, and their relationships with the people growing the food. We look at their work through seven interconnected lenses: Origin, Knowledge, Workforce, Production, Composition, Packaging, and Community. Together, these form a single food landscape, reflecting how none of these aspects exists in isolation.
Traditional certifications rely on defined standards and thresholds, but these can sometimes leave less room for the nuance of how a producer actually operates. The Locavore Stamp is intended to make more of that complexity visible rather than reduce a producer to a pass, fail, or score. It is a way to make a producer’s practices more transparent, recognise where meaningful work is being done, acknowledge where there may still be room to improve, and give you greater context to be able to decide whether and how you might support it.
What follows is a snapshot of Native and Natural at the time of publication, based on our research and several rounds of conversations with Shriya Dinesh.
Hover or tap on the illustration above to explore the seven lenses of The Locavore Stamp. Illustration by Antara Raman.
Origin
Their coffee is grown on their own plantation in Devarunda in the Chikmagalur district in Karnataka.
Knowledge
Native and Natural follows organic coffee-growing practices that include using cowdung-based fertilisers and nurturing native species of trees for green cover in order to reinvigorate soil degraded by heavy monsoons and harsh summers.
Workforce
The team is provided with a living wage and living quarters. They also have provisions for maternity leave.
Production
Native and Natural cultivate their coffee organically with a focus on preserving the flora and fauna in and around their plantation.
Composition
No chemicals or preservatives are used while harvesting, fermenting, and drying, as well as in the final product.
Packaging
While their bulk green beans are delivered in recycled packaging in gunny bags, their roasted and ground coffee is packaged in recyclable food-grade pouches made from a laminate of flexible plastic and metal foils, and shipped in cardboard containers.
Community
Native and Natural participates in Suggi Habba, an annual harvest festival, celebrated at the local temple. They are also planning workshops and training sessions on coffee growing and processing for those who visit the farm in Chikmaglur.
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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How to Buy
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.
Yashvi Shah is the Senior Partnerships Copywriter at The Locavore. In her free time, she likes creating playlists for her friends, and going on runs.
Neil Khopkar is the Partnerships Lead at The Locavore. Trained in culinary arts and business, his interests range from gastronomy to music.
Editor: Yamini Vijayan
Copy Editor: Khorshed Deboo
