My Cycling Pitstop in Bangalore: Blue Tokai Coffee

Go to place for coffee, catch-ups, meetings, work & everything in-between

Blue Tokai’s story started when Matt and his wife Namrata moved to Delhi from Chennai and decided to start up as they missed freshly roasted coffee.

What started as a hobby turned into a thriving online coffee business, Blue Tokai.  Named after an ancient South Indian term for the tail of a peacock - tokai, the coffee start-up wanted to popularize India’s vast coffee growing plantations, which have been largely unknown abroad and within the country itself.

In India, Matt estimates the average person may consume 70grams of coffee a year (very little); compare that to 7kilos(100x of India) per person a year in Nordic nations like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. While India is the seventh largest coffee grower in the world, the bulk of the coffee is exported, especially the premium Arabica beans. My home state Karnataka produces nearly 80 percent of India’s coffee yet, most Indians know very little about their coffees and the farms.

Blue Tokai now has over 50+ cafes in Bangalore, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Noida to cater to connoisseurs of coffee. Cafes apart, Blue Tokai also sells cold brew bags, easy pour, cold brew cans, and roasted and ground coffee through its website and online channels.

My favourite here is the coffee from Thogarihunkal Estate which is located in Chikmagalur on the rolling hills of Baba Budangiri, the birthplace of Indian coffee. At 1350m above sea level, the estate has maintained separate blocks for Arabica and Robusta, which are then segregated by varietal. Chandragiri, Selection 795, and micro lots of Selections 5 and 7 are the Arabica varieties that are grown on the estate.

You can start your day with the sweet aromas of toffee from fresh harvest of Thogarihunkal Estate. This delicious medium roast, with flavours of brown sugar, green grape and roasted almond, tastes great when taken black or with a little bit of milk. This coffee is processed using the washed method and has a clean flavour profile with low acidity and bitterness, and a sweet, long aftertaste of honey and raisins. You can enjoy the smooth, buttery mouthfeel of this medium-bodied coffee by brewing it as a Pourover (my favourite) or an Espresso, or by using manual brewing methods.

• Altitude : 1000-1400Masl

• Processing: Washed

• Location : Chikmagalur, Karnataka

• Variety: S13 (Chandragiri)

• Tasting Notes: Brown Sugar, Green Grapes, Roasted Almond

with the Cycling Team Sprocket Science India

Dhiraj Bhai and Blue Tokai Team in Bangalore ca 2018