When two friends realised a true coffee drinker didn’t really have much of a choice when it came to home-brewed coffee with quality beans, they started an online store selling quality coffee. That was in 2013. Last month their passion led them to open The Flying Squirrel, a coffee retail outlet, micro roastery and cafe in Bengaluru.
Ashish D’Abreo is a former creative director in an advertising agency, and Tej Thammaiah is a third-generation coffee planter in Karnataka’s Kodagu District. They studied in the same college, and have been friends for years. Ashish looks after the marketing and Tej ensures his plantation produces the best coffee.
“Coffee sold in supermarkets is stale. We wanted to solve this problem. We started at the estate level, working with the finest coffee consultants, says Ashish. “We looked at how we could use our natural soil, climate and water conditions to create better coffee beans.
We experimented with cultivars, varying growing conditions, inter-cropping, different methods of processing, drying, storing and roasting followed by copious amounts of cupping. We finally settled on six diverse varieties of beautiful coffee.”
Tej says there is a lot of work at the farm. “One has to be constantly present there to ensure right processes are used. Depending on the demand, we purchase varieties of coffee from Chikkamagaluru as well after checking its quality,” he explains.
The Flying Squirrel Micro Roastery and Cafe is designed as a space where one can experience a new, evolving coffee culture with snacks.
Focusing on onsite roasting, brewing techniques, experimental blends and coffee retail, the area allows for the coffee theatrics by using a simple and contemporary aesthetic. The idea behind the retail space is to get people acquainted with the variety of coffee they produce.
Every morning and on some afternoons, fresh batches of coffee are roasted and ground at the micro roastery for retail and online orders, requirements of partner restaurants across India and for drinking at the café.
Walk-in customers can acquaint themselves with variants, processing and taste profiles of each kind of coffee in the roastery section and can choose from the seven varieties of artisan coffees and select the grind size that is packed before them.
Some of their coffee varieties are Parama (freshly roasted-on-order and their finest blend), Sun-kissed, Aromatique, Sattva and Deep Bliss. A 250 gm of Paramaribo Coffee filter is for `340.Wake up and smell the coffee.