6 luxury coffee brands in India shaping the country’s new taste vocabulary

India’s relationship with coffee has always been a slow burn. The first wave belonged to chains like Cafe Coffee Day, Barista, and  Costa Coffee, a phase when cafés became a third space for young Indians—part social hub, part caffeine ritual. 

A decade later, the country is in the middle of a craft-driven coffee renaissance where along with luxury coffee brands in India, roasters and estates are shaping taste just as much as they’re shaping ritual. “This one is craft-driven: people care about experience, origin, process, and sustainability, and Indian roasters are matching global standards. The audience has evolved too—they’re more curious, informed, and eager to explore what Indian coffee can be,” says Yahvi Mariwala, co-founder, Nandan Coffee and a third-generation steward of the 40-acre family-run Nandanvan Estate in the heart of the Kodaikanal wildlife sanctuary. 

What began as a transition from instant coffee to filter coffee has evolved into a deeper obsession with specialty coffee: lighter roasts, terroir-specific profiles, single-origin beans, fermentation-led processing, and a curiosity for what brewing at home can be when approached with intention. “Ten years ago, choices were limited to a few blends and one roast; today, people are experimenting with light and medium roasts, washed and natural processes, cold brews, and brewing techniques at home,” says Mariwala. More Indians are brewing at home now, fuelled by fresh coffee delivered to their doorstep, approachable equipment, and a better grasp of grind and water variables. 

For a new generation, coffee isn’t just an errand, it’s a marker of taste and a quiet signal of identity. “There is a big shift in the Indian market where people have moved from being tea drinkers to coffee drinkers. They are looking at adding coffee brewing to their everyday ritual,” says Ritika Sharma, co-founder of Pour Over Coffee Roasters. “Working professionals today are ingredient-conscious, taking pride in knowing where their coffee is coming from. The coffee culture in India has become more evolved, focusing on the origin of the bean, terroir, controlled roasting, micro-lots, and precision brewing techniques. It is more about personalisation and the consumption of a commodity that was earlier only an export product,” adds Sharma.

Here are six favourite artisanal coffees in India—each rooted in story, soil, and flavour:  

1.Araku coffee

Araku’s story has its origins in the Eastern Ghats of India, long before the brand existed. Coffee has been grown in the valley since the early 1900s, nurtured by its Adivasi communities. In 1999, the Naandi Foundation partnered with the Adivasis to improve access to education for young girls from the community. Its work later expanded to include coffee, planting three million trees across the region and reframing a century-old growing tradition into a contemporary craft movement. 

Launched in 2015, Araku Coffee has since become one of the most influential premium coffee brands in India. The coffees on offer include the Selection, with notes of dark chocolate, caramel, and cane sugar, the Micro Climate with fruity notes like plum, cherry, and raisin, and the Grand Reserve, a special, single-origin coffee, which can be brewed at home. Araku offers terroir-forward, Indian single-origin coffee with a clear sense of place. In 2021, they launched Araku Café in Bengaluru, followed by an outpost in Mumbai in 2024.

2. Maverick & Farmer

Co-founded in 2018 by a businessman, a third-generation estate owner, and a roaster-barista, Maverick & Farmer brings experimentation to Coorg’s landscape. Their approach centres around fermentation, precision roasting, and beans sourced from a 140-acre estate in Pollibetta. They roast their coffee in Bengaluru, which is packed only to order, blending accessibility with craft. It has become a defining presence within the landscape of freshly roasted coffee in India, offering light, medium, and dark profiles that reflect estate-led nuances over trend-driven flavours. 

3. Subko

Subko has become a cultural force in the modern Indian coffee-estate movement. What began as a roastery in Mumbai is now a multidisciplinary craft engine with bread, chocolate, and an expanded research arm through Subko Cacao. 

Subko’s multi-species approach to specialty coffee—Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa—sets them apart. With single-origin releases from estates like Gunibylu Estate, experimental brews inspired by cocktails, and processing-led projects such as Project Pearl from Ratnagiri Estate  and Project 360 from Badra Estates, Subko Coffee treats coffee as a design language. Subko VLGE-Paderu, a hand-washed coffee variety from Andhra Pradesh, reflects their commitment to origin storytelling. 

4. Blue Tokai Coffee and Roasters

Blue Tokai’s rise mirrors India’s own coffee education curve. What started with a simple toast from Taiwan in 2013, has become a nationwide network of cafes, subscriptions, and sourcing partnership networks spanning for more than 80 farms across India. Their portfolio spans estates such as Attikan in the Biligiri Hills, Baarbara and Sampigehoney in Chikmagalur, St. Joseph in the Palani Hills, Raxidi in Sakleshpur, and Vivekananda in Coorg. From light, citrus-leaning Seethargundu to bold, dark-roasted Vienna, Blue Tokai Coffee remains the gateway brand for many discovering craft coffee roasters in India. 

5. Nandan

Nandan’s roots go back to the late 1980s, long before specialty coffee entered mainstream vocabulary. The Kodaikanal-based estate received organic certification in 2001, and the brand has moved steadily from grower-roaster to a consumer-facing presence across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi. Solar-powered roasting reinforces their ecological philosophy. Their blends—Espresso, Lilmore, Royale, and South Special—make Nandan a quiet but consistent pillar in the Indian coffee brands landscape.

6. Pour Over Coffee Roasters 

Launched in 2025 with its first store in Delhi,  Pour Over Coffee Roasters blends regional storytelling with global flavour memory. Their beans span Chikmagalur, the Western Ghats, and the North East, with international origins from Ethiopia to Colombia, all roasted in-house.  

Their profiles range across fruity, nutty, and citrus-led notes, including cranberry, raisins, wild berries, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, milk chocolate, blood orange, and pomelo. Their exploration of washed and fermented beans introduces peach, mango, watermelon, and stone fruit flavours to India’s home-brewing vocabulary, signalling where Indian premium coffee is headed. 

What this moment in Indian coffee says about taste

India’s coffee movement has outgrown the novelty of cafes and settled into something deeper. A new understanding of flavour, ritual, and origin is shaping consumption. As home brewing becomes instinctive and estates embrace innovation, luxury coffee brands in India are no longer outliers.“The current India market speaks of acidity levels, estate origins, and roast profiles. Estates and roasters are now collaborating in fermentation techniques at farms to enhance and extract best possible coffees,” adds Aditya Sharma, co-founder and master roaster, Pour Over Coffee Roasters

In cafés, cappuccinos, flat whites, and iced lattes dominate; at home, French press and pour over lead the way, with methods like the AeroPress and moka pot catching on fast. “Most Indian coffee drinkers still love balanced, chocolate- and caramel-based flavours with low bitterness and medium body, while a smaller but growing segment is seeking fruit-forward and floral profiles,” concludes Mariwala.