Arshiya Bose throws back at a decade dipped and drenched in coffee.
Hello! You don’t usually hear from me in first person but here I am — having completed ten long/short years in coffee. For context, I started my PhD research in 2009 but for a while, I thought I wanted to study snow leopards so by the time I switched geographies, it was 2011! As you can imagine, I have a lot to say about Black Baza (and the not so glamorous grey hairs that coffee has given me) but for now, here are some photo-stories from over the years…
The contents of my backpack from PhD fieldwork days. I see Boroline and Tiger Balm! The Allegra reminds me of how difficult fieldwork was as someone with a mysterious allergy condition (hello, anaphylaxis). My bag looks different these days. The fork/spoon is a miss (I have no idea why I had that!) and I have switched from pencils to fountain pens because I no longer need to stand in the rain and enter data in my notebook (penciled writing is water resistant). Only three things have remained — nux vomica, the exact shawl and the pair of earrings! Oh and hand sanitisers seem to have made a comeback! (circa 2010)
Testing camera traps at a partner coffee farm and measuring shade canopy cover. Monsoon in Coorg meant leech socks and gumboots and I got these from a tiny shop in Gonikoppal (circa 2011).
Also, saw an elephant in a coffee farm for the first time. Have lost count now — almost a daily occurrence in some seasons and yet always magical (circa 2011).As a social scientist and researcher (and woman), I am always hyperaware of power dynamics and this image represents a large chunk of how I’ve felt working in coffee. The papers on the ground are part of a game I had designed to understand growers’ perceptions of shade trees. No, I didn’t roll down the hill soon after (although I probably felt like it!) (2013)Our robusta parchment (then and now) comes from Pallakere Estate in Kodagu — this is also the only non-smallholder coffee we procure. It is because Chethan Nachappa was the first producer to come on board our ideas for a biodiversity-friendly coffee — way before we were even an entity. We started off with a few conservation practices — restoring native tree species on his estate, restricting shade regulation, stopping spraying of chemical inputs and watching out for a stream on his farm where we had spotted small-clawed otters. These practices still continue and our shared belief that good conservation practices lead to better quality coffee has yielded a partnership that has only gotten steadier over the years. (2014)
We set up our manufacturing unit in Bangalore in April 2016. Ugregowda was our very first customer. He was selling papad door to door and insisted on buying a bag of coffee. “Small businesses must support each other”, he said. He has become a friend over the years, stopping by for a pour over every other week that he is in the neighbourhood.The first year ‘we’ sourced coffee from BR Hills, the ‘we’ was Kumba and I. We collected coffee beans from 35 producers and transported it in a rusty old jeep to the curing works. I would have been lost without Kumba’s solidarity. (2016)The Basavegowda brothers came to our first gathering in BR Hills in 2016. They have come to every single gathering or meeting we have held ever since. (2017)
Many of you have seen Sannarangegowda either in person or pictures. He joined us in 2016. I remember interviewing him alongside four other people. I fell for his silver hair and quiet commitment and he is without a doubt the hardest working member of the Black Baza team. (2018)I remember this moment so clearly. This was taken in December 2016 just after the demonetisation of banknotes in India. We were all terrified about whether we would be able to procure coffee that year. Most producers did not have bank accounts at the time and there was just no cash available anywhere. There was so much confusion and I remember having to quickly stop an elderly lady from using her new 2000 rupee note as a 20. We managed somehow. I think we procured 1800 kilos that year. (2016)This was around the time we were applying for our Fair Trade certification. Producers had a lot of questions and there was all round nervousness about how we would manage all the documentation. Looking back, too many men in the room. (circa 2018).
Women have entered the room slowly. Nagamma was elected the Vice President of the first producer society in BR Hills. I remember scouring through different organisation structures and finding that practically, the ‘society’ structure allowed for greater participation of women. This was in contrast to the larger nationwide push for Farmer Producer Companies. Women in the region simply did not have the paperwork to allow them to hold decision-making roles and had we done an FPO, Nagamma would have never managed to be elected VP (2018).
Peeyush Sekhsaria watches birds as Vivek Muthuramalingam watches Peeyush and other creatures! Vivek and I became friends after an argument about coffee at a gathering. I don’t remember the argument but I know how important Vivek’s images have been as the first visual archive of our work in BR Hills. I am always lamenting that I have no opportunity to take pictures during producer gatherings or farm work. Vivek took the first set of images that made us all feel proud of what we are doing (2018).
In 2019, we resumed serious research and Ashwin and Shashank were instrumental as idea-makers. The National Geographic Society backed us with a grant for Participatory Science and it has snowballed into so many exciting and impactful directions (2019).
As part of our Participatory Science work, we started playing board games across coffee landscapes. It’s a bit like coffee monopoly. I will never forget the moment that Nanja thought he had played the winning move…he lost this round in the end! (2019)Coffee grower-drinker interactions at our HQ. Madegowda (recognizable by his long hair) came to Bangalore without footwear. Having always walked on forest floors, he didn’t think footwear was essential — till he came to the city. We went straight to Bata after this meeting (circa 2018).
Some fieldwork fun
Just before we partnered with Elements and started sourcing coffee from the Fair Trade Alliance of Kerala, Tomy Mathews and I did a trip to Wayanad. It was the first time I used a cloth(ish) filter for my AeroPress (don’t ask me what material it was!). Ammachi was perplexed but she gave us the most delicious steamed purple yam with green chilli chutney which goes down in my books as an all time great coffee pairing. We have so much more to do together — Tomy, Elements, FTAK and us — to fundamentally shift power structures in global coffee markets. Thank you for your coffee and solidarity! (circa 2018).
Every good organisation needs a few good noses. When I met Karthik Natarajan in 2017, I was designing our coffee bags on Microsoft Powerpoint. We have come a long way coffee bag and other design wise. Karthik and my debates about typeface and colour have been some of the most deeply philosophical discussions about values and world views that I have had the privilege of engaging in…Perhaps that’s been the best part of Black Baza design.
In 2020, we bought our very first coffee roaster. We called her ‘Kanmani The Flycatcher’ after an exhaustive and systematic process of crowdsourcing suggestions from all team members. Kanmani, meaning beautiful dark eyes is a cast-iron Probat roaster that sits right in the centre of our space. At first, we didn’t think Kanmani would fit through the door (metaphorically) but she has upped our coffee game in ways we cannot measure. If bakers do very early mornings, so do coffee roasters — we are done and roasted by 8 am, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Specialty coffee is work in progress, both at the farm level and at the roastery and it’s just so exciting to be able to participate.
I say work in progress, because it has taken us a long time to get to a place where coffee growers we work with are excited about coffee. Coffee has historically been extractive — before we showed up, they would receive 56% less than they do currently for their produce. In 2020, for the first time we managed to pull off full traceability for every jute sack of coffee from 394 producers. Each producer’s coffee was measured for moisture, bagged and marked with a unique code. By the way, the rationale for this level of traceability was not cosmetic at all! We did this so we could implement incremental steps to improve each producer’s quality and we have a fantastic event (coming soon) that will celebrate their coffee!
It has been a decade of coffee but not without caveats. One of the most challenging tasks has been to convince coffee producers that we should be serving coffee at our gatherings — not tea! I remember when we did a cup-tasting session with growers. It was the first time that any of them had tasted their own produce! I thought it was kind of ironic that the farm to table/crop to cup movement does not come back to the grower. So, we started doing a farm-to-table-and-farm scene with flasks of coffee at meetings! Needless to say, coffee was unpopular at first (still?) and most people would make a beeline for the sugar jar!
When I saw these photographs that my friend Yashas Chandra took of me, I cried! It has been joyful to work in coffee but gosh, it’s been so hard! I remember this moment of hanging my head down at a meeting with a co-operative members where the discussion felt so transactional and was so dominated by one or two (political) leaders…and so far far away from having the spirit with which I had started Black Baza. I have not always been the most serene or elegant person in the room but I’m learning to navigate these power structures and not feel consumed by them, slowly learning to subvert. Maybe, I will even be more elegant in the next decade! (2021)
A decade of coffee has meant consuming copious amounts of food! Some of the most delicious meals are as above!
Thanks for reading all the way till the end!
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Loved your story, originality, the well pieces site and all that has gone and goes into your brew of life!
Kudos at what you have achieved here. Brings back memories …From one coffee lover to another- this thought was something a coffee growing friend of mine and I had started on back in 2004 in Chickmaglur before social media but sadly fell apart.
Will be visiting India(Mangalore) this July and definitely taking a lot of your coffee back and also hope to visit your story in person.
Keep up the great work !!
Loved your story, originality, the well pieces site and all that has gone and goes into your brew of life!
Kudos at what you have achieved here. Brings back memories …From one coffee lover to another- this thought was something a coffee growing friend of mine and I had started on back in 2004 in Chickmaglur before social media but sadly fell apart.
Will be visiting India(Mangalore) this July and definitely taking a lot of your coffee back and also hope to visit your story in person.
Keep up the great work !!