#blahvsfood goes to Humble Bean and comes back inspired

I’m not qualified to speak about coffee in any way because I am truly ignorant and only really drink filter coffee or cold coffee. So when the guys at Humble Bean reached out asking me to drop by for a cold brew tasting I had to explain that I would be happy to come and learn rather than provide any kind of useful perspective. 

To my mind the coffee was excellent and the barista was brilliant at explaining the different blends and types, and at ascertaining what a novice would like and what a serious coffee lover would appreciate. But I think I should leave it to those who know better to talk about the coffee. My interest is in people, in stories, in a life of purpose and meaning and I was lucky enough to meet the founders and get into a long chat with them and I have to say that their story and passion really inspired me. 

Soomanna Mandepanda and his wife Puja left behind careers in banking and Yahoo respectively to try and change the entire ecosystem of coffee and not just create a brand and a business. Puja is the backbone of the business but as she says herself, Humble Bean is  the result of Soomanna’s passion, though obsessive madness maybe a better word to describe it than passion. What he hopes to achieve is not just to sell coffee but create a fairer, more sustainable way forward for the coffee industry, one that puts the small and medium farmer at the heart of it, rather than the large brands and corporations. 

While small and medium growers represent 90% of coffee cultivation in India, they lack the resources and infrastructure to grow coffee in a way that is more sustainable and they also lack the ability to get a more remunerative price in case they attempt to. The entire process of certification for higher grades of coffee is expensive, leading it to be the preserve of larger or richer growers. Similarly the inability to sell directly to the market means that it is the trader that captures the bulk of the financial value rather than the ordinary farmer. 

What Humble Beans does is disrupt this traditional system by working directly with farmers. They provide technical input, they help roasters and brands source directly from the farmers, they help farmers grow higher quality coffee, provide roasting and grinding support and sometimes even access to credit and finance. Equally importantly, they create blends of coffees from different farms to harness the spirit of collaboration and inclusivity to create products where you take the best elements of different small farms to create something unique. Now they are even partnering with hospitality and agricultural colleges to develop curriculum about coffee growing and the business of coffee.  

When I went to the Humble Bean Brew Bar at Go Native, little did I realise that the space was just the tip of the spear, the end point of something powerful and disruptive. It is a way to educate people about Indian coffee, to understand it and enjoy it in a way that is indigenous and real, not imitative of the west. 

To explain what I mean, let me share just one example. The baristas at Humble Bean aren’t from a westernised, accented background but people who have been a part of Humble Bean’s journey, people who “get” the philosophy, the vision, the purpose, who love the romance of coffee and what the company is trying to do. They don’t come with fancy accents and they aren’t forced to be something that they are not in the hope of replicating Melbourne or San Francisco. They are told to speak in languages and accents that they are comfortable in, to be themselves, Indian and local, and to go about their work and sharing their stories with passion and honesty and dignity. This is something I have always believed in and tried to push my restaurant and bar owing friends towards, reminding them how they never expect good English in Spain or Italy so why should our workers feel that pressure? That ultimately to believe in and love and know your product is more important than language and accent. So to see a company that actually acts on that philosophy really makes me happy. 

Like I said, I know nothing about coffee. So this isn’t a coffee piece. But I do know something about people. Because in this retired avatar, I spend my life in search of inspiring people, stories and conversations, ideally over good food and drink. And it’s meeting people like Soomanna and Puja, to be able to learn from them and to be able to share their stories, that make my current life so much richer than before.