Nilgiris

The Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu grows mostly robusta, with a smaller crop of high-grown arabica that still includes Kents, the oldest of India’s arabica selections.

The short version

• 5,625 tonnes in 2023-24, about four-fifths of it robusta.
• 900–1,400 metres, under shade.
• Brighter than most Indian coffee, Coffee Review says.
• Kents, India’s earliest arabica selection, is still grown here.
• Arabica ripens from October–November.

What does Nilgiris coffee taste like?

Bright and balanced, by the few published assessments. Coffee Review’s glossary says coffees from the Nilgiris and the Shevaroys generally show more acidity than those of other south Indian regions. In its 2009 report on Indian coffees, it scored an organic estate coffee from the Nilgiris, Balmaadi, at 91 points:

Measure	Score
Aroma	8
Acidity	8
Body	8
Flavour	9
Aftertaste	8

Its notes: “sweet-toned, balanced, quietly complete”, with gently pungent acidity, a silky mouthfeel and suggestions of nut, flowers, stone fruit, chocolate and lemon. That is one coffee, reviewed in 2009, so treat it as a pointer rather than a regional profile. In the Coffee Board’s own competition, Silver Cloud Estate in Gudalur was the best arabica of the Nilgiris region in 2014.

The Coffee Board calls the plantations here “home to fine, high-grown Arabicas, including the exotic Kents”. Kents, selected by an English planter of that name in the 1920s, is India’s earliest arabica selection; it is grown in only a few areas now but is “still known for its exceptional cup quality”, the Board says.

Where and how high is it grown?

In the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, where, the Coffee Board notes, wildlife sanctuaries shelter leopards close to the plantations. The Coffee Board’s profile of the region:

Measure	Figure
Altitude	900–1,400 m
Rainfall	1,600–2,600 mm
Coffee	Arabica and robusta
Arabica varieties	S.795, Kents, Cauvery
Robusta varieties	Peridenia, S.274, CxR
Main intercrops	Pepper, orange, banana, ginger, vegetables

Source: Coffee Board, Coffee Regions – India.

Nationally, the blossom showers that set the crop come in March and April for arabica and February and March for robusta, the Coffee Board says, and arabica starts to ripen in October and November, according to its GI application for Chikmagalur Arabica.

How much coffee do the Nilgiris grow?

The Coffee Board’s figures for 2023-24 (provisional):

	Arabica	Robusta	Total
Planted area	3,805 ha	4,900 ha	8,705 ha
Production	1,175 t	4,450 t	5,625 t

Source: Coffee Board, Database on Coffee, July 2024.

That is about 1.6% of India’s coffee, from 5,103 holdings, nearly all of them under 10 hectares. The Board’s older regional profile gave averages of 1,400 tonnes of arabica and 2,800 of robusta, from 3,600 and 4,000 hectares.

The Nilgiris and other Indian origins

• Coffee in India: the whole country, its regions and its history.
• Shevaroys: Tamil Nadu’s other bright, high-grown arabica.
• Wayanad: the robusta district next door, in Kerala.