Black, or with milk and sugar, coffee and its rich aroma are omnipresent in southern India. The drink is especially popular in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where, at small shacks, frothy coffee is poured into tumblers standing on dabaras (saucers) and Western-style cafes sell exotic brews.
Serving thick coffee, made in a stainless steel filter and mixed with frothy hot milk, is a tradition in many South Indian households.
The drink was initially reserved for the British colonial elite in India. Today, coffee plantations that date from the colonial era – from Wayanad, in Kerala, to Coorg, in Karnataka, and Yercaud, in Tamil Nadu – not only produce coffee beans, but also offer immersive homestay experiences.
Chikmagalur was the site of India’s first recorded coffee plantation. In the foothills of Karnataka’s Western Ghats, the town is surrounded by the rainforests and waterfalls of the Mullayanagiri peaks.
Sufi Muslim saint Baba Budan supposedly brought seven coffee seeds, tucked into his robes, to Chikmagalur from Yemen in the Arabian peninsula in the 17th century, when he was returning from the haj pilgrimage. He planted his fragrant Arabica seeds, which thrived at this high altitude, and the coffee bushes spread to Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Today Chikmagalur is defined by its coffee plantations, most of them family-run. Tall silver oak and teak trees, their trunks wrapped in pepper vines, provide shade for the coffee plants and stabilise the soil.
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The Niraamaya Private Residence is a three-bedroom bungalow with a living and dining room that was once home to British planters. The property is part of the Blue Mountain Estate and is surrounded by 2,000 acres (809 hectares) of coffee plants, lawns, silver oak and ficus trees.
During a stay at the bungalow, which comes with its own valet, cook and staff, the tranquillity is broken only by the chirping of drongos and bulbuls.
Among the oaks, orange trees and dense pepper vines that grow across the estate, workers harvest the crop from dark-leaved coffee plants, rubber boots on their feet and a bag for the berries tied around their waists.
Local guide Sourav tells us that at higher altitudes, the ripening of the coffee berries is slower, allowing their seeds, or beans, to gather more complex aromas.
The roads around Chikmagalur are bumpy and muddy, so a four-wheel-drive vehicle is needed to take us to a waterfall on the estate. We pass women pickers beside the narrow winding tracks, small boys on bicycles, as well as lakes and shrines. A kingfisher flies off as we cross a narrow bridge to see a waterfall up close.
The skies darken as we follow misty roads lined by towering oaks and poinsettias in bloom to the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, 38km (24 miles) northwest of Chikmagalur.
A biodiversity hotspot that takes its name from the river beside which it stands, the sanctuary is home to tigers, leopards and a wide variety of birds. Its evergreen forests also contain a great variety of medicinal plants.
We spot more wildlife during a boat safari on the silvery Bhadra reservoir: swooping ospreys, Malabar pied hornbills, egrets and cormorants perched on driftwood. Nearing land, we catch sight of monitor lizards.
About 30km from Chikmagalur, through flat fields of areca nut and millet, are the Hoysala era (1050-1355) temples of Belur and Halebidu.
Belur’s Chennakeshava Temple was carved out of black soapstone by three generations of Chalukyan artisans over more than 100 years during the 12th and 13th centuries and is still in use. Its carvings are so intricate they look as though they’re made of polished metal, and have the delicacy of ivory.
On the lower frieze of the outer facade are carved 644 elephants and horses, symbolising strength. Inside the temple, which, according to local belief, was built to honour the conversion of King Vishnuvardhan from Jainism to Hinduism, are 48 highly polished and richly sculpted pillars, each of a different design and style.
Temple guide Ramesh points out inscriptions in the old Kannada language about the structure and its history.
Halebidu, 26km away, served as the royal capital of the Hoysala dynasty. As rain falls, we walk across a wide lawn and past huge trees to the town’s Hoysaleswara temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva and built in 1121 by King Vishnuvardhana.
The depictions from Hindu mythology – animals, birds and dancing figures – on the temple’s facade are even more refined than those in Belur.
The armies of Alauddin Khilji and Muhammed Tughlaq attacked and defeated the Hoysalas in the 14th century and destroyed most of their wealth, but these temples survived, although some of their statues lost limbs or an ear.
We finish the day at a crowded, no-frills restaurant in Chikmagalur called Aramane with benne (butter) dosas – lentil crepes filled with a potato mixture and served with local chutneys – washed down, of course, with aromatic locally grown coffee.
