Crankhouse have been doing a stellar job at showing off the incredible work of the Ratnagiri Estate after visiting last year. Owner and manager Ashok Patre is a legend of Indian specialty coffee, adopting all the latest research and innovation in the industry and taking a really scientific approach to his processing and quality control.

One of his major investments has been the set up of a controlled dehumidification dark room. This facility holds temperature between 2 and 30 degrees and maintains a humidity of 10% for precisely controlled slow rack drying that preserves and intensifies the coffee’s vibrancy and sweetness. For this lot, the dark room is used to finish off an already complex process involving yeast inoculation in biofermenters prior to washing and has resulted in incredible mandarin and floral flavour with toffee sweetness.