Sandalkad Estate
A six generation coffee estate in the heart of Coorg, farming Arabica and Robusta under native forest canopy for more than 170 years.
Pronounced: SAN-dal-kad
Sandal = sandalwood
Kad = forest
Estate in the sandalwood forest
Location
Ibinivalawadi, Kodagu, Karnataka
Crop
Arabica & Robusta, Shade-grown
Farming Model
Agroforestry, Two-tier Canopy
Heritage
Six Generation Family Estate
Interested in sourcing from this estate?
Have questions first? Get in touch
About Sandalkad Estate
Sandalkad Estate sits in Ibinivalawadi village, near Madikeri, in the heart of Kodagu (Coorg). The Bota family, the Siddiqua family of the Navayath community, has farmed this land for more than 170 years, making Sandalkad one of the oldest continuously operating coffee estates in Kodagu. The estate is run today by Faisal Siddiqi, continuing six generations of the same family’s presence on this land.
The estate covers 225 acres of coffee, spice, and orange orchard, with elevations reaching 1,370 metres above sea level at its highest blocks. Coffee grows under a two-tier canopy of rainforest trees alongside arecanut, with climbing vines of pepper, cardamom, and vanilla winding through the upper canopy — an agroforestry structure Sandalkad has farmed since its earliest generations, long before agroforestry became a recognised sustainability framework.
The estate is planted with both Arabica and Robusta, managed in distinct blocks matched to elevation. Robusta grows from CxR planting stock, the dominant commercial Robusta cultivar in Coorg, developed specifically for Indian growing conditions. Arabica occupies the higher, cooler blocks within the estate, where altitude and temperature slow cherry development and build complexity in the bean.
Sandalkad has been recognised nationally through the Fine Cup India Competition, organised by the Coffee Board of India, a professional cupping evaluation judged against estates from across India’s major growing regions.
Key facts:
- Estate: Sandalkad, Ibinivalawadi, Madikeri, Kodagu
- Owner: Faisal Siddiqi, Bota family (Siddiqua family, Navayath community)
- Size: 225 acres of coffee, spice, and orange orchard
- Elevation: up to 1,370 metres at the highest blocks
- Crops: Arabica and Robusta, plus pepper, cardamom, vanilla, and orange
- Farming history: six generations, more than 170 years
- Recognition: Fine Cup India Top 5, Coffee Board of India
The Story of Sandalkad Estate
The Bota family’s presence in Coorg’s coffee landscape spans the entire modern history of the industry in this region. Six generations have farmed this land through the coffee leaf rust epidemic of the 1870s that collapsed Arabica cultivation across South India, through the decades of the Coffee Board’s centralised marketing system, and into the emergence of today’s specialty market.
That continuity has shaped how Sandalkad approaches its coffee. The estate has built its quality on 170 years of accumulated farming knowledge applied to a single, consistent piece of land, rather than on a single varietal or a single processing method alone.
In 2017, members of the Bota family were among the founders of Big Cup Café, the first specialty café in Coorg, a step that reflected the family’s commitment to having their estate coffee evaluated and represented on its own terms rather than folded into undifferentiated regional supply. Sandalkad has also been an active force in processing education within the Coorg farming community, sharing knowledge about post-harvest techniques and specialty market trends with neighbouring growers.
India Coffee Company sources green coffee directly from the Bota family, the Siddiqua family of the Navayath community, at Sandalkad Estate, making this six-generation Coorg producer available to North American specialty roasters for the first time.
Interested in sourcing from this estate?
Have questions first? Get in touch
Why Roasters Choose Coffee from Sandalkad Estate
Sandalkad offers something genuinely rare in Indian green coffee, a heritage estate with verified quality credentials, active processing innovation, and a direct sourcing relationship available to roasters for the first time.
The Fine Cup India Top 5 award is a professional evaluation benchmark judged by industry experts, confirming that Sandalkad’s coffee performs at the top of the national quality range when tested against estates from across India’s major growing regions.
Most importantly, Sandalkad is a producer that experiments deliberately rather than defaulting to convention. The estate has developed proprietary post-harvest methods for both its Robusta and Arabica, moving beyond the processing defaults that characterise most Indian coffee at this scale. For roasters who want Indian green coffee that performs consistently in the cupping room and holds up across multiple roast trials, Sandalkad’s processing precision is the reason to look closely.
Sandalkad Estate Processing Innovation
Post-harvest processing is where Sandalkad distinguishes itself most clearly from other Coorg estates of comparable scale.
For Robusta, the estate uses extended fermentation and slow drying to specifically reduce the bitterness and woodiness typical of commercial Robusta grades. This is a deliberate, time-intensive quality decision addressing the higher chlorogenic acid and caffeine content that gives standard Robusta its characteristic harshness. The result is a washed CxR Robusta with a cleaner, more rounded cup character than standard commercial material from the same region.
For Arabica, Sandalkad has developed an experimental natural process lot using a herb fermentation technique, its own version of co-fermentation, in which handpicked cherries ferment together with herbs sourced directly from the estate’s land. The specific method is proprietary to the estate, developed and refined through iteration, with results independently evaluated on cupping panels. This treats post-harvest innovation as a core part of the estate’s quality programme.
Coffee from this estate is made available as part of India Coffee Company's Coorg sourcing programme, which also includes:
Coorg Arabica, Natural, Herb Fermented, Sandalkad Estate
- Arabica (Mixed)
- Herb Fermented, Natural
- 1,000 - 1,200 MASL
- Kodagu (Coorg), Karnataka
- Cardamom, Coconut, Passion Fruit, Lavender, Orange, Cinnamon
Coorg Robusta, Washed, Fermented, Sandalkad Estate
- CxR (Canephora x Congensis)
- Washed, Fermented
- 800 - 1,000 MASL
- Kodagu (Coorg), Karnataka
- Dark Chocolate, Warm Spice
Coorg Peridinia Robusta, Red Honey, Riverside Estate
- Old Peridinia (Robusta)
- Anaerobic Red Honey
- 800 - 1,000 MASL
- Kodagu (Coorg), Karnataka
- Stone Fruit, Peach, Dark Chocolate
Coorg Robusta, Washed AA, Pambukal Estate
- Robusta
- Washed
- 700 - 900 MASL
- Kodagu (Coorg), Karnataka
- Cola, Black Pepper, Walnut, Cedar
Coorg Peridinia Robusta, Natural, VPG Estate
- Old Peridinia (Robusta)
- Natural, Sun-dried
- 700 - 900 MASL
- Kodagu (Coorg), Karnataka
- Cocoa, Popcorn, Tobacco, Cedar
