At the ATP-250 Tata Open Maharashtra underway at Balewadi, Rohan Bopanna makes it a point to be there at the coffee counter where his own coffee brew is being sold.
Rohan Bopanna, coffee connoisseur. Such an introduction may not ring too many bells, but the tennis star not only grows coffee at his farm in Coorg, he also gifts tennis legends the home-grown brew. At the ATP-250 Tata Open Maharashtra underway at Balewadi, Bopanna makes it a point to be there at the coffee counter where his own coffee brew is being sold. “I am truly well-versed in the nuances of cultivation, processing and blending coffee beans,” writes the champion of the 2017 French Open Mixed Doubles on a flyer at the coffee counter.
Earlier, he had announced the launch of the brew — the Rohan Bopanna Master Blend — on Twitter, posting, “I bring to you a very special part of me from my very own coffee estate in Coorg.” Bopanna has joined hands with the Flying Squirrel – a brand involved in micro-lot cultivation and processing coffee using artisan methods — to set up the counter at the Tata Open.
Ashish D’Abreo, who launched Flying Squirrel with his college friend Tej Thammaiah, says the response to Rohan Bopanna Master Blend has been quite positive. D’Abreo and Thammaiah have been blending, roasting and brewing coffee beans for over five years. “We roast the coffee for 15 minutes before sealing each pack,” says D’Abreo. He then shares some important information for those who enjoy filter coffee: it has to be consumed within a month of roasting.
“Tej owns a coffee estate at Pollibetta in Coorg. So, we experimented with the beans at Tej’s estate… we developed and processed them to arrive at different variants of the coffee,” says D’Abreo. Today, they supply coffee powder online and have also set up a cafe at Bengaluru. It was during a meeting with Rohan Bopanna, which took place over a month ago, that they realised their common goals and decided to experiment with the coffee beans grown at Bopanna’s farm at Madapur in Coorg.
The first variant, Rohan Bopanna’s Master Blend, was launched on January 1. “It is an all Arabica variant, comprising a few differently processed beans, all of them from Bopanna’s farm,” says D’Abreo. He shared that when world no. 6 Croatian Marin Cilic visited the counter with Bopanna, he tasted the coffee while posing for fans. For Nilufer Solai, who came from Mumbai to watch her favourite tennis players in action, the coffee counter was a hit. “…I could buy the beans and have some refreshing coffee,” she says.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports> Tennis / by Anuradha Mascarenhas / Pune / January 05th, 2018
