Coffee is picking up pace in the Pink City more than ever before. Today, every neighbourhood has a coffee shop that residents rely on; if not, they do not mind driving to their favourite destination for daily or weekly coffee runs. Around Jaipur today, people are more likely to be seen walking through malls and shopping arcades with cups of coffee, and as someone who has observed the city’s food and coffee scene very closely, I can say this is a recent development. Today, people are experimenting across roasts, brewing methods, flavour profiles, and ingredient combinations. However, long before the coffee revolution set foot in Jaipur, Dushyant Singh was already attempting to change how Jaipur experienced and responded to the beverage through his brand, Coffee Sutra. Singh, an avid traveller and coffee lover, started the brand in 2021 to bring the world of coffee to his own city. I define it as one of the first attempts to introduce Jaipur diners to the complexity of coffee, beyond a frappé and a cappuccino.
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“From my travels across the world, I knew that coffee was expanding around the world, and it was soon going to arrive in India, and today, as we know, coffee is not just a beverage but an experience,” said Singh in a conversation with Outlook Traveller. He mentioned that he worked on the brand's concept, philosophy, and identity during Covid-19, and as soon as diners were ready to dine out again, he launched the brand. Revenge dining post-pandemic led diners to go all out and experiment with whatever fresh and unique the market had to offer, and that is where Coffee Sutra entered the picture.
Pink City’s Only Bean-To-Bar Coffee Brand
Speaking about his goal with the brand, Singh emphasised that he did not want to intimidate people with coffee but wanted to make Sutra a destination where everyone curious about coffee could find a bit for themselves. “It was a brand that welcomed coffee lovers and non-coffee lovers alike. If you don’t love coffee, we consider it our responsibility to ensure that you don't leave without falling in love with it,” Singh claimed.
He attempted to establish Pink City’s first 360-degree coffee company, which did not start off as a cafe but as a coffee bean brand. Singh started testing his beans at his other cafes (including OTH and Lama). When he saw that his coffee beans were receiving much love from the diners, it gave him the push to collaborate as a B2B partner with other cafes across the city, too. Today, they supply beans to more than 60 brands across the country, including over 10 cafes in the Pink City itself. “My final goal with Coffee Sutra is to go global, and that will begin by establishing cafes across the city and then in the rest of the world,” said Singh.
For me, what stands out about Coffee Sutra is that they are the first in the market to do everything except grow their own beans. The rest of the processes, including roasting, brewing, and packaging, happen in their in-house lab. “We acquire our green beans from Coorg and Chikmagalur, with our teams visiting during harvest to make the bean selection. Everything else happens in Jaipur,” added Singh. Today, they roast 9-10 varieties of coffee beans every year.
Where Is Jaipur’s Coffee Scene Headed?
According to Singh, Jaipur’s food scene is among the most vibrant in the country, and given the pace at which coffee is progressing, opportunities to grow are many. Drawing on his own experiences, Singh recounted how people’s attitudes towards the beverage have evolved. “There was once a time when I had to explain to the diner about speciality coffee, today I find them asking me questions about the roast and requesting me to add a double espresso shot instead of one,” he said. People now know exactly what they want and have become part of the coffee-making and drinking process. They are more involved in how their coffee is prepared, and it is much more personal for them. “If someone knows that the barista at a certain cafe is open to customising the beverage to their taste rather than sticking to his own recipe, then that increases people’s chances to visit the cafe over any other,” said Singh.
He is also an avid traveller who plans his travels around coffee and coffee festivals across the world. When I asked him about a city that truly impressed him with its coffee culture, he mentioned Copenhagen.
One thing was very clear to me when I got into the coffee industry: I am not a trained chef, and I have not studied hotel management. So the only way I could learn was by seeing which brands were doing better. He enjoyed the city's overall vibe and noted that the way people consume coffee in Scandinavia differs significantly from the rest of the world. “People there consume coffee multiple times in a day, so they keep their roasts very light,” he mentioned.
When I asked him about the reasons behind India’s tilt towards coffee, he mentioned that the best thing that has happened to coffee is its introduction to the masses as a lifestyle product. “It is the marketing and branding of the beverage that has led to a change in people’s attitudes towards it. You can go buy yourself a cup of coffee priced at INR 500, but you won’t do that for tea,” said Singh. And since consumers are ready to pay such an amount for the beverage, they also expect experimentation and creativity in their concoctions. “That is what is behind people preparing cold brews with orange and iced lattes with jamun,” Singh added.
When baristas and cafe owners see people’s growing interest in the beverage, it motivates them to push their boundaries and offer something more distinctive to their diners, ultimately helping the entire space grow.
