A fifth generation.
A chef.
A decision.
"My family has grown coffee in Chikmagalur for five generations. For most of that time, the coffee left the estate as a raw material sold to processors, to traders, to brands that put their name on it and shipped it elsewhere. I grew up watching that and knowing something was incomplete."
A Chefs Approach to Coffee.
With no formal background in coffee, Siddanth taught himself to roast using a 40-year-old roaster built in Chikmagalur. What began as curiosity quickly became an obsession. He realised that roasting coffee is not very different from cooking. The same principles apply heat, timing and transformation.
The Maillard reaction, responsible for developing flavour in both food and coffee, became a key point of focus. From there, the exploration deepened into moisture content, heat transfer, first crack and the structure of roast profiles. To him coffee is a learning process every single day.
And from this journey, BRAVEMAN was born. The name Urvinkhan, meaning “brave man in the forest,” is a tribute to the family legacy, the people and the land.
An acknowledgement that the land is the author here.
Trained in kitchens.
Roasting on the estate.
Returning to the family estate in Chikmagalur from kitchens around the globe, brought a new perspective to Siddanth’s life. Coffee was no longer just a beverage it became an ingredient, understood from its source.
Walking through the plantation, observing how altitude, shade and processing shape flavour. He began to see coffee the way he had always seen food as something to be studied, refined and crafted. As a custodian on this land, the connection was not new but the approach was.