By: Morgan Speece

Everyday the Sun rises, alarm clocks go off and humans all over the globe drag themselves out of bed to perform a similar morning ritual. Autopilot to the kitchen, open the cabinet, pull out coffee, grab a mug, pour the grinds into a machine, press a button and wait impatiently while the machine produces a delicious aromatic caffeinated liquid. Day after day, we repeat the routine without stopping to wonder where those grinds we pull out of the cabinet came from, or who helped to produce that cup of coffee we will enjoy once the machine is finished brewing.

India is one of the top ten producers of coffee in the world, exporting approximately 300,000 tons per year. This may be shocking to many Starbucks-Coffee lovers whom are only familiar with coffee from places such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Columbia and Indonesia. The lack of knowledge and accessibility of fine Indian coffee is mainly because the majority of India’s exported coffee is blended into big brand coffees such as Nestle and never is cultivated purely as 100% fine Indian Coffee.

Marcs Coffee in Auroville, India has transformed Indian Coffee production from the ground up. Driven by the idea that no one in his or her right mind would want an anonymous cup of coffee, Marc Altimira became obsessed with seed-to-cup mentality. Seed-to-cup essentially means just that, to be intimately involved in every step of the coffee making process. From the planting of the seed to the beautiful smell of coffee brewing that fills every cafe on this globe. In 2008, Marc founded Coffeeideas!, one of the very first companies in India to roast high quality certified coffees (bio-dynamic, organic, fair trade and UTZ certified). To this day, Marc consistently meets with his farmers, teaching them how to farm organically and continually goes to harvest to achieve the best quality coffee.

Marc’s journey with coffee did not start in India. At the age of 23, he started a boutique coffee shop with his sister in Barcelona. Since then, he has traveled all over the world studying and working with coffee to hone his knowledge in producing world-class coffees.

“If you deeply specialize in something, there will always be a job for you,”

Marc reflected to us as we were sipping on cups of his delicious and carefully cultivated coffee. Marc runs two cafes in Auroville, Marc’s Coffee, which is located in Kuilapalayam village and Dreamer’s Café, in Auroville’s visitor center. He gets about 2,000 visitors per day to his shops. Dreamer’s Café, is actually entirely solar powered, and everything in both shops, besides the machines that roast his coffee, are made out of recycled materials, bringing his concept to whole new level of social consciousness. With eight different varieties of coffee currently, Marc is passionate about continually evolving and expanding the seed-to-cup mentality to seed-to-plate mentality in all of his baked goods.

Check out Marc’s Coffee here: https://www.marcscoffees.com/