A new kind of coffee is quietly taking over India’s specialty cafés. It smells fruitier, tastes smoother, and feels closer to wine than your morning cappuccino. It’s called anaerobic coffee, and though still new to India’s coffee scene, it’s already exciting roasters, baristas and curious drinkers.
What is anaerobic coffee?
The secret lies not in the bean or the roast, but in the process. Marc Tormo, founder of Coffee Ideas in Pondicherry and one of India’s earliest specialty coffee pioneers, explains that aerobic fermentation happens with oxygen, while anaerobic removes it entirely. Coffee cherries are sealed in stainless-steel or wooden barrels fitted with one-way valves that let gases escape but keep outside air out. Inside, the cherries ferment slowly, developing deeper, more complex flavours. “This technique began as an experiment a few years ago,” says Marc. “Now it’s one of the most exciting ways for farmers to create flavours they couldn’t achieve before.”
From Spain to south India
Marc’s journey with coffee began in Spain, where, at 23, he opened specialty cafés long before it became fashionable. When he moved to India in 2008, he started roasting small batches from estates in Coorg, Wayanad and the Palani Hills, helping shape India’s emerging specialty-coffee culture. At his venture Coffee Ideas, he now experiments with fermenting beans in barrels once used for whisky or rum. “It’s not about better or worse coffee,” he says. “It’s about variety and giving people something they haven’t tasted before.”
How the magic happens
After fermentation, the beans are sun-dried for up to 20 days, lightly roasted and brewed as pour-overs or cold brews
Fermentation drives the flavour. Prateek Didwania, founder of PICO and Snacking, explains how anaerobic coffee is fermented without oxygen. “You take the cherries, put them in a tank, inject carbon dioxide, seal it off and let the yeast feed on the sugars on the cherry’s skin. That’s when the flavours develop.”
The process takes two to three days and produces complex notes more like a fine red wine — dark plum, star anise or bay leaf instead of the floral or nutty tones of regular coffee. After fermentation, the beans are sun-dried for up to 20 days, lightly roasted and brewed as pour-overs or cold brews. “You’ll never roast anaerobic beans dark,” Prateek says. “They’re meant to be had black. Add milk and you lose the magic.”
The flavour revolution
Anaerobic coffee beans need a gentle roast to preserve sweetness
Anaerobic coffee’s fruit-forward, wine-like character is a striking shift from India’s traditionally chocolatey or nutty coffee. Marc points out that coffee is actually a fruit, not a seed. “With anaerobic fermentation, you can taste that connection — the sweetness, the depth, the complexity,” he says.
Roasters, too, are learning to adapt. These beans need a gentle roast to preserve sweetness. “If you over-roast,” Marc warns, “you lose the entire sensory experience.” Some farmers rely on wild microbes; others use selected yeasts or even co-ferment coffee with fruits like banana or passion fruit. The results range from tropical to tangy to syrupy smooth — a whole new flavour palette for Indian coffee.
Will Indian estates embrace it?
Only a few Indian estates are experimenting with the labour-intensive anaerobic coffee-making process
Both Marc and Prateek agree the movement is still in its early days but is growing fast. “It’s going to take off,” Marc says. “Every serious specialty roaster now has at least one anaerobic coffee.”
Prateek notes that only a few estates are experimenting with it. “It’s risky and labour-intensive. With demand for regular beans already high, not everyone wants to take the plunge.” Yet the rewards can be big. Anaerobic coffee can fetch nearly twice the price of traditionally processed beans. “It’s more work, but it adds real value,” Marc says.
Could coffee become wine?
Marc sees an interesting crossover ahead. “When you ferment coffee anaerobically, you actually create ethanol,” he explains. “The liquid used for fermentation, what we call the substrate, tastes like fruity red wine. If someone fermented it further, it could become coffee wine.”
It’s an idea that blurs the line between beverage worlds and could bring coffee lovers and wine drinkers together.
The nutritionist’s verdict
For all its intrigue, anaerobic coffee isn’t a health miracle. Ananya Bhowmik, nutritionist and founder of Code Wellness, says there’s only a negligible difference in polyphenol content compared to regular coffee. “It wasn’t designed to boost nutrition,” she says. “It’s about flavour and craftsmanship.”
Marc agrees that its nutritional value is the same, though it may be gentler on digestion thanks to lesser acidity. The difference lies in art, not chemistry.
A sealed promise
As India’s coffee culture matures, anaerobic coffee captures a new spirit of curiosity and creativity. It shows that Indian coffee drinkers are ready to look beyond caffeine and explore character. “Coffee is being rediscovered,” Marc says. “Farmers, roasters and drinkers are all learning new ways to enjoy it.”
And in that rediscovery lies the future of Indian coffee — sealed tight, oxygen-free and full of promise.