In an opinion piece published by The Hindu BusinessLine on August 8, 2026, Miguel Villaquirán, Co-founder and CEO of Libertario India, argues that coffee may be India's most misunderstood agricultural product. India has embraced specialty coffee with remarkable enthusiasm over the past decade, he wrote: cities are home to a new generation of cafés, consumers are increasingly discerning, and conversations around brewing methods, roast profiles and café experiences have become far more common. Specialty coffee is no longer a niche category; it is steadily becoming part of the mainstream.
A quality story that stays invisible
According to Villaquirán, coffee is one of the few agricultural products for which consumers are increasingly willing to pay more for quality. Yet many of the factors that create that quality — origin, variety, altitude and processing — remain largely invisible to the people enjoying it. Unlike most agricultural goods, coffee is experienced only at the very end of its journey: by the time it reaches the consumer, it has already been cultivated, harvested, processed, roasted and brewed. Much of what ultimately defines the cup, he wrote, has happened before it ever reaches a café.
What shapes the cup
Villaquirán said coffee's flavour and character are shaped by countless decisions made during cultivation and production. The determinants he listed are:
- Altitude influences acidity.
- Soil contributes sweetness and structure.
- Climate affects the pace of ripening.
- Processing transforms flavour.
| Factor | Contribution to coffee quality |
|---|---|
| Altitude | Influences acidity |
| Soil | Contributes sweetness and structure |
| Climate | Affects the pace of ripening |
| Processing | Transforms flavour |
Every harvest, he noted, reflects a unique combination of geography, weather and human judgement developed over months of cultivation.
The conversation gap
These are rarely the conversations that shape how coffee is appreciated, Villaquirán argued. Wine is naturally discussed in terms of vineyards, grape varieties, vintages and regions because people recognise that where and how a wine is produced shapes what ends up in the glass. Even with mangoes, Villaquirán observed, named varieties such as Alphonso, Dasheri and Banganapalli are celebrated because each growing region imparts its own distinct character. Coffee, in his view, deserves to be viewed through the same lens — but too often conversation still revolves around strength, bitterness or caffeine, which reveal only a small part of what makes one coffee different from another.
Markets reward what people value
Markets ultimately reward what people value.
Villaquirán wrote that as curiosity grows around where coffee is grown, how it is processed and what gives each cup its distinctive character, value begins to shift towards quality. Better coffee commands greater value, producers are encouraged to innovate, and farmers are rewarded for craftsmanship rather than volume. Consumers, he said, do not simply enjoy better coffee — they help create a stronger coffee ecosystem. For India, one of the world's leading coffee-producing nations, this shift is particularly important, yet much of the conversation still centres on cafés rather than the agricultural heritage behind every cup.
That, he said, is beginning to change. India's specialty coffee movement has encouraged people to ask different questions: Where was this coffee grown? How was it processed? Why do two coffees from the same variety taste completely different? How does geography shape flavour? Those are the questions that define a mature coffee culture, according to Villaquirán.
Measuring progress beyond cafés
The future of India's coffee industry will not be measured simply by how many cafés open or how advanced brewing equipment becomes, Villaquirán argued. Those are visible signs of an industry that is growing. The real measure of progress is whether people better understand everything that happens before coffee reaches their cup. When consumers understand what creates quality, they begin to value it differently, and everyone across the coffee value chain — from farmer and producer to roaster, barista and consumer — stands to benefit.
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