Books & Authors podcast with Kavery Nambisan, author, Cherry Red Cherry Black; The Story of Coffee in India

"In the last decade there has been a greater stress on marketing. This is partly because of climate change, globalisation, and because other countries too produce coffee so there is competition. There is more focus now on how to sustain coffee growing as an industry," says Kavery Nambisan, author Cherry Red Cherry Black; The Story of Coffee in India, which traces the growth of the crop from the days of Baba Budan, who returned to Chikmagalur from the Haj with coffee seeds from Arabia, through the colonial period to the contemporary era. She talks to Manjula Narayan about the social changes that accompanied coffee drinking in India, the personalities who contributed to the growth of plantations in the country, expert contemporary coffee tasters, the challenges facing this labour-intensive industry in a time of climate change, and the deep satisfaction that comes with sipping on a good cup of coffee.