Our Estate in Chikmagalur: The Story of Tiny Tiger

Written by Tiny Tiger Coffee

Tiny Tiger coffee is grown on Hoysala Estate, our coffee farm near Mudigere in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka. The estate sits at about 1,200 metres in the Western Ghats, and it is certified organic and run biodynamically, one of only three biodynamic coffee farms in India. We grow the coffee, process it on the farm and roast it to order, so the coffee in your bag comes from one place.

This page answers the question we hear from plenty of home brewers and almost every café owner: "Where does your coffee actually come from?" And: "Why do you call yourselves Tiny Tiger?"

Every April the estate turns white with coffee blossom. By the time the harvest comes round, those flowers have become cherries, ripening slowly in the shade until they are deep red and ready to pick.

How the coffee is grown, picked and processed here, from the blossom to the bag, is a story of its own, and we've told it in How our coffee is grown and processed at Hoysala Estate.

Where does the name Tiny Tiger come from?

Not far from Chikmagalur town is a small village called Angadi. Around a thousand years ago it was called Sosevur, and it was the first capital of the Hoysalas, the dynasty that went on to rule much of Karnataka and built the famous temples at Belur and Halebidu.

The legend of how the dynasty began is set right there. A young man named Sala was with his teacher, a Jain monk called Sudatta, when a tiger sprang at them. Sudatta cried out "Hoy, Sala!", which means "Strike, Sala!" in old Kannada. Sala killed the tiger, and the cry became the dynasty's name. The image of Sala fighting the tiger became the royal emblem, and you can still see it carved at Belur. The temple at Angadi is believed to stand on the spot where it happened.

So when you see a tiger on our bags, that's where it comes from. Our estate carries the Hoysala name, and Tiny Tiger is our small tribute to the most famous tiger in Chikmagalur's history.