[Updated as of 28th July 2020]
Our leading lights
For your reference there are 3 and a half gurujis in this group:
Amitabh Pandey, who for us, is like the English priest of the 18th century, devoting all of his spare time to coffee science and such OCD pursuits in the school of hard knocks, and his gadget hoarding has given his a Super Platinum Status with Alibaba. His blog is a must-read for anyone seriously into coffee and wanting to understand beyond the basics.
Then there’s our formally trained guruji Geetu Mohnani
Geetu is the coffee industry expert who was Indian Barista Champion 2018 and has otherwise been a master trainer with Starbucks, 3rd wave and is now an independent consultant helping roasters create blends / flavors, cafes get set up etc.
Lastly but not the least Akshat Garg Akshat is one of those rare engineers who post his engineering went into core discipline and then public service (he reduced the Mumbai Pune highway fatality rate by 50%) and is now with the Labor ministry. He’s the kind of OCD geek who meditates and cures insomnia by dialing in his espresso shots at 1am at night. His insta photos are ?
Then, there’s our keto-dessert mad scientist down in Chennai, Sanjay. His insta at lowcarb.india is truly droolworthy – he’s innovated keto dishes esp desserts I have lost count of. He pours some lovely almond milk cappucino – as a true Sindhi he shames folks like me with his ability to derive incredible tasting and looking coffee brews from some very humble equipment! Talent – MAX!
There’s our Benjamin Button, the DIYeshwar, Jasbir Singh aka Jassi paaji. Unlike the pechkas mechanics of India, he has the mechanical genius to take almost anything apart (even a watch!) and put it back together. He is a lover of all sorts of coffee – from his morning latte art or espresso on his MyEspressino to his aeropress and pourovers 🙂
Community anchors
A community is only as good as the quality of the discussion AND the enthusiastic members, not necessarily the gurus.
Shikha Prasad, affectionately referred to, as meme devi, is a lover of three Cs – Cosmos, Crafts, Coffee. Her art work / calligraphy is amazing
Coffee is her new found love (2019). Since 2019 she has been mostly brewing Hario V60 Pourover with occasional French Press, Filter Kaapi, under the guidance of Coffee enthusiasts of the group. You can only count on her to be the first one to raise the PPA flag 🙂
Siddhartha Sengupta, besides being an epic latte art maker and an amazing barista who loves his latte and espresso, is our deals guru. He is the Bengali baniya bhai saab who has connects with every cafe, every manufacturer and every roaster and has already set deals 🙂 Not just that, he is fairly mechanically adept at overhauling his machines!