Yeri Coffee on Coffee People Podcast at CoffeeFest NYC 2026

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Where: Harlem, NYC, NY
Find online: https://yericoffee.com/ • @yericoffee/
What they drink: Espresso. In the afternoon, he'll add a dash of oat milk.

"India, as we know, is traditionally only known for robusta, but now with these shade-grown, very small farmers, they do an amazing job with these coffees. These are high-altitude, and because it is intercropped with like spices, peppercorns, and other things growing around coffee, as well, there is a flavor that is unique to Indian coffees. It's often been exported to Europe and the Middle East. America has often not been the target—for different reasons—and now that is changing."
• Sundar Chellappa

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Meeting entrepreneurs, like Sundar, is one of my favorite parts of attending coffee festivals. The founder of Yeri Coffee isn't only passionate about coffee, he's motivated, willing to learn, and then do what needs to be done. By his own accounting, he spends more time listening than talking (though he's pretty good at that, too).

Yeri Coffee is only about a year old, but it has been an idea marinating for two decades. Sundar moved to the United States from India for college and spent two years in the tech industry. During which, he was on the continual hunt for the unique flavor profiles found in the coffees from his youth.

He eventually came to realize that the Indian coffees available in his orbit were not representative of the quality specialty beans grown in places like Chikmagalur and Coorg, in the Karnataka coffee growing regions, near his childhood home in Tamil Nadu, India.*

His exploration led him to the realization that even if Indian specialty coffees were arriving stateside, they weren't being presented, as such. Instead of premium, they were sold as commodity coffees. With Yeri Coffee, he's seeking to change that by focusing on small, single-origin farms, like Ratnagiri Estate, where the same family has been farming and producing coffee since the 1920s.

After a year of research and sourcing with the help of Q-graders and professional cuppers, Sundar launched Yeri Coffee from his apartment in Harlem. In the first year, the online store has launched and Yeri is already available in more than 25 retail locations, with more on the way.

SHOP YERI COFFEE

The conversations we have on the Coffee People podcast with entrepreneurs like Sundar are inspiring in more ways than one. For starters, I'm excited to start exploring more Indian coffees in hopes of finding coffee flavor profiles that represent some of the "cardamom, black pepper, silver oak, jackfruit, and wild fig" (yericoffee.com) that the coffee plants grow amongst.

Secondly, his efforts and the sharing of them with us inspired me to revisit my motivations for producing the podcast and newsletter. Our chat reminded me that curiosity and a desire to create and share was the impetus for our Coffee People (formerly Roast! West Coast) efforts, and as long as I keep that as my North Star, this will continue to be a worthwhile effort, in the same way Sundar keeps seeking to recreate and share the unique coffees that flavor** so many of his early coffee experience memories.

*Tamil Nadu is in the southeast of India, while Karnataka is about a day's drive west and slightly north.

**See what I did there?

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE POD

Yeri Coffee green beans are imported from Karnataka in the southern region of India.
India is traditionally known for Robusta and chicory coffees, and Sundar seeks out specialty grade green coffees that are primarily shade-grown from small producers.
The coffee bags are manufactured by our presenting sponsor Roastar, and designed by Sundar's Wife. The designs are...umm...designed to amplify the farmers—predominantly women—and to celebrate the Indian coffee growing communities.

Close up of coffee in two brass coffee cups in front of the package which features an artistic, illustrated woman pouring coffee into a cup by tipping the pot from high over head.

Per Sundar, a percentage of profits go to the farmers to support Indian farmers and their familys.
You can find Yeri Coffee in retail stores, as well as online at yericoffee.com or wholesale through wholesale sites like Faire or Airgoods.
They've added (and are adding) Ready-To-Drink cans (RTDs ) for grocery chain resellers.
Yeri Coffee coffees are roasted by Mill City Roasters out of Minneapolis, MN.

A 4-pack of tall, skinny cans of coffee shandy featuring an illustrated woman reaching up for lemons. The can is predominantly yellow.

You can sit and be comfortable, or you can be out there learning, asking questions, and trying to figure out what will help you best position your brand as attractive to a reseller. If your goal is to get on the shelves. Ask questions!
Sundar recommended NY's Buuni Coffee as a favorite spot to get an espresso.

Our goal is to keep growing, but in a very careful, conscience way that we are not disrupting the quality, but being very careful about hearing what the customers really want from us.
• Sundar Chellapa, Yeri Coffee

FROM THE WORLD OF COFFEE

Screenshot image ©eatingwell.com. Click thru to read in full.

AI FOLLOW UP: IN THE NEWS

I'd note that when I searched for Ai free podcast apps, I was only shown apps with "free" Ai-infused podcast generators...meaning, you don't actually have to make anything.

Despite Spotify's effusive promotion, this effort seems to work against indie podcasters like us. The messaging is convoluted, but the new AI created feeds appear to take produced/existing content to create "new" programming, but without driving the traffic to the content creator. It's kind of a bummer. We'll know more soon about how the operation is working for or against creators.