Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Sundar Chellapa, Yeri Cofee

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Sundar Chellapa, Yeri Cofee · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:00
  Oh my God, three printed That still works good.
• 0:03
  Look at that. Easy peasy.
• 0:04
  Because these content creators, man, they are others for other
• 0:08
  folks, they come up. These inventions are great.
• 0:10
  My wife, yeah, she's just crafty and I think it's awesome.
• 0:15
  So this is going. We're not even worried about it.
• 0:18
  All right, coffee people. Here's the show.
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  And I'm just going to ask you a little bit about you and your
• 0:23
  life and why you do is how do I pronounce Yeri Yeri Yeri Yuri
• 0:30
  Coffee. And the only time you have to
• 0:32
  look at the camera, yeah, is at the beginning.
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  And I'll if you wouldn't mind, tell anyone who watches this
• 0:37
  Sunday who you are and the name of your company and why you got
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  into coffee in the 1st. OK, Hi everyone.
• 1:11
  This is Sundar Chalapa, founder of Berry Coffee and based out of
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  Harlem in New York City. We specialized in roasting and
• 1:20
  like importing green beans from southern part of India.
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  We partner with farms that care about sustainability and we do a
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  fair trade with these coffee farmers.
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  And then we bring out some of the unique coffees from there,
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  right? Indian coffee, traditionally
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  I've been known for just a robust us out there, but we
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  don't know there are like people don't know there is like a like
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  a 7th largest producer of coffee and doing great things out
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  there. So the goal for us at Dairy
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  Coffee is bring up the best, which could go from medium light
• 1:51
  coffee that's all the way to chicory coffee, which is
• 1:55
  traditional in South India and New Orleans.
• 1:58
  And the robusters as well. We're showing people that our
• 2:00
  robusters can be as good, like compared to Vietnamese coffee as
• 2:04
  well, like as comparable. Yeah, it can be really good.
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  Not the one you're frowned upon. Right.
• 2:08
  Well, and Robusters kind of having a moment as we're all
• 2:11
  freaking out about the prices, pricing and climate change and
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  all this stuff. Yeah, I noticed on the back of
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  this bag it says shade grown. Yeah, I'm assuming Shay grown
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  also means relatively small producers and.
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  Some small producers and by the way, these bags are all levied
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  designed by my wife is carefully the even the art here represents
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  the the farmers who are predominantly women in India.
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  And our goal is to represent them through these, through the
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  art, but also paying back, you know, just paying back to the
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  community to help the farmers and their kids who very often
• 2:47
  are not able to support their kids to go to school.
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  So we want to support their family as well as so a
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  percentage of our profits go back to them as well.
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  And so this was a representation of them and farmers.
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  And then we took the even in the camps, we took them a little bit
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  more fun. We we show the different
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  characteristics of our of our of our farmers.
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  So this one is more showing them in a light of power.
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  That's our black coffee in a bowl, fried and fruity.
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  Yeah, fruity. And then this one is this one is
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  showing them. You see how there's a lemonade
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  flavour? So there are lemons on top on a
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  scooter, but still with the flip flops on on a sari.
• 3:25
  That feels very New York to me. I'm just going to say that.
• 3:29
  And why, you know, I'm coming in blind here.
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  No background about your coffee. Why?
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  Why the focus on Indian coffee? And what about it makes what
• 3:40
  makes Indian coffee special besides the fact that it's from
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  small producers? And yeah, you know, everyone
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  knows the coffee belt, but what is it that you feel makes Indian
• 3:50
  coffee? Unique, yeah, it was.
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  It's so overlooked, right? There is a market that's where
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  we hear at the with the Embassy of India in here in New York is
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  collectively all the brands here are showing the variety that's
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  offered in India. India was as we know is
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  traditionally only known for robustas, but now with this
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  shade grown very small farmers, they do an amazing job with
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  these coffees. These are high altitude and
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  because it's intercropped with like spices, apricorns and other
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  things growing around coffee as well.
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  There is there is a flavour that's unique to Indian coffees
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  and it's often been exported to Europe and Middle East.
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  America has often been not been their target for different
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  reasons and now it's changing. If you see Canadians and the
• 4:36
  Americans now we're looking to see, hey, there is excellent
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  coffee coming out of it and our job here is to market them and
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  bring the best to the to the New York and also the larger
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  American community here. Why coffee for you?
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  What's your connect like? Why did you get into this?
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  Oh, it's funny. It's in our culture like down
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  South in in India, which is where most of the coffee comes
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  from, at my first coffee when I was five years old.
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  All right, So it's never frowned upon.
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  It's not looked at as one of those as in you shouldn't.
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  Have a drink you'd. Say it's a part of our culture.
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  I think everyone would agree here.
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  Like we've had it. It's we have two cups of coffee.
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  It's usually a coffee with the chicory.
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  So I feel like there was always something that brings me back.
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  When I see a coffee, it reminds me of home, that early morning
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  tradition that you wake up with the smell of coffee that your
• 5:23
  mom makes. So it reminds you of the
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  culture. It's a nostalgia and a deep love
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  for it. That's where we are here to say
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  hey, there is more and there is more that you can appreciate
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  about India than more than tea. But there is something in the
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  every bag that you buy. I think it's so we're at Coffee
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  Fest New York 2026. You mentioned that you're here
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  with this other group of Indian producers.
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  I think it's kind of uplifting that you're all kind of working
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  together to promote this. You all your your competitors to
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  a point, yeah. But you're also have a
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  collective goal of saying, hey, look at this thing that we do
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  really well. Yeah, which I think is uplifting
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  and I just want to point that out now.
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  If there was anything, is there anything that you wanted to say
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  or that you would say about your coffee or your company working
• 6:10
  with your wife? Just to let people know a little
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  bit more about Yuri Coffee as a brand.
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  So we get airy coffee as as you can see, we care everything.
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  The partnership is very important including deck the
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  bags that we partnered with Rostar to be create sustainable
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  packaging for our coffee. The quality of the coffee that
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  we get from the farmers. So in the partnerships going all
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  the way from the producer to us packaging and sending it to
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  customers is very important and we take a lot of care preparing
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  this coffee for people. What we want to know the brand
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  represents design, uniqueness and nostalgic feeling for South
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  Asians, but also there are flavors that appeals to
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  everyone, Americans, Europeans, but it's a larger community in
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  general as well. Our goal is to keep growing, but
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  in a very careful, conscious way that we are not disrupting the
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  quality, but being very careful about hearing about what the
• 7:05
  customers really want. How can customers find your
• 7:09
  product? Are you in restaurants?
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  Are you in grocery stores? Are you online?
• 7:12
  Yeah. Where do they find?
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  You, yeah, we started a year ago.
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  We've been very lucky. So we are, we are in 20 plus
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  stores in the city like Lincoln Market, Mulberry Market, 20 plus
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  stores. Wow, that's.
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  Especially and we've expanded to Uptown like upstate in New York
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  as well. We've also have customers in
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  Missouri, Portland, Tulum. So we've taken it places where
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  cafes that have the same vibe as us, who respect the culture, who
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  also like to highlight the uniqueness of different origins.
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  So you can buy at these stores and also we are unfair air
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  goods. And also you can buy directly
• 7:49
  from the website. We have a garycoffee.com.
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  You can buy directly from there or you can just reach out, you
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  know, go to Instagram, please ping us.
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  We have an Instagram shop as well.
• 7:59
  That's one way to serve you. This year is going to be a great
• 8:01
  year because of launch of RT DS. We're going to be, we are going
• 8:04
  through category reviews at Publix and also in Sprouts.
• 8:08
  So hopefully we make it to across the coast as well with
• 8:11
  our brands you. Know, I mean, so obviously for
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  me, how did you know how to do all this stuff?
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  Oh, it's, it's a lot of work. I I kept fastly.
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  The good thing about coffee is you could sit there and be very
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  comfortable with where you are or just be listening to people
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  be out there, you know, talking to people who go to stores, see
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  how they buy, what's how's their purchasing decision, what is
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  driving their purchasing decision.
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  Go be there. So mine's like a lot of
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  research. I tend to always I listen a lot.
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  That's my, the best quality about myself, even though I'm
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  talking a lot here, but that's the best quality isn't I go
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  listen to people. I want to hear not, not just the
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  consumer, but also the grocery buyers, even the people who
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  stack the shelves. You want to understand what are
• 8:53
  they looking for when you stack the shelf?
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  Like what is the right size and how do you pack it?
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  What are you looking for? What are the consumers looking
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  when they pick the pick it off the shelf?
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  It has to be appealing enough. They should be unique enough and
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  the story is conveyed quick in that bag.
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  What's what what the coffee is all about?
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  I just want to ask one last sure important question.
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  When you are out here in New York and you're just running
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  around, you drop the kid off. You're getting ready to stop in
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  a new store and see if they'll buy your product, but you need a
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  coffee for you or you need something for you.
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  You stop into a coffee shop. What do you order?
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  I get usually get an espresso, just an espresso and if it's an
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  afternoon I have it with like a little bit of oat milk.
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  There are some amazing coffee shops around talk.
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  My favorite close to my neighborhood.
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  I live in Harlem, Boonie Coffee. They're excellent.
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  They're Ethiopian coffee. They're located right by Bronx
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  and Harlem. That's my go to favorite coffee
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  is as you walk in, there's a nice little cozy feeling.
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  Mum Donnie was there by the way. And so it's a great feeling to
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  go and be be for a part of the vibe.
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  But espresso is my go to drink. Sooner.
• 10:02
  Congratulations. Thank you.
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  Impressive. Thank you for being on the show.
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  I want to make sure that people can see this bag.
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  I'm just going to do you. Mind if I?
• 10:11
  Yeah. The bags are really beautifully
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  designed. Thank you.
• 10:15
  Your wife did an incredible job.