Friends of the Farmer with Maverick & Farmer: October '26 on Urbanaut
The setting
Coorg wakes early. The mist hasn't lifted yet. Somewhere in the trees, hornbills are working their morning shift. And on a wide teak portico of a bungalow at Nellikad Estate, someone is pouring hot water over freshly ground coffee in a slow, deliberate spiral, timing it with a scale in one hand and a phone in the other.
Nobody has to be anywhere for another hour.
That morning ritual is the heart of what Maverick & Farmer's Friends of the Farmer holiday is. Three unhurried days at the source of the coffee you drink at home, in the company of the roasters who chose the beans and the farmers who grew them.
What Friends of the Farmer is (and how it got here)
Friends of the Farmer began at the Maverick & Farmer café in Ulsoor, Bengaluru, in August 2023 as a hands-on brew session. The first edition featured Lynn Mascarenhas from St Margaret Estate, showcasing his Yeast Ferment Naturals brewed on French press and pour-over. The next edition brought in Tapaswini Purnesh, a fifth-generation coffee grower from Harley Estate, pouring her Yeast Maceration coffee. The premise was simple. Put the farmer, the roaster, and the drinker at the same table for an afternoon.
The ride version of the programme took the idea one step further. Instead of bringing the farmers to the café, take the guests to the estates. Earlier seasons went deep into Kodagu (Coorg), the coffee capital of India, for immersive weekends with M&F's founders and partner growers. This edition uses M&F's own 140-acre Nellikad Estate as home base and rolls out to two other partner estates from there.
Your hosts
Tej Thammaiah and Ashish are the founders of Maverick & Farmer Coffee Roasters. Tej is himself a coffee farmer, and the pair have built the company on a farm-to-cup model that few Indian specialty brands actually deliver on. Their café in Ulsoor is tucked inside the South United Football Club stadium. Their Koramangala outlet is a quieter, more design-forward affair. Their signature Ol' Smoky is the world's first cold-smoked coffee, made by cold-smoking arabica green beans for 13 to 14 hours in a smokehouse. The kind of quiet experimental instinct that tells you everything about how they think about the bean.
On the Friends of the Farmer ride, Tej and Ashish are not a guide narrating a tour. They're hosts. They pour your morning coffee. They walk you through the plantation. They sit with you at dinner. If you have a question about brewing, they'll grind fresh beans and show you.
Home base: Nellikad Estate
Nellikad is Maverick & Farmer's own farm. 140 acres tucked into the hills of Coorg, worked on the principles the brand has built its name on: ethical sourcing, long-term farmer relationships, non-chemical cultivation, exceptional quality. Staying at Nellikad means staying inside the brand's own philosophy. Walking through the plantation that produces some of the beans on the M&F menu. Sleeping in a bungalow surrounded by that same forest. Drinking coffee brewed with beans that were growing on trees a few hundred metres from your cup.
Accommodation is on a twin-sharing basis in a comfortable villa with scenic views over the estate. Common spaces are built for lingering. Warm, homely, deliberately unhurried.
Day 1: arrival, a first estate visit, and the portico that never really closes
You arrive at Nellikad by 1 PM. Lunch is waiting. Check-in is at 2, followed by an hour of rest, the kind of rest you actually need after the drive up from Bengaluru.
At 3, the group heads out to the first guest estate of the trip. This is where the informational edge of the experience begins to show. The visit isn't a walk-through, it's a working conversation about soil nutrition, water preservation, and non-chemical cultivation, and how each of those factors ends up in your cup. You'll taste the estate's coffee against the backdrop of the plantation that produced it.
Back at Nellikad by 5:30. Dinner is at 8:30. In between, the portico is open. A range of brewing equipment (pour-over, French press, Aeropress, whatever else they've decided to test that season) is set up alongside a rotating selection of M&F's single-estate roasts. Guests brew their own coffee whenever they feel like it. Tej or Ashish drop into these sessions unannounced. Some of the best learning happens here. A two-minute tweak to your pour rate. A note on grind size for a specific bean. A taste comparison you'd never have tried on your own.
Day 2: a second estate, a heritage breakfast, and self-guided time
The day starts on the portico with coffee at 7. Breakfast at 8 is at a local heritage restaurant, a Coorg-style spread you couldn't find on Google Maps if you tried.
By 9:30 the group is on the road to the second estate of the trip. The specific estate is confirmed closer to the ride date, to account for seasonal conditions and estate availability. Past editions have visited partners like Skia Coffee Estate. Lunch happens on-site at 1 PM.
Back to Nellikad by 3 PM. The afternoon is deliberately unstructured. A self-guided tour of the property is available. You could nap. You could walk. You could keep brewing. At 8, dinner is à la carte at the bungalow, or you can drive into town if you want a change of scene.
Day 3: the roasting workshop, and a gift box you'll actually use
Morning three starts, once again, on the portico. Coffee, cookies, unhurried conversation.
At 8 AM, the day's centrepiece: a roasting basics workshop. You'll learn the fundamentals of roasting green beans and then get hands-on with an actual batch of Maverick & Farmer's Biker's Blend. It's the kind of workshop that costs a few thousand rupees anywhere in the country, folded quietly into a weekend holiday.
Breakfast at 9. Check-out at 11. And you leave with a gift box: a pack of the coffee you personally roasted that morning, brewing equipment, and some estate produce. The trip goes home with you.
The food, briefly
You'll eat well. The estate lunch alone is worth the drive. A traditional Coorg spread with puttu, vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, ghee rice, a non-veg fry, two seasonal pallyas, steamed white rice, rasam, curd, and a traditional dessert to finish. It's a meal that happens communally, takes an hour longer than you'd planned, and ends with someone quietly bringing out one more thing.
What you need to know
Getting there. Two options. Meet the Maverick & Farmer team at the Ulsoor café and ride/drive together to Coorg with Tej and Ashish, or travel independently and meet the group at Nellikad. Participants use their own vehicles (motorcycles or cars). Final route notes, on-ground contacts, and emergency information are shared with registered guests before departure.
Included. Curated estate experience and tour. Coffee experiences throughout. Twin-sharing accommodation. Estate lunch and all itinerary meals. Community sessions with Tej and Ashish. Access to partner coffee estates. Guided conversations around coffee, farming, and sourcing.
Not included. Fuel, tolls, vehicle maintenance and servicing, insurance, medical expenses, alcohol, shopping, snacks beyond the itinerary, tips. Travel and medical insurance is recommended.
Voices from past editions
"Friends of the Farmer was unlike any ride I've been on. It wasn't just about reaching a destination. It was about understanding where our coffee comes from and meeting the people behind every cup. Riding through Coorg and sharing those conversations with the Maverick & Farmer team made the experience truly memorable." Mahima
"The estate visit completely changed how I look at specialty coffee. From the plantation walk to conversations with Tej and Ashish, every moment felt personal and thoughtfully curated. It was the perfect blend of riding, learning, and community." Shrey
"What stood out the most was the sense of community. Great roads, incredible coffee, delicious local food, and meaningful conversations with fellow riders made this much more than just a weekend trip. I came back with new friendships and a much deeper appreciation for coffee." Prashant
Book the ride
Three days. One estate as your base. Two more estates in the itinerary. Tej and Ashish on the ground with you. A gift box in your hand at check-out. A very specific kind of holiday, built for people who take their coffee, and the people who grow it, seriously.