Bean Board turns 12: Brewing speciality coffee in Visakhapatnam - The Hindu

Twelve years ago, when Visakhapatnam’s café landscape was limited to just a handful of familiar names, Bean Board opened its doors with an idea that extended beyond serving coffee. It offered a place where conversations lingered over freshly brewed cups, books found readers, musicians found audiences and strangers gradually became regulars. This was a time when the city’s café culture was still finding its footing. Over the years, Bean Board quietly cultivated a community around speciality coffee.

That philosophy continues to shape the brand even as it enters its twelfth year with a markedly different identity. From roasting beans on a simple dosa pan in its early days to operating its own roastery at Panorama Hills, expanding to multiple outlets and investing in coffee technology, the Visakhapatnam-born company has steadily widened its ambitions without losing sight of its craft.

“We never wanted to build just another café. We wanted to create a place where people would come because they felt connected to the space,” says Y Isaac Jeremiah, founder and managing director of Bean Board.


A view of the newly opened Bean Board with a desert themed interiors at Rushikonda in Visakhapatnam. | Photo Credit: KR Deepak

The idea took shape after Isaac travelled to the United States nearly 12 years ago. A neighbourhood café in Chicago, where people gathered as much for conversation and community as for coffee, left a lasting impression in him. “People were not coming there only for coffee. They were reading, working, discussing ideas and spending time together. I wanted to recreate that feeling in Visakhapatnam,” he recalls.

After returning to India, Isaac worked as a barista, sharpening his understanding of speciality coffee before launching Bean Board. In the early years, he roasted beans in a dosa pan because professional equipment was beyond reach. “I burnt countless batches before I got it right. Those failures became my biggest teachers,” he says. Today, Bean Board’s Panorama Hills roastery, equipped with a German roaster, supplies freshly roasted beans to its cafés, franchise outlets and several other establishments.


Y Isaac Jeremiah, founder and managing director of Bean Board, that recently completed 12th anniversary. | Photo Credit: KR DEEPAK

From a single neighbourhood café, Bean Board has steadily expanded its footprint across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Today, the brand has 12 outlets in Visakhapatnam, of which three are company-owned, including two cafés inside the Naval Base and one at Panorama Hills. The remaining outlets operate on a franchise model. Beyond Visakhapatnam, Bean Board has one outlet in Kakinada and three in Hyderabad. The company has also introduced a mobile café, Dear Bebo, named after Bean Board’s affectionate nickname, taking speciality coffee beyond conventional café spaces.

#### Speciality coffee

Isaac believes speciality coffee begins much before roasting. “I always say that farmers deserve the biggest share of the credit. Nearly 60% of what makes a great cup comes from the farm, around 30% comes from roasting and the remaining 10% comes from the barista. Where your beans come from makes all the difference,” he says.

The company primarily sources Arabica coffee beans from Coorg and prefers light to medium roasts that preserve the bean’s inherent flavour characteristics instead of masking them with darker roasting profiles. Bean Board’s next phase, however, is being driven as much by technology as by traditional coffee craftsmanship.

#### Robotic cafe

Among its forthcoming ventures is a robotic café at GMR Hyderabad Airport, developed in partnership with a Russian technology company. Another robotic café is planned for the upcoming Bhogapuram International Airport near Visakhapatnam.


Robotic cafe of Bean Board. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

“The robotic café is not about replacing people. It is about solving practical challenges where staffing is difficult while maintaining complete consistency. It can operate round the clock with virtually no wastage,” Isaac explains.

#### Coffee Omakase

Closer home, Bean Board recently introduced what it calls a Coffee Omakase at the Naval Base, the first such coffee experience in Visakhapatnam. Borrowed from the Japanese dining tradition where the chef curates the meal, Coffee Omakase places the choice entirely in the hands of the coffee expert. Guests are served five carefully selected coffees prepared using different brewing techniques and flavour profiles, offering a guided tasting rather than a standard café order.

“We recently conducted Andhra Pradesh’s first Coffee Omakase at the Naval Base in Visakhapatnam. Every coffee has its own personality and brewing method. This experience helps people understand those differences,” says Isaac.

#### Zero to espresso


The 'zero to espresso in five seconds' introduced by Bean Board that comprises a compact tube that contains concentrated specialty coffee preserved without additives using nitrogen technology. | Photo Credit: KR Deepak

Building on its expertise in specialty coffee, Bean Board has also entered the ready-to-drink convenience segment through a strategic international partnership. It took the master distribution of the Indonesian brand Coffee@Once for an instant coffee solution, positioning it as India’s first “zero to espresso in five seconds”. This comprises a compact tube that contains concentrated specialty coffee preserved without additives using nitrogen technology. Users simply press the concentrate into hot or cold water or milk to prepare an espresso, americano or latte within seconds, eliminating the need for an espresso machine or trained barista. “After a few months, we will also be using beans from our Araku project for these shots,” Isaac says.


Tribals plucking coffee seeds at a village in Araku. | Photo Credit: KR Deepak

Even as it experiments with convenience-driven products, Bean Board continues investing in coffee production. The company has entered into an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh Government to cultivate coffee across 50 acres in Araku. The project is expected to commence in September.

Technology will once again play a central role. Bean Board is incorporating a software in this project that will help train farmers by offering guidance through different stages of cultivation and post-harvest processing. “We want farmers to understand coffee scientifically. The software will support them with training while helping improve consistency and quality,” Isaac says.

Inside the roastery, that same attention to precision governs every roast. Moisture content in the beans is checked before roasting begins, humidity is monitored and each batch, typically five kilograms, is carefully profiled. Every second during roasting matters, Isaac says, because even a slight variation can alter the final flavour.


Cup of espresso with coffee beans | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Bean Board is also introducing what it describes as ‘India’s first customer-led coffee roasting experience’ at its second café in Kokapet, Hyderabad. Designed as a ‘Slow Bar’, the concept allows visitors to begin their coffee journey with unroasted green beans. Guests hand-roast the beans, observing the colour, aroma and the characteristic ‘first crack’ that marks a crucial stage in roasting, before grinding and brewing the same batch into a cup of speciality coffee. Along the way, they are introduced to the origin of the beans, the science of roasting and how different roast profiles influence flavour. Isaac says the experience is the first of its kind in India to allow customers to roast their own coffee from green bean to cup within a café setting.

“A cup tastes different when you’ve heard its story. It becomes unforgettable when you’ve roasted it yourself,” says Isaac.