Sula Vineyards in collaboration with Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters has launched a limited edition of – Barrel Aged Blend, a cold brew aged in red wine barrels. The idea brewed from the Blue Tokai Café at Sula Vineyards. After a series of experiments, the perfect blend was exclusively launched at SulaFest 2020. The wine barrel-fermented coffee beans with subtle hints of grapes, dark chocolate, oak, tannins, and black currant make a perfect laid back drink. In an easy to drink 200 ml bottle, the brew is priced at Rs 250.

Chaitanya Rathi, COO, Sula Vineyards, said, “Coffee beans and wine grapes are both exotic ingredients and require careful craftsmanship like selective picking or fermentation to ensure every sip is sheer deliciousness. We are always on a lookout to bring new experiences to our consumers and are glad to partner with Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters for this unique barrel-aged coffee.”

It is a blend of three coffees – from Attikan Estate, Bibi Plantation and Fairlands Estate, for their balanced chocolate and fruity notes. The coffee beans are washed and processed before being poured into the finest American Oak and French Oak barrels that are used for fermenting award-winning elite red wines like – Rasa and Dindori. The beans sit in the barrels for a few months to absorb the remnants of last year’s wine batch. They are monitored closely for moisture retention and rotated weekly to ensure the beans have even contact with the wine-soaked wooden barrels.

Namrata Asthana, co-founder of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, said, “We believe in being experimental and trying to find new ways of highlighting the potential of specialty coffee. We found the flavours in this barrel aged process to be very unique, and particularly nice as a cold coffee. The intensely sweet, bright red cherry and chocolate notes in our green beans were really amplified when fermented in Sula’s award-winning red wine barrels