Attikan's story starts with one man's stubbornness. Randolph Hayton Morris was the son of a church rector in Perthshire, Scotland, who left home at eighteen to work on a ship and eventually landed in India in 1877. From the northern end of the Nilgiris, he could see a distant range of hills and became captivated. Ignoring everyone who told him the land was too wild and too remote, he pressed forward anyway.
He acquired a large forest area from the Forest Department and in 1887, under very trying conditions, opened the first of his estates, which he called Attikan, meaning the grove of wild figs. The next year, he began building a private road into the hills from the hamlet of Punajur. In 1890, he completed his stone bungalow in the cove of one of the highest peaks.That bungalow still stands today.
The fig trees that gave the estate its name are still there too, and they matter beyond etymology. The wild fig canopy that covers much of the estate is believed to influence the character of the coffee grown beneath it, lending the cup a depth and earthiness that is specific to this place.
At some point, a gaur encounter left Morris incapacitated. The estate was managed by his wife and thereafter by their son A.E.C. Morris. The founder of Sangameshwar Coffee Estates, K.S. Vaidyanathan, eventually acquired Attikan from his friend Jr. Morris, and it became part of Sangameshwar Coffee Estates.Today it is run by the third generation: S. Appadurai and his wife Hamsini.
The altitude reaches up to 1,650 metres above sea level, making this one of the highest coffee growing areas in India and an ideal environment for Arabica. Spread over 150 hectares, the estate grows Arabica varietals including Sln 9, Sln 795, Catimor, Kent, Yellow Catuai, and Chandragiri. Large Silver Oaks, Fig trees, and Citrus trees make the estate shade-friendly, and the surrounding forest is home to elephants, bison, and a variety of bird species. Tigers, leopards, Indian gaur, black bear, and spotted deer roam the reserve forest that flanks the estate.
The area surrounding the estate having been the hideout of the infamous deceased bandit Veerappan adds a further layer of mystique to Attikan , a place that has never lacked for a story.
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