Rock Lands Coffee Company

Being up here on Ooty Road in the Nilgiris is something else. The air is always a bit damp and cold, which is just how it is in the hills. Rock Lands Coffee Company is right along the main stretch where the mist rolls in almost every afternoon. You can see the trees and the slopes from our windows. It isn’t a high-tech office. It’s more of a sturdy place built to handle the mountain weather. We spend our mornings checking the temperature and making sure everything is dry. The road outside can get pretty busy with tourists during the season, but mostly it's just local trucks and the occasional cow. We like the quiet times. The walls are a bit thick to keep the chill out. We don’t use much heating, just wear extra layers. People stopping by usually comment on the smell of the air around here. We have some old wooden tables and shelves that have been here since we started. There’s no big neon sign, just a plain one that lets people know they’ve reached the right spot on the road. It takes a while to get anything delivered up here from the plains. We’ve learned to be patient. It’s a slow pace of life compared to the cities. We just focus on the coffee and the daily chores. The view of the hills never gets old, even when it is raining hard or the fog is thick.