An ode to
the south.
SO · RO · CO stands for Southern Roasted Coffee. It's a promise and a postcode: coffee grown in the southern peninsula of India, roasted here, and poured for the city we love.
It started with dancing goats.
Centuries ago in Ethiopia, a goatherd called Kaldi noticed his goats behaving strangely: jumping, prancing, dancing. They'd been eating bright red cherries from an unfamiliar shrub.
Curious, Kaldi picked the berries and experimented with them. That, the story goes, is how the world discovered coffee. Every cup since owes something to a few very excited goats.
Our goat, wired on coffee.
Sogo is a descendant of Kaldi's goats, and the face on every Soroco cup. Black horns, an orange face, a little goatee and two eyes that don't quite agree with each other.
We'll never fix the eyes. They're the point: serious coffee, made by people who don't take themselves too seriously. Look for Sogo on your cup, your bag of beans, and peeking around the corner of our menus.
Tamil Nadu.
India's finest specialty beans, hiding in plain sight.
While Coorg and Chikmagalur get the headlines, Tamil Nadu's hill estates, from the Nilgiris and the Pulney Hills to Valparai and Yercaud, quietly grow coffee at 1,200 to 1,800 metres that scores 80 and above on the SCA scale.
We noticed. We stayed. Every bean Soroco roasts comes from a Tamil Nadu estate we buy from directly.
- Pulney Hills, KodaikanalAnugraha Estate · Laks Farm
- Valparai, Anamalai HillsGreenland Estate
- The NilgirisBalmaadi Estate
- YercaudShevaroy Hills
Why Soroco?
Single origin
One farm, one harvest, traceable to the estate.
Farm direct
Bought straight from the growers. Every bean has a name and an address.
80+ score
Every lot is SCA specialty grade, or it doesn't make the cut.
Fresh roast
Small batches, served within 4 to 22 days of roasting.
Not home, not work. Somewhere better.
We build our cafés to be the place in between: light, green and calm, with wooden tables you'll want to stay at and a bar you can lean on to talk coffee.
Come for a kaapi before work, a pour over with a book, a long lunch with friends. First coffee, then hustle.
Food that keeps up with the coffee.
At Anna Nagar our kitchen cooks from Italian pastas and Asian curries to an Anglo-Indian chicken cutlet passed down through generations, and Tinga, authentic Mexican by chef Joacim Ramirez of Puebla, with imported masa harina and Mexican chillies.
At OMR it's sandwiches, wraps and bakes, freshly assembled. At Nungambakkam, just the coffee, done right.