Beachville Chennai hosts Raani Coffee from Atlanta for limited-edition specialty coffee takeover

On Friday, the coffee at Beachville Coffee Roasters will taste a little less familiar, and that is precisely the point. 

For one day, the café will host a takeover by Raani Coffee, the Atlanta-based roasters founded by Praveena Sundarraj, a Tamil entrepreneur who left India, built a name in American specialty coffee, and is now bringing that journey full circle. The collaboration is facilitated by Foreword, a newly launched cultural IP company focused on building experiences across music, food and beverage, and lifestyle. 

“The idea is to bring people to the café on Friday and have a kind of coffee-party atmosphere,” says Divya Jayashankar of Beachville Coffee Roasters. “You walk in, taste interesting coffees, and chat with two people from Tamil Nadu who have done this outside, in the US.”

While roaster collaborations are common globally, they are still relatively new to India’s specialty coffee landscape. For Divya, the intention is a participation where guests can sit with distinct coffees, compare flavour profiles, ask questions, and engage directly with the people behind the beans. 

Raani Coffee
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Raani will bring three coffees to Chennai — two experimental Colombian co-ferments and one Indian single-origin from Ratnagiri, and each chosen to challenge what coffee is expected to taste like. “In India, coffee meant milk and sugar and a little bit of bitterness. When I moved to the US and entered specialty coffee, I saw how wide that world really was. I’ve always wanted to bring that back home to show that coffee can be brighter, fruit-forward, and complex,” says Praveena. 

The two coffee from Colombia are processed with fruit during fermentation, one with peach, the other with raspberry. The peach-fermented coffee carries floral notes and ripe stone fruit sweetness, while the raspberry co-ferment edges into darker berry and cherry-like flavours. “One of these coffees won’t even taste like coffee,” says Praveena. “It’s almost like tea. That’s what excites me. When someone takes a sip and realises coffee doesn’t have to taste the way they expect it to.”

The third is an Indian Ratnagiri, processed using an extended yeast fermentation that brings natural brightness balanced with honeyed sweetness. Together, they offer a spectrum of flavour that moves well beyond the familiar milk-and-sugar template many grew up with.

Praveena Sundarraj
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

All three will be served primarily as pour-overs and presented as a tasting flight, allowing guests to experience them side by side rather than in isolation. For those who prefer something stronger or with a touch of milk, they will also be available as espresso and cortado, offering different ways to experience the same bean.

“When you ask someone what they taste in coffee, they usually say, ‘coffee tastes like coffee’. But just like wine, there’s so much more happening. The idea is to open up the palate a little to show that you can taste peach, or jasmine, or berry, and that it’s not imagination,” says Praveena.

Coffee from Raani Coffee
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Beachville’s regular menu will continue alongside the limited-edition brews, but for Divya, the heart of the takeover is simple. “For us, it’s about bringing people in and doing something a little different from routine. You don’t have to know everything about coffee. Just come, taste, ask questions and enjoy it,” says Divya. 

Raani Coffee will be brewing at Beachville Coffee Roasters, Alwarpet on Februarty 20 through the day. The limited edition coffe beans will be on sale until stocks last.

Published – February 18, 2026 08:39 pm IST