A Kerala hill district, once part of the Travancore state, where coffee is grown alongside cardamom and tea.
Idukki is a high-range district of Kerala in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats, formed in 1972 and nicknamed 'The Spice Garden of Kerala'. It cultivates coffee, cardamom and tea, and was part of the Travancore princely state from 1750 to 1947. It has five taluks, Devikulam, Udumbanchola, Thodupuzha, Peerumade and Idukki, and Vandiperiyar is a town inside Peerumade taluk, not a taluk of its own.
Field notes
- i
'Travancore' is one of the Coffee Board's regional coffee names, and Idukki was part of the Travancore princely state until 1947.
- ii
Wikipedia's Idukki article records the American Direct Tea Trading Company owning 26 estates, most of them growing coffee and some cinchona.
- iii
In 2022-23 the Coffee Board's Travancore zone had 13,284 ha of coffee, 11,131 ha of it robusta.
Within Idukki
Sources · 7 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-10. Some details here are less settled than others.
- Idukki district · Wikimedia Foundation
- Indian Coffee Regions · Coffee Geography Magazine
- Peerumade Taluka, Idukki (Census 2011) · census2011.co.in (Census of India 2011 data)
- Vandiperiyar · Wikipedia
- Coffee Board of India: coffee regions and grades · Coffee Board of India
- Database on Coffee, July 2023 · Coffee Board of India, Market Intelligence Unit
- Coffee Regions of India: A Complete Guide · Indian Coffee Beans (roaster/retailer)