Ancient Palpa Estate

Sita Devi inherited the farm from her mother in 2009 and immediately began experimenting with natural (dry) processing — a method largely unknown in Nepal at the time. The first lot was a disaster, she freely admits: over-fermented, wild, undrinkable. By year three she had cracked the code, developing a protocol suited to Palpa's lower humidity and reliable winter winds.

Today the Ancient Palpa Estate is the benchmark for Nepalese natural-process coffee. Sita employs fourteen women from surrounding villages, most of whom are smallholders who intercrop coffee with cardamom on their own land. Her processing model allows them to deliver ripe cherry and receive profit share, effectively extending the estate's reach to 20+ hectares across the district.

The estate's raised African beds — constructed from local bamboo — are Sita's obsession. She turns each lot manually every four hours during the first three days of drying to prevent uneven fermentation. The result is a remarkably clean, fruit-forward profile that surprises first-time buyers expecting wild natural character.