'Our Coven Of Culture': Inside A Goan Space For Books, Brews, & Art History

There’s something happening in the world of art spaces right now. We've shifted away from the white-cube sterility of traditional galleries, where the experience is detached maybe even performative. Instead, people are gravitating toward something more organic; where the atmosphere feels lived-in rather than curated to perfection. It’s less about rigid institutional prestige and more about slow, intentional living.

Our Coven of Culture (OCOC) in Goa fits right into this evolving ethos. Housed in a traditional Goan home, it’s a space you step into and allow to unfold around you. Inside, there’s a viewing room, a reading room, a listening room, and a tasting room, a combination that promises to appeal to all the senses. Each one is its own pocket of discovery, filled with carefully chosen art, archival prints, old books, and vinyl. It’s a spot that doesn’t just celebrate culture but invites you to sit with it, even if just for an afternoon. But here’s the catch — you can’t just walk in. OCOC runs on a reservation-only system, making every visit feel like a secret you’ve been let in on. All you need to do to visit is DM them on Instagram.

The coffee here is more than just a morning pick-me-up. It’s layered, nuanced, an experience in and of itself. Their house blends are crafted with care: peach tree, citrus, and bergamot; passion fruit, champagne, and mango; and the latest, a mix of passion fruit coferment washed purple caturra and anaerobic washed chiroso, a sip of which evokes memories of the iconic Mango Bite candy and honey lemonade. But beyond the house staples, they also occasionally sell small-batch beans that push the boundaries of what coffee can taste like.

Imagine notes of banana-toffee-pineapple, cherry cola-lemonade-honey, custard apple-dulce de leche-banana bread. A geisha varietal processed with white honey and red honey Castillo that tastes like lychee, lemon zest, and jasmine. Some batches lean floral, like lavender-chocolate or kiwi-orange-iced tea. Others play with the unexpected, like rose-saffron-paan masala or a coconut-and-pineapple-infused Caturra from Colombia reminiscent of a piña colada. Some are available to take home, others you just have to show up and taste when they’re around.

Beyond coffee, there’s an entire world within these walls. Their reading room holds rare finds: books on Indian miniature paintings by scholars Dr. M.S. Randhawa and B.N. Goswami, a vintage issue of the cult classic Marg magazine, and Bhupen Khakhar’s ‘Truth is Beauty and Beauty is God' among others. A collector's paradise, OCOC extends to archival prints of stunning pieces from art history, printed with rich inks on fine Hahnemuhle paper; like the giclée print of ‘Snake Jasmine’ from amateur botanist Richard Cresswell’s collection of Indian botanical paintings from the early 1800s.

There’s a strong sense of intention behind OCOC. The art curation is led by Manuja Waldia, an artist whose work carries a cinematic, surreal quality rooted in her Brown feminine identity and experience of growing up in India. She brings an informed yet deeply personal perspective to the space, along with a wide collection of her own auto works that you can view all purchase prints of. Meanwhile, the coffee program is helmed by Puneet Arora. His background may be in business development but here he's the barista extraordinaire leading exciting experiments on craft coffee.

Our Coven Of Culture exists at the delightful intersection of past and the present moment; art and life; solitude and community. Its artisanal and ritualistic yet unpretentious experience is designed for mindful living; one that is enriched with analog joys and a curious escape into art history.

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