What Coffee Does India Have? Introduction to Indian Coffee Varieties and Flavor Characteristics - Which Indian Coffee is Important

India's Gold - Coffee from the Land of Myth and Monsoon

Our mysterious impressions of India extend beyond coffee to tea, temples, yoga, the sitar and even the negative image of overcrowded megacities.

When I attended the 2002 India International Coffee Festival in Bangalore, however, I encountered none of those things. I visited a local temple, which was impressive: white inside, with a giant black bull painted on the ceiling looking down on the visiting pilgrims. But that was not unusual among Bangalore's temples. Bangalore is India's coffee distribution center and home to the Indian Coffee Board. The city hosts the India Coffee Festival and co-organizes the India Fine Cup Award Competition. Here too I saw none of the rumored megacity problems. Perhaps because there were more auto-rickshaws and small Ambassador taxis, there was no obvious poverty or traffic congestion.

Here coffee products naturally outnumber tea products. On the streets, small, inexpensive coffee cups are everywhere. Sometimes you see people dramatically mixing espresso from espresso machines, or coffee brewed by other methods, with condensed milk. Many Western-style small cafes also stand on street corners, with menus styled like Starbucks, mostly selling cappuccinos and lattes.

So in India's coffee capital, three common stereotypes about the country simply do not hold: temples everywhere, poverty and tea.

Returning to the Topic of Coffee

So what are the typical types of Indian coffee? In the American specialty market very few Indian beans are seen; in the specialty world they seem to be overlooked. I once did in-depth research and reviews of Indian beans from two retailers on my website, and both review articles nearly failed because I could not get enough varieties for comparison. The reason so many varieties are available in the American market today is thanks to the tireless Indian coffee expert and importer Dr. Joseph Johns, head of Josuma Coffee Company. Over the past 10 years, through press releases, online reports and all his espresso formulas incorporating Indian beans, he has paved a smooth path for Indian coffee in the American specialty market.

About 30 years ago I first tasted Indian beans and formed a single impression of them. In my first publication, Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing, & Enjoying, I wrote: "It tastes like a less complex Indonesian bean, with exotic flavors, but compared to Sumatra it lacks that earthy taste, sometimes tasting of spices or chocolate. Compared to Sulawesi, it also lacks that fresh forest soil flavor and the complex fermentation notes." For those accustomed to specialty coffee, this bean was not particularly noteworthy; it was simply "a sweet, smooth, easy-drinking coffee." That was my assessment then, and I truly regret making it now.

But I cannot be blamed entirely. What I drank then was one of the few Indian beans available in the United States. Although you still cannot find many Indian beans today, many American roasters have gradually incorporated Monsooned Malabar into their espresso formulas. What a great name for a bean. It is an Arabica dry-processed bean exposed to several months of humid monsoon winds in India until the beans swell and turn yellow, truly coffee's version of popcorn.

Monsooned Malabar has one drawback: it carries obvious flavor defects that most North American specialty tasters find hard to accept when drunk on its own. It has extremely low acidity, a very heavy viscosity and a syrupy mouthfeel, but its distinctive, strong earthy flavor, which most North American coffee drinkers do not particularly like, keeps it from being very popular. In the world of espresso blending, however, it has gradually emerged, playing the role of a magical ingredient that enhances the flavor and texture of straight espresso, a fascinating advantage in espresso. It also performs uniquely in milk-based drinks.

Despite its importance in premium espresso formulas, Monsooned Malabar's position in the American coffee market is not very strong.

There Are Also Delicious Estate-Grade Indian Beans

We judges who took part in the Flavor of India Fine Cup Competition were sometimes surprised by the performance of certain beans. To me they were like dramatically different types of Indian coffee.

The format follows the Indian coffee grading system, with samples evaluated by grade: the specialty Arabica grade Mysore Nuggets Extra Bold, the finely processed commercial washed Arabica grades Plantation A and B, the washed Robusta grades Robusta Parchment and Kaapi Royale, and monsooned beans. All the beans entered seemed carefully selected, with very beautiful preparation, but they were all submitted by large plantations. The batches they submitted were usually very large, unlike the Cup of Excellence held in the Americas, where entries almost always come from specialty-grade small estates and the batches are typically small.

The first surprise was that year's winning estate beans: Badnekhan Estate (best Arabica) and Jumboor Estate (best specialty coffee). As in other cupping competitions, every judge described what impressed them in their own way, but there is usually a relatively consistent overall assessment. To me, Badnekhan Estate's beans have very strong floral and citrus flavors, somewhat similar to good East African highland beans. Jumboor Estate's beans have a bright, crisp acidity with fruity notes. These two are anomalies not seen in other world competitions, each with unique character, which is why they earned the honor of India's Select Estates.

"Who brought this bean?" Such surprised questions often arise in major cupping competitions. Regional flavor characteristics do not come entirely from local climate and soil conditions or special local processing methods; they also reflect local people's taste preferences and the methods they use to produce such flavors consistently. In other words, a significant part of regional flavor character comes from the preferences of importers and buyers.

Once a grading system is established, the next step is to find the best-performing beans within it, the beans that best represent the flavor of the whole region. Both of these Indian beans violate that principle, however; they are anomalies in their region, which makes me suspect there must be more good things waiting to be discovered on India's coffee hills.

Putting Indian Beans on Single-Origin Coffee Menus

If a large region has too many unusual coffee types, large roasters and general importers may not know whether to create a specific term for it, so customers can know whether a bean's flavor suits them before buying. India is such a large region, and it is difficult to establish a specific term. Unless the beans here consistently show stable flavor characteristics and increasingly interesting variations year after year, they cannot meet the conditions for a complete regional identity, and sellers and customers cannot take a greater interest in them.

I see a glimmer of hope. In that Flavor of India Competition the commercial-grade Plantation A and B beans, although not especially distinctive, were all satisfying and interesting, with subtle floral and fruity aromas, and their preparation was clearly very good.

India's Plantation-grade beans lack dramatic flavor performance. That means that when you get a Yirgacheffe you must taste floral and citrus notes, and when you get a Sumatra you must taste some earthiness. Plantation-grade beans, by contrast, have good balance and cleanliness, with an appropriate sweetness in the acidity that is not too sharp. This grade is therefore acceptable to many customers who dislike strong acidity, and it does not need to be roasted too dark, which would burn away its character and acidity.

Marketing Materials

Usually, to get marketers highly interested in promoting a bean, they must be given some fictional or real coffee story to work with. The most famous today is the story of Baba Budan smuggling seven original coffee seeds out of Mecca. That story has more authenticity and historical significance than the other tale, about the shepherd Kaldi, but both are somewhat overused. If the Old Chick variety that Baba Budan brought to India had survived pests and diseases, the story might still help market Indian beans, but that variety is very rare today.

The real story of Indian coffee is actually quite complex. Returning to varieties, Old Chick and Kent are very rare today. Kent beans were once highly regarded for their pleasant flavor but are now hard to find. At this India cupping event I occasionally tasted flavors very similar to Kent. India has also recently been growing the SLN9 variety, which originates from Ethiopian varieties and therefore has floral and fruity characteristics; I encountered such flavors frequently during the event.

On the socioeconomic side, most of the Indian coffee I tasted this time was submitted by relatively large estates, some family-run and some larger corporations, such as one Tata farm that was a good bean submitted by a corporation. Seeing this, I feel deeply that small-farm beans in India will be overshadowed by these well-performing large-farm beans, but there is still hope. If small farms can grow beans with more interesting flavors, they might reenact the scenes from recent cupping competitions in Brazil and Nicaragua.

For marketers, the best focus for Indian coffee may still be India's own scenery and natural landscapes. Although the participating Indian estates may look large, they actually preserve their own natural landscapes: mostly shade-grown under native trees, intercropped with various spices and crops. Although these farms are large, they have no sense of mass production.

Note: in the 2002-03 Brazil and Nicaragua cupping competitions, many previously unknown small farms emerged unexpectedly. In Brazil, for example, many participating small-farm beans had flavor characteristics similar to Guatemala and Costa Rica. This is the possibility I have in mind.

Robusta's Performance Wasn't Too Impressive

The next surprise was not very dramatic. I once secretly experimented by adding washed Robusta to an old formula of mine. I am not trying to stir up controversy, but the washed Robusta I tasted in this cupping was actually quite good. The best Robusta has no particular aroma beyond its presence: a slightly mild sweetness, a wheat-like aroma and a heavy texture. Most cuppers focus their evaluation on mouthfeel and functional characteristics, that is, mouthfeel and the role it plays in espresso, rather than on aroma.

Most Robusta is processed by hand peeling and piled next to piles of rotting pulp. Robusta processed that way usually tastes terrible, and the same would be true of Arabica. Dry-processed Robusta processed this way visibly shows that its flavor will not be good, and its defect rate is high enough to affect taste. Fortunately, the India Parchment A and B Robusta I cupped this time had a defect rate of about 4 d/300gr, which is higher than the defect standards of some high-grade Arabica beans.

I feel deeply that these precisely processed Robusta beans are another treasure in Indian coffee. If you know how to use them in espresso formulas, cleverly playing the role of mouthfeel depth and moderate sweetness, they can sometimes be better than high-brightness Arabica that brings out an overly bright sweetness.

The Surprise of Monsooned Beans

What other beans were surprises in this cupping? To me, several good Monsooned Malabar beans, almost completely syrupy in flavor with an extra-heavy texture. The rather annoying earthy rough edges were much reduced, making the overall texture fuller and richer. The complexity was rich as well, with good sweetness in the heavy texture. The Monsooned Malabar I tasted this time can be called completely above standard, leaving a mellow flavor in the mouth rather than the earthy taste of before.

Coffee Intoxication

Every time I judge a cupping competition anywhere in the world, what I enjoy most is the final selection, when I can fully absorb the caffeine in the air and the brews. This time I most enjoyed being able to drink Badnekhan Estate and Jumboor Estate's Arabica beans to my heart's content.

After the Flavor of India Competition concluded, I could not forget the wonderful taste for a long time. With that satisfaction I boarded an electric rickshaw. Although the driver could not quite understand why I did not want to bring home Indian-style souvenirs for my wife and myself but instead drank delicious coffee in the rickshaw, I recalled the charming couples in Bangalore and their families, the men in pure white tops and the women in pleated garments, full of exotic charm.

As I stopped waving goodbye to the Indian children behind the car, I began to think about how much India's coffee industry most needs more direct contact with North American specialty market buyers. That should bring more explosive progress. About 10 years ago the Indian government set out to promote the country's coffee industry, transforming it with innovation, idealism and corporate management. India's coffee industry is currently in a highly complex and rapidly changing state. If North American buyers or Central American growers get involved, its complexity and change will be even more intense.

After such a wonderful experience at this cupping competition, I can guarantee that these are just the tip of the iceberg, with many more treasures yet to be discovered. The Indian Coffee Board has recently been busy promoting tribal coffee cultivation programs in northeastern India. During this event I had the chance to meet the chairman of one group in that program. I am not sure how good those beans might taste, but there is something intriguing about the background. I look forward to them finding the right partners, which would certainly improve the quality of this coffee.

In addition, among existing Indian varieties there is infinite possibility. Tasting such excellent and special Indian beans today suggests that there must be others yet to emerge, such as other dry-processed or "tree-top fermented" beans. Most Indian beans on the market today are either lightly fermented or overly fermented. If these improperly processed beans were handed to good processing plants, would they become even more beautiful? Would we get another version of Harrar or Yemeni beans? Or replace the monsooned process with other methods? If growers and buyers can find a balance point, all of these possibilities may one day be realized.

The biggest problem, however, still lies in transportation. Flying from North America to India takes a full day, unlike flights to Guatemala City or San Jose, which take only 7 to 8 hours. From another angle, though, the Indian Coffee Board and coffee farmers are friendly and enthusiastic, and the coffee-related landscapes are very diverse and interesting. The auto-rickshaw family's attire is diverse and elegant. If one day you have the chance to travel outside Bangalore, which is the one thing I did not do this time, I am sure you will also see many temples and tea.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Indian coffee's low-acid, heavy-bodied character appeals to you, the espresso blends from FrontStreet Coffee make a natural next step, especially for a cappuccino. A cappuccino is built from espresso, steamed milk and a thick, fluffy foam that replaces cream, spooned into a peak or dome; because the milk proportion is smaller, the drink is rich and fragrant with an airy texture. FrontStreet's example recipe is 20 grams of coffee, a 1:2 brew ratio and about 30 seconds of extraction, yielding roughly 40 ml of espresso, which gives both enough concentration and a full extraction.

For beginners at home, the oil-rich FrontStreet Classic Blend and the value-focused FrontStreet Black Cocoa Basic Blend are the easiest starting points for that thick, rich espresso base, since a cappuccino depends on a dense crema and a bold body.

To push a cappuccino toward floral and fruit notes, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Espresso is the first choice, delivering aromas of berry, rose, raisin and fruit candy. For a fresher, less bitter cup, FrontStreet Granada Geisha SOE uses natural processing and a medium roast, giving berry, orange and persimmon notes that turn into a milk-candy sweetness when paired with milk.