Introduction to Indian Monsooned Coffee Processing Method

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

India Monsooned Coffee

When it comes to Asian coffee, consumers are most familiar with the low-acidity, rich Sumatra coffee, or Vietnamese coffee, which has seen increasing production in recent years. However, Indian coffee is actually the ancestor of coffee in the Asian region. As early as the 17th century, India was already an important European coffee supplier besides the port of Mocha in Yemen. At that time, most Indian coffee beans were transported by sailing ships on a roughly six-month voyage to the European continent.

During the lengthy half-year journey, due to the sea breeze blowing and absorption of moisture and salty taste from the ship's cabin, the coffee beans underwent changes in both appearance and flavor. The raw beans' appearance would gradually transform from deep green to a yellowish-brown color like rice grains, and the beans would also swell and expand.

During this process, the fruit acidity of the coffee gets smoothed out, replaced instead by the development of nutty, caramel, tea-like flavors (this flavor transformation during maturation is somewhat similar to aged Sumatra beans), as well as a thick mouthfeel. Indian monsooned beans indeed have their own unique flavor, which I personally quite enjoy. They typically taste with rich nutty and grainy sweetness, almost no acidity, and often carry the aroma of genmaicha (brown rice tea). It's said that Northern Europeans at that time particularly favored this special golden coffee.

Coffee traders who were adept at business could naturally sense market consumer demands. Interestingly, when the Suez Canal opened in 1869, combined with the advent of steamships at that time, the travel time from India to Europe was significantly reduced. This should have been a major advantage for merchants selling Indian coffee, but unexpectedly, European customers complained that the coffee had lost its flavor, leading to a sharp decrease in orders.

Investigating why their old customers stopped buying, it turned out that because the canal opened, making the voyage too short - just two to three months of transport time meant the flavor didn't have enough time to "mature." Without the enhancement of the sea breeze, connoisseurs no longer loved it! Only then did the merchants realize that this accidental delicacy was actually a masterpiece created by the collaboration of ocean and time.

India is indeed a country abundant in coffee beans, with approximately 250,000 people nationwide cultivating this economic product. Coffee is suitable for growing in warm environments; the area between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn is called the coffee zone. However, fearing that high temperatures would damage the beans' characteristics, most coffee is planted in high-altitude areas. The main coffee-producing regions in India are the southern mountainous areas. Although rainfall is relatively insufficient, irrigation equipment can still produce medium to high-quality coffee beans. Coffee enthusiasts who enjoy single-origin coffee might know about India's special bean "Monsooned Malabar," which has low acidity and contains rice-like aroma. This bean is specifically obtained through sun-drying. In the past when transportation was inconvenient, shipping Indian beans to Europe, which had a developed coffee culture, required several months by sea. During the journey, the sea humidity was high and sea winds were strong. By the time the beans reached Europe, they were larger in size and yellow in color, but this also gave them different flavors. Nowadays, convenient transportation has reduced shipping time, so people can only find other artificial methods to replace nature. Coffee farmers spread the beans in specially designed houses. In summer, the monsoon winds blowing from the Arabian coast have high humidity, and it only takes seven weeks with several rakings to achieve the same monsooning effect that would take four months by ship.

FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse varieties of beans, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online shop services: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473