Introduction to Indian Coffee Bean Varieties _ How to Roast Indian Monsooned Malabar Coffee Beans?

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Indian Coffee Bean Varieties

Kent:

A Typica hybrid variety discovered in 1911 at Kent Coffee Estate in the Mysore region of India, created from a cross between S288 and Typica. It features high yield and rust-resistant characteristics but has never achieved good results in cupping. The coffee aroma has more body than Bourbon varieties.

S795:

Jember: Indian botanists worked backwards, using the first-generation S288 crossed with Typica to create Kent, which was then crossed again with second-generation S288 to become the current S795. In 1955, the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI) named it Jember and it's widely cultivated in India, Indonesia, Yemen, and Ethiopia. It has some resistance to coffee leaf rust, though this resistance decreases over time. The flavor profile is close to Arabica with wild taste characteristics.

Catimor:

In 1959, the Portuguese crossed Brazilian Caturra with Timor to cultivate Catimor, a second-generation hybrid with super-strong disease resistance and yield capabilities. However, the flavor profile is inferior, making it an important commercial variety. To improve Catimor's poor cupping reputation, botanists from various countries have recently returned to breeding Arabica with Catimor through multiple cross-breeding attempts, trying to reduce the Robusta genetic heritage.

Indian Green Bean Roasting Analysis

This is different from aged beans. It involves extending the storage time of green beans to achieve natural aging (usually 2-3 years or even longer).

This coffee belongs to beans with general density. Roasting uses medium heat with steady progression. The yellowing point occurs around 4 minutes 50 seconds, then reduce heat and open the airflow to enter the Maillard reaction. At first crack, open the airflow fully, maintain heat at approximately 184.4°C, and drop the beans 2 minutes 30 seconds after first crack.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 600g semi-direct heat.

Preheat the roaster to 200°C before loading beans, set airflow to 3, turn on heat after 30 seconds, adjust heat to 160. Return temperature point at 1'25", maintain heat, turn yellow at 4'50", grassy aroma disappears, enter dehydration stage, reduce heat to 140, open airflow to 4, when reaching 168°C reduce heat again to 110.

Dehydration completed at 8 minutes, bean surface shows wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma transforms to coffee aroma, signaling prelude to first crack. At this point, maintain constant heat, open airflow to 5, and listen carefully for first crack sounds. First crack begins at 8'55", open airflow fully to 5. Development time after first crack is 2 minutes 30 seconds, drop at 197.8°C.

Indian Monsooned Malabar coffee beans, though plump in appearance, are soft beans that are strong on the outside but weak within. Because coffee beans are long exposed to the humid monsoon environment, the coffee's natural acidity is significantly reduced, creating a very unique mouthfeel. Rich caramel, raisin, and herbal notes, with a texture like genmaicha tea and berry aftertaste.

Indian Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Indian coffee beans - Monsooned Malabar coffee and others - offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high cost-performance. A half-pound (227g) package costs only about 80 yuan. Calculating based on 15g powder per pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 5 yuan. Compared to café prices that often run tens of yuan per cup, this represents extremely high value.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store 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