Does India Have Coffee? How Are Indian Monsooned Malabar Coffee Beans Made? The Unique Monsooning Process

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Indian Monsooned Malabar Coffee: Origins and Processing

Does India have coffee? How did Indian Monsooned Malabar coffee beans come to be? What is the unique monsooning process?

Monsoon coffee is also a famous coffee from India. The coffee is placed in open warehouses along the coast, exposed to monsoon winds, which cause the coffee beans to expand in volume and turn yellow. This process reduces the fruit acidity and increases sweetness, giving monsoon coffee similar characteristics to aged Indonesian coffee.

Before export, the coffee is placed in specially designed warehouses near the port of Mangalore, constantly turned to prevent excessive moisture and mold. During the 12-18 month processing period, the coffee beans absorb moist, hot air brought by the summer southwest monsoon and are blown by the hot, dry northeast winter monsoon. Under long-term monsoon exposure, the coffee beans expand to twice their original size, their appearance turns golden yellow, and their flavor becomes rich with spicy, stimulating notes. Evaluations of monsoon coffee are extremely polarized; most heavy-flavor lovers can accept it, while those who prefer Central American coffee mostly avoid it.

Monsooning Process

Monsooned coffee must be made from sun-dried beans. All processing facilities for monsooned coffee face west to capture the salty, humid monsoon winds coming from the southwest sea. The coffee beans are spread out in monsooning fields with all windows open. After monsooning to a certain degree, they are bagged. However, because the beans expand considerably during this process, the bags cannot be filled too full, and the coffee bags cannot be packed too densely to prevent mold growth due to poor ventilation. The coffee beans must also be periodically emptied and the jute bags changed to prevent mold growth - a truly time-consuming and labor-intensive process.

The monsooning period lasts approximately twelve to sixteen weeks. After maturation, the beans undergo smoking treatment to repel weevils, followed by manual sorting to remove any beans that haven't turned golden yellow. After three to four months of monsooning treatment, the green coffee beans expand to one to two times their original size, with reduced weight and density. The beans swell and turn a milky golden color!

Indian Monsooned Malabar coffee has been favored by Europeans since the 17th century. This monsooned coffee was unintentionally created as a new flavor. In the 17th and 18th centuries, India transported coffee beans to Europe by sailing ships, a journey that took six months. The raw beans were stored in the bottom of ship cabins, absorbing sea moisture and salt. By the time they reached Europe, the beans had deteriorated, their color changing from deep green to the yellowish-brown of rice grains. The coffee's fruity acidity had almost disappeared, but it unexpectedly developed strong nutty and shell flavors with a distinctly tea-like character, reminiscent of genmaicha (brown rice tea). Scandinavians particularly loved this golden alternative coffee. In 1869, the Suez Canal opened, and steamships emerged, shortening the travel time from India to Europe. However, customers began complaining that Indian coffee had "lost its flavor," lacking its former charming color and taste, leading to a sharp decline in orders. Indian exporters then began researching solutions. They discovered that because the travel time to Europe was cut by more than half, the beans didn't have time to mature and thus lost their original flavor. Someone clever thought of the salty, humid environment along India's southwestern Malabar coast from late May to September, brought by the Indian Ocean monsoon. After several experiments, they successfully created a coffee similar to the former yellowish-brown, low-acidity variety, thus named "Monsoon Malabar" or commonly known as monsooned beans.

Indian coffee originally has a thick, deep character with low acidity, and monsooned coffee is made from sun-dried beans. All processing facilities for monsooned coffee face west to capture the salty, humid monsoon winds coming from the southwest sea. The coffee beans are spread out in monsooning fields with all windows open. After monsooning to a certain degree, they are bagged. However, because the beans expand considerably during this process, the bags cannot be filled too full, and the coffee bags cannot be packed too densely to prevent mold growth due to poor ventilation. The coffee beans must also be periodically emptied and the jute bags changed to prevent mold growth - a truly time-consuming and labor-intensive process. The monsooning period lasts approximately twelve to sixteen weeks. After maturation, the beans undergo smoking treatment to repel weevils. Finally, manual sorting removes any beans that haven't turned golden yellow. After three to four months of monsooning treatment, the Malabar raw beans expand to one to two times their original size, with both weight and density reduced.

Although Indian Monsooned Malabar coffee beans appear plump, they are actually soft beans with a strong exterior but weak interior. Because the coffee beans are long exposed to the humid monsoon wind environment, not only do they turn yellow (earning them the name "Golden Malabar"), but the coffee's own acidity is also greatly reduced, creating a very special taste. When brewed as a single origin, monsooned beans offer rich wheat aroma and tea-like notes. For centuries, European coffee professionals have widely used them in coffee blends to increase body and tea-like character, producing excellent espresso.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 88°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 4

Brewing Technique: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee grounds. First pour: 25g water, bloom for 25 seconds. Second pour: inject to 120g water, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g total water. Extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back flavor profiles. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, pausing during pouring can extend the extraction time.

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473