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

Indian Monsooned Malabar Coffee: Origins and Processing

Does India have coffee? How did Indian Monsooned Malabar beans come to exist — and what exactly is the unique monsooning process behind them?

Monsoon coffee is one of India's most famous coffees. The beans are stored in open-sided warehouses along the coast and left exposed to the monsoon winds, which cause them to swell in volume and turn golden yellow. The process suppresses fruit acidity and raises sweetness, giving monsoon coffee a character closer to aged Indonesian coffee than to anything else in the Indian cup.

Before export, the coffee is held in specially designed warehouses near the port of Mangalore and turned constantly to guard against excess moisture and mold. Over a processing period of twelve to sixteen weeks, the beans absorb the moist, hot air carried by the summer southwest monsoon and are then dried by the hot, arid northeast winter monsoon. Under this prolonged monsoon exposure, the beans expand to one to two times their original size, take on a golden-yellow hue, and develop rich, spicy, stimulating flavors. Opinions on monsoon coffee are sharply divided: most lovers of heavy, earthy cups embrace it, while fans of Central American brightness mostly steer clear.

Monsooning Process

Monsooned coffee must be made from sun-dried beans. Every processing facility is built facing west, to catch the salty, humid monsoon winds blowing in from the southwest sea. The beans are spread out across the monsooning floors with every window open. Once they've monsooned to a certain point, they're bagged — but because the beans swell so much during this stage, the bags can't be filled too full or stacked too densely, or poor ventilation invites mold. The beans must also be periodically emptied out and transferred to fresh jute bags, all to keep mold at bay — a genuinely labor- and time-intensive craft.

The monsooning period lasts roughly twelve to sixteen weeks. Once matured, the beans receive a smoking treatment to repel weevils, followed by hand sorting to remove any beans that never turned golden. After three to four months of monsooning, the green coffee has swelled to one to two times its original size, with both weight and density reduced — plump, milky-golden beans.

Indian Monsooned Malabar has charmed European drinkers since the 17th century, and its signature flavor was created entirely by accident. In the 17th and 18th centuries, India shipped coffee to Europe by sailing vessel, a voyage of six months. The raw beans sat in the depths of the hold, absorbing sea moisture and salt. By the time they reached Europe they had transformed: the color shifted from deep green to the yellowish brown of rice grains, the fruity acidity had all but vanished, and in its place emerged strong nutty and shell-like notes with a distinctly tea-like character — reminiscent of genmaicha, brown rice tea. Scandinavians in particular adored this golden "alternative" coffee. Then in 1869 the Suez Canal opened and steamships arrived, cutting the India-to-Europe journey dramatically. Suddenly customers complained that Indian coffee had "lost its flavor" — the beloved color and taste were gone, and orders collapsed. Indian exporters set about finding a fix, and realized the problem: with the voyage shortened by more than half, the beans no longer had time to "mature" en route. Someone clever thought of the salty, humid air along India's southwestern Malabar coast from late May through September, delivered by the Indian Ocean monsoon. After several experiments they successfully recreated a coffee much like the old yellowish-brown, low-acid style — and christened it "Monsoon Malabar," the monsooned beans we know today.

Indian coffee is naturally deep and full-bodied with low acidity, which makes it a natural fit for monsooning. As described above, the beans are sun-dried first, the facilities face west to catch the southwest sea winds, the beans are spread thin with the windows open, bagged loosely, turned and re-bagged to prevent mold — and after twelve to sixteen weeks of monsooning, plus smoking and hand sorting, the Malabar green beans emerge one to two times their original size, lighter in weight and lower in density.

Though Monsooned Malabar beans look plump, they are actually soft beans — strong on the outside, weak within. The long exposure to humid monsoon air not only turns them yellow (hence the nickname "Golden Malabar") but also strips away much of their natural acidity, producing a very distinctive taste. Brewed as a single origin, monsooned beans offer rich wheat aroma and tea-like notes. For centuries, European coffee professionals have used them in blends to build body and tea-like character, and they make an excellent espresso component.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 88°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 4

Brewing Technique: Coffee-to-water ratio 1:15 with 15g of coffee. First pour: 25g of water, bloom for 25 seconds. Second pour: bring the water up to 120g, then pause. Once the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, continue pouring slowly up to a total of 225g. Total extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis: The three-stage pour clearly separates the front, middle, and back of the flavor profile. Because the V60's many ribs drain so quickly, pausing mid-brew stretches the extraction time just enough.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the aged, low-acid character of Monsooned Malabar appeals to you, Indonesia is the other essential destination — and the best starting point is FrontStreet Coffee's wet-hulled Mandheling. Mandheling refers to Arabica coffee from Sumatra, processed by the local wet-hulled (giling basah) method: the beans are hulled while still half-dry, leaving the green coffee fully exposed as it dries, which is exactly where the classic woody and spicy notes come from. FrontStreet's Mandheling comes from the Toba Lake area of the Lintong region; roasted medium-dark, it is low in acidity and full-bodied, with rich caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted bread aromas and a long, sweet finish — a natural choice for lovers of intense coffee.

For the top shelf, choose FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling. PWN is a trading company that buys only the finest Mandheling lots from local producers, and its "Golden Mandheling" — so named because the beans supposedly gleam golden in the sun — is its flagship. Every lot is screened for density, size, shape, and color, then machine-sorted and hand-selected to remove defects, yielding whole, even, luminous beans with markedly less earthiness and grassiness. Freshly roasted, it offers sandalwood, herb, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate in a clean, mellow, deeply layered cup — as good for gifting as for daily drinking.