Indian Coffee Brewing: Flavor Description of Indian Monsooned Malabar Coffee

The Mysterious Monsooned Coffee of India

When it comes to Asian coffee beans, people often first think of Indonesian Mandheling coffee or Chinese Yunnan small-bean coffee. However, there's another mysterious coffee bean from the Asian region—Indian Monsooned Coffee. FrontStreet Coffee finds the flavor formation process of this coffee particularly fascinating. Legend has it that raw coffee beans shipped from India to Europe were affected by the high temperature and humidity of the Indian Ocean during transit, causing the raw beans to expand in volume and turn golden-yellow. These fermentation changes resulted in a sweeter, smoother taste with unique flavors. While most bean processing methods rely on artificial drying, fermentation, and other techniques, Indian Monsooned Coffee uniquely develops its flavor characteristics through natural climate conditions, which truly amazes FrontStreet Coffee.

India - The Earliest Coffee-Growing Country in Asia

Around 1600, an Indian Muslim named Baba Budan made a pilgrimage to Mecca and secretly brought back seven coffee seeds from Mocha to India, planting them in the Chandragiri hills of Karnataka state where he practiced his spiritual discipline, thus beginning India's coffee cultivation. You might be surprised to learn that India produces much more coffee than Ethiopia and any Central American country combined, with 900,000 hectares of land dedicated to coffee cultivation. India has approximately 140,000 coffee farms, over 90% of which are small-scale operations covering less than 10 acres. These farms are distributed across the southern and eastern coastal mountain ranges at altitudes of 900-1,200 meters. Coffee varieties consist of two-thirds Arabica and the remaining Robusta, with total production between 440,000-450,000 bags, making India the world's fifth-largest coffee producer.

The Origin of Monsooned Coffee

Monsooned coffee was accidentally created as a new flavor. From the 17th to 18th centuries, India transported coffee beans to Europe via sailing ships, a journey that took six months. The raw beans stored in the lower holds absorbed moisture and saltiness from the sea surface. By the time the beans arrived in Europe, they had deteriorated, changing from deep green to a yellow-brown color like rice grains. The coffee's fruity acidity had almost disappeared, but it unexpectedly developed strong nutty and grainy flavors with a full-bodied mouthfeel, somewhat reminiscent of genmaicha (brown rice tea). Scandinavians particularly loved this golden-colored alternative coffee. In 1869, with the opening of the Suez Canal and the advent of steamships, the voyage from India to Europe was shortened. However, customers began complaining that Indian coffee had "lost its flavor" – no longer possessing its charming yellow color and nutty taste. Orders dropped dramatically, prompting Indian exporters to research solutions.

How Modern Monsooned Coffee Beans Are Processed

Monsooned coffee requires sun-dried beans as the starting material. The storage facility faces west, with coffee beans spread evenly inside while all windows are opened to welcome the salty, humid monsoon winds blowing from the southwest. After reaching a certain degree of exposure, the beans are placed in bags, but not too full, and the coffee bags cannot be packed too tightly to ensure ventilation and prevent mold growth. Workers must regularly empty the beans and replace the jute bags to prevent mold cultivation – a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. This period lasts approximately twelve to sixteen weeks, after which the beans undergo smoke treatment to eliminate weevils. Finally, manual sorting removes any beans that haven't turned golden-yellow – the unsuccessful ones. After at least 6 months to a year of monsoon exposure, the beans undergo significant changes in both quality and quantity. Coffee beans expand to one to two times their original size, with reduced weight and density, and reach a moisture content of approximately 13%.

Representative Coffee - FrontStreet Coffee's Indian Monsooned Malabar

Region: Malabar Coast, Southern India

Altitude: 1,100-1,200 meters

Varieties: Kents, S795, Catimor, Selection 9

Processing: Monsooned Natural Process

How FrontStreet Coffee Roasts This Indian Monsooned Coffee

As you can see, FrontStreet Coffee uses a medium-dark roast to highlight the herbaceous notes characteristic of Asian growing regions, along with the fermentation and body brought by the monsooned natural process. This roast level allows the flavor and mouthfeel of this bean to express themselves with enhanced richness and depth.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Water Temperature

For different roast levels of coffee beans, the water temperature should be adjusted accordingly. FrontStreet Coffee generally recommends a brewing temperature between 86-93°C. For dark-roasted beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends slightly lower temperatures, between 86-88°C, because dark-roasted beans have a looser structure, higher water absorption efficiency, and extract easily. If the water temperature is too high, bitter and burnt flavors may emerge. For light-roasted beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 90-93°C – higher water temperatures can extract the aromatic compounds and acidity (floral and fruity notes) from light-roasted beans. Because light-roasted beans have a denser structure, increasing water temperature can improve extraction efficiency and avoid unpleasant sharp acidity. For medium roasts, 88-90°C is ideal. This time, FrontStreet Coffee brewed the Indian Monsooned Coffee using water temperature of 88-89°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Filter Choice

For darker roasted coffee beans, to emphasize the rich body, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono filter for brewing. The Kono filter's characteristic is its soaking function, which can extract more coffee substances through immersion, enhancing the full-bodied mouthfeel. The Kono filter has few ribs located at the bottom, allowing the filter paper to adhere closely to the filter, thereby restricting airflow and slowing water flow to increase contact time between water and coffee grounds.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameters

Filter: Kono

Water Temperature: 88-89°C

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Coarse sugar size

FrontStreet Coffee's Three-Stage Brewing Method: First, pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. Then pour 95g (scale shows about 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows about 225g), completing in about 1 minute 40 seconds. The drip finishes between 2:00-2:10, remove the filter, and complete extraction.

Flavor Notes: Rich caramel, raisin, herbaceous notes, with a mouthfeel reminiscent of genmaicha and a berry-like aftertaste.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473