Asian Coffee Growing Countries: India's Coffee Growing Regions, Monsooned Coffee Brewing Recommendations & Production

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Ancient Coffee Varieties

When it comes to ancient coffee varieties, Ethiopia's native varieties and Yemen's Mocha are unquestionable. In fact, India also began coffee cultivation from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, making it the third oldest coffee variety. However, because the genetic polymorphism of coffee cultivated in India at that time is no longer visible, botanists did not include Indian coffee among the ancient varieties.

The Boundary Between Old and New World Coffee Cultivation

Legend has it that Indian coffee originated in 1600 when an Indian Sufi saint made a pilgrimage to Mecca and stole seven coffee seeds from Yemen on his return journey, beginning coffee cultivation in southwestern India. However, according to documentary records, India only introduced coffee in 1695. Although there are differences in the timeline, both prove that India began coffee cultivation by the 17th century at the latest, earlier than Europe's transplantation of "Old World" Ethiopian and Yemeni coffee to the "New World" of Central and South America and Indonesia in the 18th century. India's coffee cultivation precisely sits at the boundary between the old and new worlds.

Without the existence of Indian coffee, there would be no coffee cultivation in Java, Indonesia (where Indian coffee was transplanted), nor the 18th-century craze for New World coffee cultivation.

Indian Geography and Climate

India is located on the Indian Peninsula of the South Asian subcontinent, with a coastline of 6,083 kilometers. The terrain consists mainly of plains, plateaus, and gentle hills, accounting for about 60% of the country's area. It is roughly divided into three topographical regions: northern mountains, central plains, and southern plateau. The northern mountains belong to the Himalayan system, with towering terrain and many peaks above 7,000 meters. The central Indus and Ganges plains form one of the world's famous great plains; the southern Deccan Plateau has an elevation mostly between 300-800 meters.

There are narrow alluvial plains along the coast. The northwestern part consists of the Indian Desert, which is mainly sandy. Important rivers include the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, and others. The rivers have large water flows with significant seasonal variations. Most regions have a tropical monsoon climate with high temperatures and distinct dry and rainy seasons. The northwest has a mountain climate, the Indus River plain has a subtropical grassland and desert climate, while the southwest has a tropical rainforest climate.

Indian Coffee Varieties

India's main coffee producing areas are distributed in the southwestern Karnataka state, where both Arabica and Robusta are cultivated, and the southwestern Kerala state, which mainly grows Robusta coffee beans. The flavor of "Old World" Indian coffee beans is famously wild, which made India one of the first countries to improve coffee varieties. From 1918-1920, horticulturist Kent selected a drought-resistant and leaf rust-resistant Typica variant named Kent from Indian coffee plantations and introduced it to New World producing countries. Besides Kent, India later cultivated more alternative coffee varieties, but the coffee flavor still retains its wild characteristics.

Indian Coffee Varietal Details

Sln288: A hybrid of Indian Arabica and Liberica beans, resistant to leaf rust disease, with flavor close to Arabica beans and a slightly wild taste.

Sln795: A hybrid of SLN288 and Kent, without the undesirable taste of Liberica beans, with more elegant flavor and stronger disease resistance than SLN288. It is currently India's main coffee cultivation variety.

Sln9: A carefully developed low-grade variety in India, a hybrid of Ethiopian wild variety Tafarikela and Timor variety, with high yield, excellent disease resistance, and beans with a slight Geisha coffee flavor.

Sln12: A hybrid of Caturra and Timor, abbreviated as Indian Catimor, with wild flavor, high disease resistance, and high yield.

Sln:274: Small-grained Robusta beans, with wheat tea flavor, sweetness, and peanut and nut aromas, considered emperor-level among Robusta varieties.

SlnC x R: A hybrid of Congoensis and Robusta, with Indian spice characteristics, slight fruit aroma and acidity, mainly used for blending espresso beans.

The article above repeatedly mentions the wild flavor of Indian coffee, and FrontStreet Coffee couldn't resist exploring this mysterious coffee flavor, specially procuring unique monsoon-processed Indian monsoon coffee beans, also known as wind-cured coffee, followed by a series of explorations including roasting, cupping, and brewing.

Coffee Details

Region: Malabar Coast, Southern India

Altitude: 1100-1200 meters

Varieties: Kent, Sln795, Catimor, SLN9

Processing: Monsoon/Wind-cured Natural Processing

Origin of Monsoon/Wind-cured Processing

From the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, India transported coffee beans to Europe by sailing ship, a journey that took six months. The green beans were placed in the bottom of the ship's cabin, absorbing moisture and saltiness from the sea surface. By the time the green beans arrived in Europe, they had deteriorated, with color changing from deep green to the yellow-brown of rice grains. The fruity acidity of the coffee had almost disappeared, but it unexpectedly developed a strong nutty and grainy flavor with a rich texture, somewhat like brown rice tea. Strange things always have admirers, and Scandinavians particularly liked 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," missing its former charming yellow color and nutty taste. Orders decreased sharply, and Indian exporters began researching solutions.

How is Modern Monsoon/Wind-cured Processing Completed?

Every year during May and June, monsoon phenomena occur in southwestern India. Wind-cured coffee must be made from natural processed beans. Coffee farmers spread the beans in wind-curing factories with a thickness of about 12-20 centimeters for 5 days, then repeatedly rake these coffee beans with rakes to ensure all beans contact the extremely humid air at the time. Then these coffee beans are loosely packed into bags and stacked to allow the monsoon winds to penetrate through the bags. The wind-curing factory faces west, catching the salty and humid monsoon winds blowing from the southwest. Coffee beans are spread flat in the wind-curing yard with all windows open. The summer monsoon blowing from the Arabian coast has high humidity. After a certain degree of wind-curing, the beans are bagged again, but the coffee bags cannot be filled too full, and the coffee bags cannot be stacked too densely to avoid mold growth due to poor ventilation. There, these bags are repacked and restacked once a week for a total of 7 weeks, until the coffee beans change color and flavor. They must also be periodically emptied and burlap bags replaced to prevent mold growth, which is quite time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The wind-curing period lasts about twelve to sixteen weeks. After maturation, the beans must also undergo smoke treatment to repel weevils. Finally, manual bean sorting is required to remove beans that haven't turned golden yellow (failed beans). Starting from June, after three to four months of wind-curing, the volume of green coffee beans expands to one to two times their original size, color begins to change from green to golden yellow, weight and density decrease, moisture content reaches about 13%, and the beans' acidity is also reduced, with significant changes in both quality and quantity. Finally, beans that haven't been properly wind-cured or other debris and defective beans are filtered out again, removing those coffee beans not affected by the "monsoon." Then post-processing preparations such as cupping, grading, bagging, and exporting are carried out. Every year from October to February of the following year is the best season for making "monsoon" coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that monsoon coffee's flavor is like barley tea, with grain notes as the main profile and a slight fruit acidity. If this flavor appeared in other coffees, it might be considered a defect flavor, but in monsoon coffee, it's completely normal.

FrontStreet Coffee's Green Bean Analysis

Monsoon coffee green beans have a pale/yellowish-white color, and bean density is moderate. FrontStreet Coffee decided to use medium heat and then gradually increase temperature. The yellowing point occurs at around 4 minutes and 50 seconds, then the heat is reduced and the airflow increased to enter the Maillard reaction. At first crack, the airflow is fully opened while maintaining heat at approximately 184.4°C, and the beans are dropped 2 minutes and 30 seconds after first crack.

FrontStreet Coffee's Roasting Recommendations

Roaster: Yang's 600g Semi-direct Heat

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

After 8 minutes of dehydration completion, wrinkles and black markings appear on the bean surface, toast aroma turns to coffee aroma, signaling the prelude to first crack. At this point, maintain heat unchanged, open air damper to 5, and pay attention to listen for first crack sounds. First crack begins at 8'55", air damper fully opened to 5. Development time after first crack is 2 minutes and 30 seconds, dropping at 197.8°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations

For darker roasted coffee beans, to highlight the rich body, FrontStreet Coffee chooses to use a Kono dripper for brewing. The characteristic of the Kono dripper is its soaking function, which can utilize soaking to extract more coffee substances, enhancing the rich mouthfeel. The Kono dripper has few ribs and they are located at the bottom, allowing the filter paper to fit tightly against the dripper to achieve airflow restriction, thereby slowing water flow and increasing water-coffee contact time.

Brewing Parameters

Water Temperature: 88-89°C

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Medium-coarse grind/coarse sugar size (70-75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee's Three-Stage Brewing Method: First, pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g more (electronic scale shows around 125g), completing in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (electronic scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1 minute and 40 seconds. Complete dripping between 2 minutes to 2 minutes and 10 seconds, remove the dripper, and finish extraction.

Brewing Flavor Description

Rich caramel, raisin, herbal notes, with a texture like brown rice tea and a berry-like aftertaste.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473