India, apart from its association with fine-tasted teas, has been prominent in the production of export quality coffee beans with a larger share of the beans originating in the coastal Karnataka at Malabar region. Known as Monsoon Malabar or ‘Monsooned’ Malabar, the coffee beans are simply adored for their mellowed sweetness and earthen woody undertones best suited for an espresso cuppa.

Taste & Characteristics:

Monsoon Malabar coffee is loved for its tempered sweetness, surreal taste of monsoon and good-bodied flavour. The name Monsoon Malabar is derived from an extraordinary fermentation process that the coffee beans go through – exposure to the annual monsoon winds reducing the innate acidity and swelling of the beans to produce full-bodied, less bitter coffee with a hint of sandalwood and spices.

The process of ‘monsooning’ is carried out on the concrete floors of the open-sided warehouses, where coffee beans are spread out and frequently tossed in a three hourly interval to tap in moistures evenly from the monsoon winds. It takes almost ten days to season the beans up to 15%, in a humid and saturated airflow. While done, the beans are packed in loosely knit gunny bags, to allow the air to circulate helping the coffee beans to perspire. After the process of ‘monsooning’, the raw and pungent coffee beans expand doubly from the size of the green coffee cherries, shading the bitterness and acidity, surfacing the mellow undertones, soft and moistened with an all-pervading earthy aroma of the coastal winds.

The ‘post-monsooning’ process requires retaining the moisture in the beans up to the desired levels so that when they are shipped across, they do not lose the adequate 14%-15% moisture and the microbes working on the moist, swelled beans. That is how you get a singular, full-bodied, intoxicating coffee, with a tinge of newly baked chocolate and a distinct earthiness not so common in other coffee blends. The smoky tobacco taste will surely find its way in your mouth.