It’s Story Time!
Indian Monsooned Malabar is a most unique coffee with some folklore! Monsooned coffee has a unique look compared to other green, unroasted beans. The beans are somewhat larger and pale yellow rather than a jade green like other origin coffees. This special coffee has a unique flavor as the slightly fermented taste adds a smooth and incredible sweetness. The lore of Monsooned Malabar coffee began in the early 1900’s with a very long trip from India to Europe and well before shipping containers were
air tight! Sometimes the journey would take six months and the green coffee beans were stored in the hold of the ships and exposed to the elements.
In the moist and dark holds of the wooden ship, the coffee would soak up the ocean water and the salty air causing the beans to lose their greenish color! As the beans fermented they expanded in size looking bloated and pale. The Europeans were not privy to why the coffee was so delicious but later as shipping practices improved by protecting goods from the elements, the coffee was no longer monsooned and the very distinct difference in the flavor of the coffee was missing!
Since Europeans loved this unique flavor, Coffee Farmers devised a new way of processing the beans by keeping them in a open sided warehouse from June through September which is India's monsoon season. The beans are exposed to the elements for four months which causes them to swell and turn yellow just as they did the wooden ships of days gone by. This process also allows the acidity in the coffee to leach from the beans making this delicious, syrupy, full-bodied coffee perfect for Espresso and out of this world as a single origin coffee!