India Monsoon Malabar

Monsooned coffees are stored in special warehouses until the Monsoon season comes around. The sides of the warehouse are opened and moist monsoon winds circulate around the coffee making it swell in size and take on a mellowed but aggressive flavor. The idea is that it recreates the conditions coffee was subjected to back when coffee was transported by clipper ships to Europe. This Monsooned Malabar is sourced from several farms in Southern India. Typically, the coffee is dry processed, then spread on the floor of the special warehouse, raked and turned around by hand to enable them to soak in moisture of the humid winds. The monsooning process takes around 3-6 months of duration, where in the beans swell to twice their original size and turn a pale golden color. Then they do additional rounds of hand sorting to remove any coffee that did not expand properly, and the coffee is prepared for export. This is an extremely pungent cup with a unique combination of burnt-bittering flavors, caramel finish and potent earthy aspects. It is not for those who like a "clean" cup, or sweet coffees! By all standard definitions, this is a defective set of cup flavors, though still quite interesting, unique, and not to mention, useful. (It's been a key component in our Liquid Amber espresso blend since the beginning!) Monsooned Malabar gets a pass from the coffee censors because of cultural tradition, history, and the fact that (while it doesn't conform to the traditional ideas of good coffee) it is in it's own right a unique coffee flavor. It has some use in espresso blending with a preparation of longer drum roasting and resting (after roasting) of 3+ days. There are Italian espresso roasting companies that use this coffee in their "exotic" blend offering, along with 2-3 other non-monsooned arabicas to even out the cup and provide aroma and some sweetness. Even as a drip/infusion brew, the coffee mellows after 2 days and the cup is more balanced so resting is key to best cup results. Please see the physical appearance of the coffee in that first photo, as it can be quite a shock if you've never seen Monsoon coffee before! It's pale white, slightly 'speckled'. We do our best to find the best quality all around, and think this is one of the cleanest looking lot we've seen in a long time!