Monsooned Malabar
Also monsooning, Monsooned Malabar AA, monsoon coffee
Monsooned Malabar recreates the flavour that sea voyages once gave Indian coffee. Dry-processed green beans are exposed to the humid monsoon winds in ventilated warehouses on India's west coast for several months, swelling, turning pale and losing almost all acidity. The Coffee Board of India markets the top grade as Monsooned Malabar AA and notes that only dry-processed arabica and robusta are used and that the coffee is mostly blended to add body and mellow sharper coffees.
- Fermentation
- none as a step
- Drying
- not published
- Water use
- Low
- Origins listing it
- 1
- Ripe cherry
- Sort
- Pulp
- Ferment
- Wash
- Dry
- Hull
- Green
Step by step
Compare every method- 01Start from dry-processed (natural) arabica or robusta green beans
- 02Spread in 10-15 cm layers in open-sided warehouses on the Malabar coast during the south-west monsoon (roughly June to September)
- 03Rake and re-bag repeatedly as the beans absorb humidity, swell and turn pale yellow
- 04Finish after about three to four months; sort to grades such as Monsooned Malabar AA
Cup tendencies
very low acidity, heavy syrupy body, musty and aged character; mellows blends
Risk
Uncontrolled microbial activity during months of high humidity; strict warehouse hygiene needed
Where it is used
Common in, per the method's sources
Origins and regions that list it
IndiaAraku ValleyChikmagalurCoorg (Kodagu)HassanNilgirisShevaroys (Yercaud)Wayanad
Other methods
- Anaerobic fermentation, natural
- Anaerobic fermentation, washed
- Carbonic maceration
- Honey process (yellow, red, black)
- Lactic fermentation
- Natural (dry process)
- Pulped natural (semi-dry)
- Thermal shock fermentation
- Washed (wet, fully washed)
- Wet-hulled (Giling Basah)
- Yeast-inoculated (starter culture) fermentation