Food-Info.net> Questions and Answers > Food Products > Coffee

What is Monsoon coffee ?

Monsooned Coffee (Monsooned Malabar) is a typical dry-processed single-origin coffee from south India deliberately exposed to monsoon winds in open warehouses, with the aim of increasing body and reducing acidity.

Monsooned coffees are stored in special warehouses until the Monsoon season comes around. The sides of the structure are opened and moist monsoon winds circulate around the coffee making it swell in size and take on a mellowed but aggressive, musty flavour. The monsooning process is labour-intensive: coffee is spread on the floor of the special monsooning warehouse, raked and turned around by hand to enable the seeds to soak in moisture of the humid winds. The monsooning process takes around 12 to 16 months, during which the beans swell to twice their original size and turn into pale golden colour. Then there are additional hand-sortings to remove any coffee that did not expand properly, and the coffee is prepared for export.

The dry fragrance of this coffee is not very strong, but when water is added the flavour has sweet nuances, with a strong roasted nut smell (dry roasted peanut) with caramel and pipe tobacco.

Source: http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.asia.india.html