Across the world, when the clouds linger over the little coffee beans spread out for drying, there is a pall of gloom that takes over the smiles of the growers and processors.
Here in the Malabar coast, the story is very different. When it pours ‘cats and dogs’, the busy hands of coffee workers lay out coffee beans under the tiled roofs so that the world is ready to sip on the classic coffee that comes from this coast.

Well, while Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe and Indonesia’s very own controversial Kopi Luwak (coffee beans extracted from civet shit) have made it big in the world coffee map, Malabar’s Monsooned Malabar may not have been a hit in India, but connoisseurs in coffee-drinking countries swear by Monsooned Malabar for its unique mild taste and aroma.
 
What is Monsooned Malabar?

Monsooned Malabar is a variety of coffee bean that is pale-bone coloured and  undoubtedly the only variety that boasts of having lowest acidity when compared to its counterparts worldwide.

Monsooning is a processing method in which  high-grade green coffee cherries are spread on concrete patios and sun dried. After the process, when it rains, they are exposed to high humidity conditions so that throughout this process, the coffee undergoes complex changes and new aromas and flavors are unveiled. The highest grade is Monsooned Malabar – AA Super Grade. The spreading, sorting and re-bagging is repeated up to three times until the coffee beans acquire a mocha hue and a moisture content of 14.5%.  With this, the beans are ready to cross the seas!
 
Origin

The origin of Monsoon Malabar dates back to the times of the British Raj, when, during the months that the beans were transported by sea from India to Europe, the humidity and the sea winds combined to cause the coffee to undergo changes. The wooden vessels that carried raw coffee only added to the flavours as they cruised for over six months to reach Europe from India via Cape of Good Hope.

The colour of the beans changed and developed special taste and aroma and European countries, particularly the Scandinavian countries soon took fancy of this coffee.

With the completion of Suez Canal, the shipping between Asia and Europe was fast-tracked, obviously leaving little time for ‘seasoning’ in the ship. The result was obvious. Due to less seasoning, the coffee connoisseurs realised the difference and as they insisted on the old coffee beans produced after long seasoning. With the fear of losing orders from connoisseurs looming large, the next smart move for coffee exporters was to replicate the seasoning process in the West Coast. That is how Monsooning had its birth in Malabar and the rest is history.

With Geographical Indication (GI) certificate restricting its process in Malabar coast alone, the monsooning is majorly done in warehouses of Mangalore.
Believe it or not 58 per cent of this much loved variety is produced in our own Mangaluru during June to September.

Though the Coffee beans are procured from upcountry like Chikkamagalur, Hassan and Kodagu, most of curing is done here in the coast. That is how the world gets a sip of mermerising Malabar in just a cup of coffee!