More on Defects

(Moron Defects)

One of the more interesting coffees available these days is Monsooned Indian Coffee. You might know it as "Monsooned Malabar," or "Coelho's Gold," or some other name. In any case, monsooned coffee is coffee that has been processed and then laid out in open sided warehouses during monsoon season in India, allowing the ultra-moist winds access to the coffee. The monsooning process is stopped when the beans reach 14% moisture (as compared to the 10% moisture the green beans start with before monsooning). At this point, the beans are swollen (almost twice their starting size), and have turned yellow. The resulting taste is a coffee that has no acid (taste), but a big, syrupy body, with herbal, vegetabally, spicy, and chocolate notes. It's a bit funky--and by "a bit", I mean really, really. It's useful in blends, especially espresso, but rarely served straight.

The monsooning process came about as Indian coffee producers tried to mimic the taste of coffees that had been shipped from India in times past. These coffees had sat on ship decks and in leaky hulls as they passed around the horn of Africa and on to Europe. By the time they arrived they were musty, swollen, yellow, and tasted unlike any other coffee. In the modern era, shipping methods are a bit more reliable, that is, water and air tight, even refridgerated; Coffee doesn't get funky just by shipping it. It needs a bit of help--thus the monsooning process.

With any other coffee, we would consider a musty swollen bean to be contaminated, defective. We wouldn't consider using it; It would be sold to Folgers or some other low grade roaster. However, we in the specialty coffee industry pay a premium for monsooned Indian coffee.

Defect or desireable?