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India Monsoon Malabar: The Coffee of Cows.
This is by far the most unusual and challenging coffee I've ever worked with, but it's worth every drop! It's rich, smooth, full-bodied, low acidity and super chocolatey, but nothing about these beans make sense.
Historical background:
During the British Raj, raw coffee beans shipped from India to Europe spent months in the humid holds of wooden sailing vessels. The sea air and monsoon moisture caused the beans to swell, turn pale yellow, and lose their sharp acidity. Nowadays the beans are deliberately subjected to the same environment to replicate the characteristics. Now that we have better ways of transporting goods, there's no need to subject the beans to such an environment anymore, yet here we are. Much like pickling, smoking as a means of preservation and dehydrating foods, we continue preparing them this way because it's tasty.
Personal background:
My first experience with Monsoon Malabar was with my first official wholesale client Ridge Ranch Farm, a cow farm. Yes, I partner up with a cow farm, but not in the way you would expect. Whenever I mention cows, everyone automatically assumes the cows are producing the cream for the coffee. That's definitely not the case. Ridge Ranch has bunnies, goats, pigs, mini donkeys, Zebu, Highland and Brahman cows with a focus on agritourism. They offer all sorts of fun events throughout the year such as Donkeys and Doughnuts, Goat Yoga, Bunnies and Bouquets, Cows and Candles and my personal favorite- Cows and Coffee!
Cows and Coffee started in the early days for myself and Ridge Ranch where Arielle, the owner, contacted me out of the blue with the idea of serving coffee at the farm while people played with the cows. In the spirit of trying new things, I offered not only fresh coffee, but a roasting demonstration. Everyone thought we were crazy, but the event sold out with several people being turned away! It was so well received that we needed to do another one a month later for the ones we turned away, which also filled up quickly. As of 2026, we have had at least 9 Cows and Coffee events, all of which were very well received.
Early last year, I threw the idea out there about doing a special coffee dedicated to the cows. One of their favorite breeds is the Brahman, which originated in India.
The idea was to have a Brahman coffee, so I suggested the most famous Indian coffee: Monsoon Malabar. The fact that Brahman cattle originated in India makes the choice of an Indian coffee a natural fit for the farm's special offering. They loved the idea, so I picked up a sample and prepared a tasting session. It was a hit and I had the opportunity to bottle-feed a baby cow!
The actual product launch was last October, so I apologize in such a late writeup about it. We just had another Cows and Coffee last week, so I finally remembered to sit down and work on this.
But enough talk, time to share my findings!
Roasting:
As I stated at the beginning, this was a major challenge to roast for many reasons. It's not impossible, you just need to pay attention to what the beans are doing. You can't just dump these in the drum and assume the dials and gauges will take care of everything for you.
The density is vastly different. They're puffy, almost like someone put the beans through a Rice Krispies machine. My roaster generally takes 2 pound batches, but with the Malabar I can only fit about 1 1/2 pounds. Since weight is weight no matter the rate, a 1 1/2 pound batch will roast more quickly than 2 pounds despite being the same volume.
The moisture difference is considerable. Compared to regular beans, these have a lot of moisture, which is expected given their process.
The smells are different than what you would normally expect. When I roast coffee, I expect to smell grass, then bread, then popcorn and maybe pipe tobacco if I go dark roast. Malabar smells MUSTY, like the basement of an old house in the summer. It freaked me out! I smelled it and thought, "Oh dear, I let their beans get moldy..." I looked it up to be sure and apparently that's perfectly normal for these beans. So strange...
The beans are already brownish-yellow, which is the end of the drying stage for normal beans. Normally, the yellowing stage of roasting has a distinct smell, but not this one. So you can't just look at them or smell them and assume anything about them.
The first crack behaves differently. A normal first crack starts off slow, builds up then slows down. If you take it to the second crack it pops a lot faster but quieter. Malabar starts out like that with no break between the 2 cracks. Once again, you really have to pay attention.
It's also necessary to roast it dark, very dark. If you roast this one light, you will be accosted by very funky flavors I would imagine. The nice thing about it is it can handle a very dark roast without tasting burnt. That being said, I didn't even bother doing light or medium on this sample.
Flavor Overview:
Very full-bodied.
Very low perceived acidity. Virtually none at all.
Velvety smooth texture.
Dark chocolate.
Very mild notes of cardamom in the background.
As far as the other brewing methods go, there isn't much of a difference in the flavor notes or their concentration.
As a hot coffee, it's a super chocolatey dark coffee that chills well. You can pour a hot cup of it and enjoy it for a long time.
As a cold brew, it brings out the chocolate more as expected.
As espresso, it becomes very heavy chocolate and almost syrupy body.
Conclusion:
It's not a coffee that I would bring to a roasting demonstration. I've tried a couple of times and it's very challenging. There's no sense in bringing an advanced roasting coffee to a demonstration where no one has even seen a regular roasting take place. However, it is definitely a coffee I would encourage every coffee lover to try at least once. As far as processes go, it's more unusual than a washed or natural, but still far more tame than Civet coffee! India's Monsoon Malabar is a solid reminder that there's a whole world of coffee out there, waiting to be explored!
I don't sell this coffee directly. I provide it exclusively to Ridge Ranch Farm. For me, this coffee also represents a wonderful partnership that has developed over the years, a partnership that has provided top notch events for the Hudson Valley since 2023. It's available in their gift shop, so book a tour or an event today and grab a bag of this delicious coffee while you're there!
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