1919-0915 TCXCoffee Bean

Monsooned Malabar Coffee

GI-tagged in 2008. Harvested arabica is spread in open-sided warehouses on the Malabar coast and left in the monsoon wind for weeks until the bean swells, pales and loses its acidity.

GI · 2008

monsooned on the coast

Botanical name: Coffea arabica
Known as: Malabar Arabica
Origin: Malabar coast, Kodagu & Chikmagalur
Harvest: Monsooning June – September

The story

Origin13°19′ N

ChikmagalurChikkamagaluru

Karnataka75°46′ E

Monsooned Malabar holds a Geographical Indication granted in 2008, among the first Indian coffees to receive one. It is unique globally: the beans are deliberately exposed to seasonal rain and wind rather than protected from them, in a process that no other origin runs.

The south-west monsoon runs June to September and drives saturated Arabian Sea air at close to 100% relative humidity along the Malabar coast. That specific combination of wind speed, humidity and coastal geography cannot be reproduced inland or in another country — which is the practical basis for the GI rather than a marketing claim.

Karnataka alone grows about 71% of India's roughly 300,000 tonnes of coffee a year, and Coorg, Chikmagalur and Bababudangiris carry GI tags of their own. Monsooning is a process applied to that arabica, not a separate crop.

[ Why here ]

ChikmagalurChikkamagaluru · Karnataka

Shade-grown arabica off the Western Ghats, then moved to the coast for the monsooning. The warehouses are open-sided by design — the crop is being weathered, not stored.

Specification

GI · 2008

Monsooned Malabar Arabica, registered by the Government of India.

Measured