India Monsooned Malabar - Dark Roast

Dark Roasted, big-bodied coffee, with a pleasant, mellow earthy flavor. One of the lowest-acidity coffees in the world

Monsoon Malabar AA gets its unique characteristics (heavy body, earthiness and low acidity) by mimicking the sea journey used centuries ago. Before the creation of the Suez Canal, coffee was shipped from India to Europe around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. The Indian coffee went from tropical humid heat to freezing sea air back to tropical humid heat to the European port over a one- or two-month period.

This caused the beans to bleach and swell. Europeans became accustomed to this different taste, and when shorter (and more airtight) means of shipment arrived, coffee drinkers missed the distinctive "Malabar taste."

Today, after careful hand picking (versus stripping in lesser harvesting regimes), these beans are dry processed only from Arabica Cherry Grade A. The dry beans are raked on the outdoor drying beds in India for 12-15 weeks to duplicate the effect of sea travel.