How did coffee development unfold across Asia?
Asia's three main coffee-producing countries are Indonesia, India and Vietnam, and their beans generally share a rich, full-bodied profile. Indonesian coffee development began in 1696, when Dutch colonists brought coffee seeds and later expanded planting on Java. Leaf rust disease swept the trees by 1877, devastating arabica, and Indonesia then introduced disease-resistant Robusta from Africa, recovering its coffee economy.
Today Indonesia is the largest Robusta producer, with arabica making up only about 6 to 10 percent of its total. Coffee farms in India contribute Monsooned Malabar and Robusta Kaapi Royale, while Vietnam is known for drip coffee with condensed milk, egg coffee and yogurt coffee. Comparing varieties, origins and processing methods across these countries shows how differently the same crop develops.
The Asian coffee-producing regions occupy a unique position in the global coffee landscape, known for their rich, full-bodied flavor profile. Front Street Coffee is committed to tasting coffee beans from around the world, comparing different varieties, origins, and processing methods, and building a visual flavor database to help coffee enthusiasts gain a deeper understanding of the coffee world. This article focuses on Asia's three major producing countries—Indonesia, India, and Vietnam—reviewing their respective coffee development histories, growing environments, varietal characteristics, processing techniques, and signature flavors. From Indonesia's Mandheling, Java, and Sulawesi, to India's Monsooned Malabar and Robusta Kaapi Royale, and then to Vietnam's distinctive drip coffee with condensed milk, egg coffee, and yogurt coffee, we present the diverse faces and cultural richness of Asian coffee one by one.
The global coffee-growing belt can be summarized into three major sections: Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Between different sections, and even between different origins within the same section, there are clear differences in coffee varieties, processing methods, and flavor tendencies. The original intention of Front Street Coffee is to drink coffee from all over the world, to get to know various coffee varieties, coffee-producing regions, and multiple processing methods, and to build visual data through comparison so that every fellow coffee lover can understand coffee more deeply. Today, Front Street Coffee is going to talk about the Asian producing regions, where coffee beans as a whole are mainly characterized by richness and body.
Indonesia
The Evolution of Indonesian Coffee
Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia. The story of coffee there began in 1696, when Dutch colonists brought coffee seeds to this land. After successful trial planting, they locked onto Java Island for large-scale expansion. But by 1877, leaf rust disease had almost swept through coffee trees across Indonesia. Arabica varieties could not resist this disease and suffered devastating damage.
Afterward, Indonesia was forced to introduce Robusta from Africa. Because Robusta has outstanding disease resistance, Indonesia's coffee economy gradually recovered. Today, Indonesia is the world's largest producer of Robusta coffee. Arabica accounts for only 6% to 10% of Indonesia's total coffee, including the well-known Mandheling. Robusta is mainly concentrated in southern Sumatra, while Arabica is distributed in northern Sumatra.
Indonesia's Coffee Growing Conditions
Indonesia has a typical tropical rainforest climate, with an average annual temperature of 25 to 27 degrees Celsius, no distinction between the four seasons, and annual rainfall of 1,600 to 2,200 millimeters. Indonesia lies on the volcanic belt, and its soil is highly fertile and rich in minerals, providing a good foundation for coffee growth. Coffee is grown at elevations between 900 and 2,100 meters, with the main growing areas concentrated around 1,200 meters.
Indonesian coffee has two harvest seasons. The main crop season is roughly from September to October, and the secondary crop season is from May to June.
Java Island
Java holds a pivotal position in coffee history. Unlike most Indonesian coffee, which is preliminarily processed on small farms, Java Arabica usually comes from large farms or plantations, often government-operated, and is processed using modern washed methods. The variety is S795, which locals call Jember, and it is a cultivated variety.
Java produces refined aromatic coffee with relatively low acidity, a delicate mouthfeel, and good balance. Its aroma and acidity are better than those of Sumatra and Sulawesi. Java's finest plantations include Blawan, Jambit, Kayumas, and Pankur, among others. Java Mocha coffee is a blend of Java coffee and Yemeni Mocha coffee.
Java coffee's flavor profile is refined and aromatic, with relatively low acidity, a delicate mouthfeel, and good balance. Its aroma and acidity surpass Sumatra's. Java has a tropical rainforest climate, hot and humid year-round, with the highest temperatures on the northern coastal plains and much cooler conditions in the mountains. High humidity often creates an exhausting climate. Because it is located in a volcanic zone, Java's soil is extremely fertile.
Java's better-quality coffees are mostly concentrated in West Java Province in the west. This province is a first-level administrative region of Indonesia, and its coffee usually comes from state-owned or private estates. State-owned estates have government support, making it easier to sell to Europe and America, and they are also more famous. The plantations are basically above 1,400 meters in elevation, and together with the region's typical volcanic soil, they create a unique flavor.
Front Street West Java Malabar Mountain
Region: West Java, Indonesia
Altitude: 1,400-1,800 meters
Processing Method: Natural
Grade: G1
Variety: TIM TIM, Bourbon
Flavor: Berries, plum, citrus, cream, hazelnut, cane sugar, chocolate, oolong tea
Brewing Parameters: V60 dripper, water temperature 90°C, 15 grams of coffee, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, grind size (BG#6S, 70-75% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve)
Careful readers may notice that Front Street Coffee's grinding parameter for this Kenyan coffee bean is different from the other bean mentioned earlier. Every coffee bean has a different grind size because factors such as variety, altitude, processing method, and roast level all have an impact. So when Front Street Coffee receives a newly roasted batch of beans, it first sieves them to determine the appropriate pour-over grind.
Front Street Coffee uses staged extraction: 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour in a thin stream until the water reaches 125 grams and pause, then continue pouring until it reaches 225 grams and stop. The extraction time is 2'00" (timed from the start of the bloom).
Sulawesi Island
Sulawesi, formerly called Celebes, is one of the oldest islands in the archipelago, with exposed rocks over a million years old. The yellow-red podzolic soil common in coffee-producing areas often has multiple clay layers beneath the surface and is rich in iron. The most famous producing area is Toraja in the highlands of South Sulawesi.
Kalosi, south of Toraja, is the main city in the region. There are also two lesser-known areas: west of Mamasa and Gowa south of Kalosi. The few coffees processed by washed methods are quite interesting and worth trying. Semi-washed processing is the method commonly used on Sulawesi Island, and the area also produces a fair amount of Robusta. Sulawesi coffee is known for its full body, rich flavor, and low yet lively acidity.
Most Arabica is grown in the highlands around Tana Toraja, while Kalosi in the south has become a brand.
*Kalosi: A market name for coffee from southwestern Sulawesi Island. It is the small town of Kalosi in central Sulawesi and is the central trading place for Toraja coffee beans.
*Toraja: A growing area located in the highlands of southeastern Sulawesi Island, and also the name of the island's specialty beans. Toraja is not a place name, city name, or variety name, but rather the name of an ethnic group, the Toraja, who live in the central mountains of Sulawesi and are skilled at growing coffee. Toraja is a rare specialty coffee in the world, with annual production of about 1,000 metric tons, distributed across rugged slopes at about 1,200 meters in central and southwestern Sulawesi. Planting and harvesting are both difficult, and the average annual yield is only 300 kilograms per hectare, far below the average of more than 1,000 kilograms in Central and South America.
Toraja has three major estates: "PT Kapal Api" owns 2,000 hectares of coffee plantations; "CSR" ranks second with 1,100 hectares; and Japan's "Key Coffee" estate "Toarco Jaya" is the third largest, with 700 hectares. In other words, Toraja is more precious and rare than Mandheling or Golden Mandheling.
Toraja uses washed or semi-washed processing and has brighter acidity and more layered complexity than Sumatra's Mandheling or Golden Mandheling. It has rich caramel sweetness, but its earthy, musty, and damp-wood notes, as well as its body, are much more restrained than Mandheling's, with a slight floral aroma.
Sumatra Province, Indonesia
Sumatra's best coffee comes from two places: the area near Lake Tawar in northern Central Aceh and the mountains farther south around Lake Toba. Because many smallholder producers use a unique semi-washed processing method, and because the soil lacks iron, green coffee beans from this region can have a special blue hue when fresh.
*Mandheling
It refers to semi-natural or natural beans from the Lintong highlands at 900-1,200 meters on the southwestern shore around Lake Toba in north-central Sumatra, and the Batak people are the backbone of coffee farmers in this area. Front Street Mandheling was once praised as the coffee bean with the fullest body in the world. Mandheling is a trademark used for Arabica coffee from North Sumatra, and the name comes from the Mandailing people who produce coffee in the Tapanuli region of northwestern Sumatra. If you want to drink Indonesian specialty coffee, buy Front Street Mandheling. It has a uniquely herbal, woody, agarwood-like flavor, with a rich, oily, and full-bodied mouthfeel.
*Lintong Producing Area
Front Street Lintong Mandheling is grown at an elevation of 1,200 to 1,500 meters and comes from the most famous coffee in the Lake Toba area of North Sumatra Island. If you want the highest-grade Mandheling, then you should buy Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee. It does not mean Mandheling that is golden in color, but rather that its extremely high grade makes people think of "gold."
Front Street Golden Mandheling is produced in the Gayo region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Harvesting is limited to fully hand-picking individual ripe cherries to ensure initial bean selection quality. The coffee cherries undergo SEMI-WASHED processing, natural sun drying, and after hulling they go through another drying and refining process, two rounds of green bean cleaning, and four rounds of hand-picking. So it can be said to be a strictly selected top-grade Mandheling coffee. The "PWN" mark on Golden Mandheling is the abbreviation of the Indonesian company Pawani, and the Golden Mandheling coffee produced by this company has already been registered in Indonesia.
*Lake Toba is located in central North Sumatra Province. Dutch colonists moved "Java Mandheling" north to the Lake Toba area in 1888. Lintong in South Sumatra and the area around Lake Toba can be called Mandheling, but the Lintong area is the true Mandheling producing region. Mandheling is produced in the mountains around Lake Toba. This lake is located north of Medan, the provincial capital of Sumatra, and is a highland freshwater lake with an average elevation of about 900 meters. What is usually called Mandheling refers to coffee beans of Typica or its variants grown in the mountains around Lake Toba. The lake is diamond-shaped, 100 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide, with an area of 1,130 square kilometers and an average elevation of about 900 meters. It is also the world's largest volcanic lake.
*Lake Tawar is located in central Aceh Special Region. At the northern tip of Sumatra Island, most coffee produced in North Sumatra is Gayo, mainly of the Ateng variety. Lake Tawar in the north can be called Aceh coffee or Lake Tawar coffee. Its area is less than one-tenth that of Lake Toba. However, in recent years its coffee quality and production have surpassed Lake Toba's.
Gayo Mountains, Aceh
Aceh, at an elevation of 1,110 to 1,300 meters, is at the northernmost corner of Sumatra Island. In Aceh Province in northern Sumatra, Gayo coffee is grown on the slopes around Takegon town and Lake Tawar. The elevation in the production area averages between 1,110 and 1,300 meters. The coffee is grown by smallholders under shade trees. Wet-processed coffee of this kind is cleaner, but usually does not have the flavor characteristics of Sumatra coffee. Coffee processed by traditional methods is similar to coffee from Sumatra's Mandheling region, with the advantage of showing unusual flavors and low yet lively body.
Because of long-term political instability, Aceh is not a region most people would visit. The Gayo people are known for their firm character and hard work, and nearly 20% of coffee processors are women.
Because Mandheling coffee is grown at low altitude, its beans are relatively soft. Front Street Coffee mostly chooses medium-dark roasting to highlight its chocolate and caramel flavors and full-bodied mouthfeel. So it is quite suitable for both espresso and pour-over.
For Front Street Mandheling pour-over coffee, it is recommended to use a Kalita trapezoidal dripper or a Kono dripper, because these drippers have a slow flow rate and can provide an immersion effect. During brewing, use a large stream and pour slowly to reduce agitation, letting the coffee steep and extract. This can reduce the chance of over-extraction and improve its body and balance. Choose a medium grind, a water temperature of 86-88°C, and a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:13-1:14.
FLORES
Flores is a small island about 320 kilometers (200 miles) east of Bali. It is one of the Indonesian archipelago and lies at an elevation of 1,200 to 1,700 meters. As a region that entered the coffee industry relatively late, it has nevertheless developed a good reputation for growing coffee.
In the past, a large portion of coffee produced in Flores was commonly sold domestically or exported as part of blends, and it was rarely sold directly under the name "Flores coffee." The island has both active and dormant volcanoes, and the mixture from Bajawa volcano in particular has had a strongly positive impact on the main growing areas. In terms of coffee processing, semi-washed processing is the most common method in the region. Some coffee is still processed by the fully washed method. The harvest period is from May to September.
Timor Island
It is divided into East Timor and West Timor. It originated in the early 20th century. East Timor has not used chemicals or chemical fertilizers in the past 25 years, and it should be the world's largest organic coffee producer. However, because East Timor's political situation is not very stable, exports are difficult. At present, most of the beans available for purchase are from West Timor.
Bali Island
Although it is part of Indonesian coffee, Bali's coffee farmers feel that the quality of Indonesian coffee is uneven and unworthy of Bali's high-quality coffee, so they set up on their own and call it "Bali coffee" to distinguish it from Indonesian coffee. Bali not only has Arabica coffee beans but is also rich in Robusta coffee. According to sources, Bali Golden Coffee is grafted from the roots of Arabica coffee trees and the branches and leaves of Robusta coffee, commonly known as the "Catimor" variety.
Coffee came late to Bali. It first grew in the Kintamani highlands, at an elevation of 1,000 to 1,500 meters. Coffee production was deeply affected in 1963 when Mount Agung erupted, causing more than 20,000 deaths and extensively damaging eastern Bali. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government distributed Arabica seedlings to promote coffee production, but some believe the effect was limited, because today about 80% of the island's production is mostly Robusta beans. Although tourism provides the largest income, agriculture employs the most people on the island, and Japan used to be the largest buyer. The harvest period is from May to October.
* civet coffee (Luwak)
Civet coffee, as coffee in Bali, is not famous for its origin but for its unique new-style processing method. A mammal called the civet eats ripe coffee cherries. After digestion, only the outer flesh of the fruit is digested, while the extremely hard original coffee beans are excreted. After artificial selection, washing, drying, deodorizing, screening, processing, and roasting, it becomes "civet coffee." Because production is very small, and because of its rarity and special taste, this coffee has become one of the rare coffees in the world and one of the most expensive.
Now some companies simply create a product also called "Kopi Luwak," by raising civets artificially and feeding them coffee cherries. Wild civets that are caught are locked in iron cages for three years, constantly fed and made to excrete coffee beans. Many suffer from malnutrition, psychological trauma (zoochosis), and die because they cannot adapt to nature.
Front Street tells you how civet coffee should be drunk.
Medium grind, 15 grams of coffee, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, water temperature 86-88°C
1. Rinse the filter paper.
2. Add the coffee grounds and tap gently to level.
3. Pour in 30 grams of water and bloom for about 30 seconds.
4. Pour in a circular motion to extract, until the water reaches 125 grams, then pause briefly.
5. Slowly pour again in a circular motion until it reaches 225 grams.
6. Once the water has fully drained, remove the dripper and enjoy.
Soil Types
In the highlands of Aceh, Bali, Papua, and Flores, the soil is mainly Andosols. The rule for forming the term comes from the Japanese words an (black) and do (soil). These young soils come from volcanic material and are highly fertile, containing important trace nutrients. In Java and Lintong, the soil for Arabica coffee is a combination of Andosols and Umbrisols. Umbrisols are weathered volcanic soils, somewhat like brown podzolic soil, mixed with a considerable amount of organic material.
Varieties
More than 20 varieties of Arabica coffee circulate in Indonesia's commercial market. Common ones include Caturra, Catimor, Timor Hybrid, Typica, Robusta, Liberica, Ekselsa, and Sidikalong, among others. The best known is Typica, the original cultivated variety introduced by the Dutch. When Indonesian coffee was attacked by leaf spot disease, many Typica varieties disappeared in the late 1880s. However, in Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Flores, especially at high altitudes and in remote areas, it is still possible to find the local Typica varieties Bergandal and Sidikalang.
There is also a type called Longberry Mandheling, also known as TimTim. It is a bean from Indonesia. Because of its long shape, many people call it horse-face bean, and some call it longberry Mandheling. In fact, Tim Tim is not a pure variety, but a natural hybrid of Arabica coffee trees and Robusta coffee trees. This variety was discovered on Timor Island in the 1940s and was cultivated because of its natural disease resistance. In the Americas, this variety is called Hybrido de Timor, or Tim Tim for short. In Indonesia, this variety is also called Bor Bor.
After coffee beans are screened by size, some producers store the coffee for one to three years before selling it. This process gives the coffee a very mild and warm character, with woody and cinnamon notes. Fresh beans slowly change color, from dark yellow to brown.
Processing Methods
The three main processing methods are natural sun drying, semi-washed, and fully washed. Because the climate is humid and rain is frequent, wet-hulling is commonly used in pursuit of more efficient drying. Most coffee farmers also harvest only fully red coffee cherries. After collecting the coffee cherries in the morning, they remove the skin and flesh in the afternoon. Sumatra's natural environment is superior, and most of the water used is mountain spring water.
1. Remove the skin from the coffee fruit and place the parchment beans into a large bucket or tank filled with water, skimming off defective floating parchment beans.
2. Briefly wash the dense parchment beans that have sunk to the bottom, take them out, and put them into a bucket or plastic bag for a short dry fermentation—that is, allowing the pectin sugars on the parchment surface to ferment and add flavor. Basically, the longer the fermentation, the heavier the acidity. Fermentation time varies from person to person, generally only a few hours, but some estates omit the dry fermentation stage and directly sun-dry the parchment beans, which can suppress acidity and increase body, allowing the pectin sugars to fully ferment and increase flavor. Fermentation usually lasts between 12 and 36 hours, depending on the specific situation.
3. Sun-dry the parchment beans for one to two days, until the moisture content reaches 30%-50%. The beans are still half hard and half soft. Use a huller to scrape off the parchment and dry again to accelerate the drying process. After about two days, when the moisture content reaches 12%-13%, the coffee beans are collected into woven bags, usually 40 kilograms or 80 kilograms per bag, and sent to a coffee processing factory for hulling. It is then complete. The whole process takes about four days.
Risks of wet-hulling: The beans are easily damaged and cracked into sheep-hoof shapes, and the chance of contamination by mold, fungi, and yeast also increases greatly.
Green Bean Grading
Defective beans are an important factor that destroys the final coffee flavor. Therefore, in the last step of green bean processing, defective beans must also be removed. So the proportion of defective beans, supplemented by sieve size, is also used as a grading method. With the rise of the specialty coffee trend, coffee-producing countries are paying more and more attention to coffee quality. Controlling defective beans is one of the most important ways to do this, so basically the method of grading by defective bean proportion, or using it as a supplementary basis, is becoming more and more common. Indonesian coffee beans use this defective bean proportion grading method. Indonesian beans are mainly divided into 6 grades, namely G1-G6.
Grading by defect rate (based on 300g), Grade standards:
G1 Grade1 Total defects fewer than 11
G2 Grade2 Total defects greater than 12 and fewer than 25
G3 Grade3 Total defects greater than 26 and fewer than 44
G4a Grade4a Total defects greater than 45 and fewer than 60
G4b Grade4b Total defects greater than 61 and fewer than 80
G5 Grade5 Total defects greater than 81 and fewer than 150
G6 Grade6 Total defects greater than 151 and fewer than 225
India
Coffee cultivation in India is mainly located in the southern region, in mountainous terrain with ample moisture, at elevations of 800-1,600 meters. Few coffee origins in the world have such rich biodiversity as this place: forests, herbs, shrubs, flowers, and animal populations form a spectacular paradise. Summer is generally tropical, while winter is quite cool, providing an excellent environment for all coffee farmers. Coffee flowering is a wonder worth experiencing in person. Throughout the flowering season, people can see landscapes dotted with white flowers, giving off an inviting fragrance, with bees and butterflies dancing among the flowers. Across the whole region, coffee flowers spread out like a white sea, like jewels on the coffee farmers' crown.
Production Situation
You may not imagine that India produces much more coffee than Ethiopia or any single Central American country—900,000 hectares of land are planted with coffee. India has about 140,000 coffee farms, and more than 90% of the farms are less than 10 mu in area, belonging to small-scale cultivation. These farms are distributed along the coastal mountain ranges in the south and east. Annual production is about 440,000-450,000 bags, making India the world's fifth-largest coffee producer. Nearly 80% of the country's coffee production is exported to Germany, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, the United States, Japan, Greece, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and other places. Most exported coffee beans are transported through the Suez Canal.
Producing Regions
Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu are India's main coffee-producing regions, together accounting for more than 90% of the country's coffee production. Today, two-thirds of India's coffee is Robusta, and only one-third is Arabica. Coffee is mainly distributed in Karnataka in the southwest, where both are grown, accounting for 50% of India's total coffee production; Kerala in the south focuses on Robusta, accounting for 30% of total production; Tamil Nadu in the southeast grows both, accounting for 10% of India's total coffee production; the remaining 10% is scattered in emerging northern producing areas.
Cultivated Varieties
[Kent]
A Typica hybrid variety discovered in 1911 at the Kent coffee estate in the Mysore region of India. It was bred by crossing S288 with Typica and has high yield and rust resistance. Its coffee aroma is fuller than Bourbon's, and it has been introduced to new-world producing countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, making an outstanding contribution.
[S795]
This variety was developed in India in the 1940s by crossing Kent (a Typica selection: tall, high-yielding, and highly resistant to leaf rust) with Coffea Liberica. In 1955, the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI) named it Jember, and it is widely planted in India, Indonesia, and Ethiopia. This variety has some resistance to coffee leaf rust, but the resistance decreases over time, and it has a maple syrup or brown sugar-like taste. S795 is currently India's main variety, accounting for 70% of total Arabica production.
[S274]
India's most famous small-bean Robusta, sold on the market as Robusta Kaapi Royale, is the world's noblest Robusta bean. This Kaapi Royale, at 16/17 screen size, has a clean surface, hard bean quality, and a plump, very beautiful appearance. Compared with ordinary natural-process Robusta, Kaapi Royale has no irritating astringency, earthy smell, or even rubbery taste. Some say it has the flavor of Japanese genmaicha. It is said that drinking it alone does not taste much like coffee, but is full of tea character and has very high body.
[Sln C×R]
This is India's newest espresso blend bean. It breaks away from Arabica-Robusta hybrids and is instead a hybrid of Congensis and Robusta, namely Congensis × Robusta. At present, this coffee has entered the American specialty coffee scene. It is naturally processed and tastes of Indian spices, with a slight fruity acidity. It is said to be a very unconventional experience. Sln C×R is expected to become a strong rival to Monsooned Malabar and Robusta Kaapi Royale.
Processing Methods
Monsooned Malabar—A Wonderful Work of the Age of Sail
As early as the 17th century, India was already an important supplier of coffee to Europe besides Yemen's Mocha Port. At that time, most Indian coffee beans were shipped by sailing ship to the European continent on a voyage of about six months.
During the voyage lasting more than half a year, because of the sea breeze and because the beans absorbed moisture and saltiness from the ship's hold, the coffee beans changed in both appearance and taste: the green beans gradually changed from dark green to a yellowish-brown color like rice grains, and the beans also swelled and became larger.
The coffee's fruit acidity was smoothed away during this process, replaced by flavors such as nuts, caramel, and tea aroma (this matured flavor transformation is also somewhat similar to aged Sumatra beans), as well as a full mouthfeel. Indian monsooned beans indeed have their own unique flavor. They usually taste strongly of nuts and grain sweetness, with almost no acidity, and often carry genmaicha aroma. It is said that at the time Nordic people were very fond of this special golden coffee.
Coffee traders skilled in business naturally sensed market consumer demand. Interestingly, after the Suez Canal opened in 1869, and with the advent of steamships, travel time from India to Europe was greatly shortened. This should have been a major advantage for merchants selling Indian coffee, but unexpectedly European customers instead complained that the coffee had lost its flavor, causing orders to plummet.
Investigating why old customers were no longer buying, it turned out that the opening of the canal made voyage times too short. A mere two-to-three-month shipping period meant the flavor did not have time to "mature." Without the extra touch provided by the sea breeze, gourmets no longer liked it. Only then did merchants discover that this accidental deliciousness was originally a four-hand duet between the ocean and time.
So this magical country invented a unique processing method unlike any other—monsooning.
Monsooned coffee must be made from natural beans. All facilities processing monsooned coffee face west, to welcome the salty, damp monsoon blowing in from the southwestern sea. The coffee beans are spread flat in the monsoon yard with all windows open. After monsooning to a certain degree, they are bagged. But because the beans swell considerably during the process, the coffee beans cannot be packed too full, and the coffee bags cannot be piled too densely either, to avoid mold and spoilage from lack of ventilation. The coffee beans also need to be poured out from time to time and the burlap sacks changed to prevent mold growth. It is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive process.
Monsoon coffee is stored in special warehouses until the monsoon arrives. The ventilation structure is designed so that the humid monsoon air circulates among the coffee beans, causing them to swell and take on a rich but strong musty smell.
The monsooning period lasts about twelve to sixteen weeks. After maturing, the coffee must also undergo smoking treatment to drive away weevils, and finally manual bean sorting to remove failed beans that have not turned golden yellow. After three to four months of monsooning, the green coffee beans swell to one or two times their size, and their weight and density decrease.
The monsoon processing craft is labor-intensive: the coffee is spread out in special ventilated warehouses and raked or turned by hand so that the beans absorb moisture from the humid wind. The entire process lasts 12 to 16 months. During this process, the beans swell to twice their original volume and take on a dull golden yellow color. Then, through additional processing, beans that have not fully expanded are removed, and the remaining coffee is ready for export.
Although monsooned Malabar coffee beans look large and plump, they are actually soft beans that appear strong but are weak inside. This is the change produced by months of weathering. The coffee beans are exposed to the humid monsoon for weeks, which not only turns the beans yellow but also greatly reduces the coffee's own acidity, giving it a very special mouthfeel. Besides being drunk as a single origin, Indian Malabar coffee beans are also very suitable for use in blends.
Front Street Coffee chooses medium-dark roasting to roast Malabar coffee, but because of the special processing method, the color after roasting is especially light, and the roast color differs greatly from a normal roast level.
Front Street India Monsooned Malabar Coffee
Region: Malabar Coast, southern India
Altitude: 1,100-1,200 meters
Variety: Kents, S795, Catimor, selection 9
Processing Method: Monsooned natural process
Brewing Parameters: Kono dripper, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee grounds, medium-fine grind (70-75% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve)
The brewing method uses staged extraction: 30g water for a 30-second bloom, pour in a thin stream until 125g and stop, then pour again until 225g and finish. The total extraction time is 2 minutes.
Flavor: Rich caramel, raisins, herbal notes, a mouthfeel like genmaicha, with a berry finish.
Vietnam
The Origins of Vietnamese Coffee
Vietnamese coffee was brought to Vietnam around 1860 by French Jesuit missionaries. Over nearly 150 years of history, Vietnam has gradually developed its own unique coffee culture. Today, from Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in the south, to Sapa, a mountain town on the border between central and northern Vietnam, walking the streets you can often see canvas awnings and sun umbrellas clustered or piled by the roadside, with lounge chairs, hammocks, or even small stools facing the street underneath, and simple aluminum drip filters on low tables beside them. People sit, lie, or cross their legs, sipping (experience it—not drinking, not gulping, not sucking, not licking, it must be sipping) capheda (iced coffee). Once the coffee is sipped and half a pack of cigarettes smoked, a whole morning or two-thirds of an afternoon has been whiled away.
Strolling through Vietnam's streets, cafes large and small can be seen everywhere. Ordinary Vietnamese people use a Vietnamese coffee maker to slowly drip coffee and pass an afternoon of leisure. Vietnamese coffee is not made by brewing in a coffee pot, but by using a special drip coffee cup to "drip."
There are not a few countries famous for their unique coffee cultures. Italy, France, the United States, and Turkey all have their own origins and traditions, but Vietnam is still somewhat different. In Vietnam, the price of a cup of coffee ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 Vietnamese dong, and most small shops do not exceed 20,000 dong, which works out to only about the price of a bottle of mineral water. Compared with the domestic price of a cup of bitter, hard-to-swallow latte at thirty or forty yuan, this is simply a coffee lover's paradise.
Most Traditional
Drip Condensed Milk Coffee
Vietnam was once a French colony, and the romantic, pleasure-loving French brought coffee culture here. After so many years, Vietnamese people still maintain this ancient way of drinking coffee—drip brewing. The method is very simple: sprinkle coffee grounds onto the press plate of the drip cup, press firmly, then pour in hot water, and all that remains is to patiently wait for the coffee to slowly drip down through the small holes. However, the coffee obtained by dripping is extremely black and full of bitterness, and few people can enjoy such bitter coffee.
Creative Vietnamese people pour a thick layer of condensed milk into the bottom of the cup. This improvement produces a magical pairing: the rich sweetness of condensed milk and the bitterness of Vietnamese coffee are truly a match made in heaven. The sweetness is unexpectedly intense, yet it does not blend together with the bitterness of black coffee. The two tastes of sweet richness and bitterness coexist between the teeth. It is said that friends who have been to Vietnam all cannot forget that taste.
Most Special
Egg White Coffee
Just as signature cocktails are made by mixing base liquor with egg white, coffee can also be paired with egg white. This is egg white coffee, which can only be tasted in Vietnam. Some jokingly call it "Vietnam's cappuccino." The cafe owner skillfully separates fresh eggs into yolks and whites. The egg white liquid is quickly whipped into foam in a high-speed mixer. The ideal state for the egg white is when fine lines appear. Then pour in coffee just enough to cover the bottom of the cup. Carefully take a sip of this specially made delicacy: the bitterness of the coffee neutralizes the eggy smell, and the egg white also stimulates the coffee's aroma—a great sense of satisfaction.
Most Refreshing
Yogurt Coffee
In Vietnam, most restaurants and drink shops do not use air conditioning. Imagine walking for half a day under a 37-degree sun, then entering a restaurant without air conditioning. You definitely would not have much appetite for food, so start with a cup of refreshing yogurt coffee to whet your appetite.
Coffee's greatest fear is sourness, yet Vietnamese people mix yogurt and coffee together, and the taste is unexpectedly good. In a cup of yogurt coffee, you can taste the detailed changes of coffee's acidity, aroma, sweetness, and other layers. It drinks refreshingly and without burden. This delicate flavor transformation makes it impossible to resist after just one sip. In addition, Vietnamese yogurt is also praised by all travelers who have been there: thick in texture, on the sweet side, and perfect with coffee.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
