Thank you for the video! The Monsooned Malabar (MM) that I have is actually denser than the Central American coffees that I have which calls for a completely different profile and considerations than this video. MM has been well known to the espresso lovers but probably went out of fashion the last decade due to the likes for a "clean cup" provided by the central american's . MM is often described as "earthy" in taste and is "aged" coffee alike Sumatra Mandheling (often described as "syrupy" in taste). Note that some producers sell it already blended with some robusta (not a bad thing, just a fact). Roasting it at home will certainly allow you to bring more of the taste notes that you like. I am a beginner and not ready to suggest a roasting profile, yet. I was roasting a decaf MM which is even more difficult to nail down. Behmor's manual suggests roasting at P3 vs P1 or P1 (for the central american's). My humble results so far are under roasted beans with fantastic floral and sweet taste countered by sour taste. This was with 2 min after the 1 crack (which is very noticeable). As to the crema, I'd rather wait for several days the CO2 to go away as it brings unwanted sourness. Looking forward to more on this cannel!
Hello Nikolay. More dense than a Central American? That is interesting. The MM I had on my video was as light as Styrofoam. Thanks for sharing your experience with this coffee. My experience with the Behmor is it is under powered. So preheating and using P1 in the manual mode (100% power) is what I use during the dry phase. Now, if I were roasting that MM I had using the Behmor, then I think I would need to lower the power like you mentioned. Sounds like you are having a lot of fun roasting. Thank you for our comments and watching my videos!
Monsooned Malabar was the first coffee I roasted that had an offensive aroma to me in whole bean form. The short version of the story is that I set it aside and revised the aroma daily for about ten days as it was so baffling to me. I also tried to brew it during this time and it was awful. Around day ten, the funky aroma went away, which peeked my curiosity so I brewed it. To my surprise it was really good. I have since roasted this coffee numerous times with the same results in terms of the flavors improving once the aroma improves.
Thank you for sharing this Larry. I have been holding on to some because you and others have said to wait a long time. I guess it makes sense. Everything else about this coffee is strange, so why not a resting time that is 3 times longer. haha
Thanks for making the video and sharing your experience. I roasted it as well. In the first try I used a little less temperature than I usually use on washed beans, the Beans got charred within minutes. Then I used a lot less temperature and aimed for the 2nd Crack. In tasting ( I brewed a cappuccino) the beans acquired a LOT of chocolaty, creamy and caramely flavor, which is not usual in other beans. I also added a little bit of Ceylon when I brewed the next time, the combination tasted really good. It was dark, chocolatey, tobaccoey and spicy . I use an oven for roasting so I don't have the data, that's the reason I wanted you to give me the technical followup. As @Edward Ebel said in the comment below this coffee shines in cappuccino and latte.
Hi Vishal, i hope my tech info was useful. I can see this coffee being used in a cappuccino or latte. Like i mentioned in the video, it isn't my type of coffee but I'm glad I had an opportunity to roast and taste it. Thanks for watching my videos and for your suggestion!
Hi and Thanks for the excellent video. I have roasted Monsooned Malabar a couple of weeks ago. I had a continuous descending ROR (Aillio Bullet - 800gr.) and overcome the crash/flick issue by using the "energy dip" technique. Practically, reduced the Power from 8 to 5 at 170C, increased back from 5 to 6 at 175C and had FC at 190C. Unfortunately I did not have enough momentum to end the roast at 12 min as planned and it got extended till 13:30 minutes. Color was darker than yours and I liked very much the taste with strong hints of sweetness. Once again, thanks!
Sergio, I'm glad you had some good success with your roast on the Malabar. I have used the energy dip, sometimes with success and others without. I've been trying to work that technique out. I think that a higher fan setting can cause too much loss of energy when using the dip. I have had the same experience where you loose the momentum and I think it was because of too much air. Something for me to practice on for sure. Thanks for sharing your comments and for watching my videos.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks for your response. With your permission I will keep this thread open. Will continue to practice and share results. Lot of fun!
@@sergiokusevitzky5571 just be sure to ping me with the @ so I see your messages if you reply to this same message thread you and I have going. Otherwise, I don' t get notified and they go unnoticed. Thanks
First time I roasted this - I completely burnt it.. second time was beautiful. I am using a Bocaboca 500. Tasting for first time tomorrow - super excited. I got the beans directly from a farm in madikeri.
Yea, that coffee seems to want to light on fire. I’m glad your second roast was better! Let me know how it tastes. Are you from India? Or is the farm just selling direct online?
Thanks for this vid. I will be attempting to roast this later this week. Just a quick note: Malabar is well known for its crema when used in espresso. I have never thought of using it as a brewed coffee. The taste is a bit strange, but I use it in combination with other coffees to pull shots of espresso. (You need two grinders to do this because combining two different beans in one espresso grinder is problematic.). I grind 10-15 grams of Malabar into a double or triple basket, and then grind the other coffee (maybe Yirgacheffe or Karundu) on top. The Malabar will give great crema and really work to prevent channeling and the other varietal will provide a different flavor to offset the “unique” Malabar taste. Been doing this for a few years now. However, I have recently gotten a flow control attachment on my espresso machine and that has helped deal with channeling….I have experienced shots pulled with 100% Malabar in the basket coming out as 80% crema…if only the taste was a bit less…er…unique. Anyway, I have five pounds to roast so I will update if I find anything worth mentioning. Again, thanks!
That is very interesting Edward. Thank you for sharing that. I'm not an espresso guy but I followed along well with your description. I wonder why the Malabar prevents channeling? What do you think makes it unique? I notices when I ground the Malabar beans it was like sending butter through the grinder. No effort at all and a quick grind. I'm looking forward to hearing your roasting experience with the Malabar.Thanks for sharing and watching my video !
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I suspect that the Malabar prevents channeling because it expands [somewhat] quickly when the water hits it in the portafilter. Maybe this is because the beans have expanded before roasting from the processing that you described in the video (thanks for that, by the way!) I will let you know my roasting results...which may come a bit later than expected as I have to roast outdoors and the Wash DC area is about to get a return of hot and humid. Glad to have cooler and dryer weather getting closer. Cheers
The only Bean that I've had a fire with! ( Behmor 2000) Couldn't hear FC. I thought 2nd C was first, then fireball. Suffice to say, much more attentive and gentle with heat application on the next attempt. Changes I made was lower Drop in temp and dropped ROR prior to anticipated FC. This worked. I use Monsoon Malabar ( conservatively) to add body to my Blends. This works well. Not a fan on of it on its own. FYI, I brew on a Rocket Giotto V, Grinder Eureka Atom. Thanks for the Video.
Thanks for your comment and for watching my video. Fire 🔥 in the behmor! That would have been a sight but I totally believe it with the Monsoon Malabar. Crack was quiet when I roasted it as well but man, fire! Blends have always been interesting to me. Thanks for sharing the tips!
I do a drop temp of 370 with 30 min soak then hit it with 2 kpa at browning Turn up the drum air a little over half an turn down the gas at 1 kpa 1 crack hits for me around 7 min around 8 min I turn off the gas an let it coast to around 9 or so min or till a smooth brown then drop it around 9-9:30 min
Ahhh, you setup your 500 gram roaster! Nice. How is it going? Thanks for sharing how you roast the Monsooned Malabar. Yea, that coffee is so low density that coasting is the only thing you can do to prevent a huge upward flick before drop. 👍
Yea, the Monsoon coffees are weird to roast. When roasting on a new roasting device, find a coffee you can roast over and over and by changing one variable at a time, learn your roaster Shane.
Have picked up some Monsooned Malabar a few months ago, just have not gotten around to roasting it. The “green” beans are so much unlike any other beans I have seen. They are very unique
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I did a sample roast of this yesterday and cupped it today. I definitely feel like I like the aroma better than the taste. It was very much on the earthy/woody side as you said with no acidity at all. A while back I had roasted a Sulawesi Toraja coffee. Tasted like sweet vanilla tobacco. It has been one of my favorites and definitely my favorite “earthy” type flavored coffee so far.
Thanks for the follow-up. Glad you had a chance to try it Kaleb. I think you will find the taste change over the next day or two. For me, it got more intense. I'm glad I had the experience but the Monsooned Malabar won't be my go to in the future that's for sure. I like the Sulawesi coffees. The tobacco, some earthy notes, that's all good but I really enjoy the sweetness. My favorite was a Sulawesi Bone Bone I purchased from Sweet Marias about 5 years ago. It was really good stuff.
Hi, slightly long question aleart! :D Firstly thankyou for your channel. It's helped be put some discipline to my roasting efforts. I am from India and I am a home roaster for past 2 years. I started with pan roasting with not knowing what coffee I'm roasting, to pop corn maker roasting with roasting different plantation coffees washed and natural. My latest upgrade is a 100g air roaster with air flow and 3 levels of heat control. I also insert a thermocouple which gives me a broad idea of the bean temperatures with some imagination (as hot air is blowing in the chamber) I am having some trouble with my roasts. I am doing a 9-10 minute roast I aim for medium roast and experiment between 1st and beginning of 2nd crack for my roast. The problem in my cupping/ tasting is that I am getting grassy and sour acidity and mild hay aroma in my coffee. I am roasting Attikan estate Selection 9 variety washed Arabica beans which have good complexity. (Considering roasts by specialty roasters of same coffee.) There are hints of chocolate and berries but I'm not able to bring them out as the grassy earthy is masking it. I am doing a 3:30 minute drying, 4 minute browning till i smell some tangy notes just before 1st crack at 7:30/8 and develop till 9/ 9:30 till watching the beans and as the acidic tangy smell starts reducing. Will you be able to guide on how to loose the earthy grassy hay and bring out the berry and chocolate out with some mild acidty? I have had this problem with other coffees also that I have roasted. What should I look for? In terms of smell against temperature of the development? Hoping I can find some help here. Thanks again for creating this greatly resourceful channel. Cheers! Aniruddha
Hello Aniruddha, thank you for watching my videos. Because you are experiencing this result on multiple different coffees, I would say your brew is under extracted. Check your grind settings, go finer. What brew method are you using? What is your brew ratio? What type of grinder are you using?
I forgot to also suggest you might consider using an immersion brew method like French press or clever dripper to help eliminate the possibility of your brew technique.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hi thank you for your reply. This helped to a great extent. I am brewing it pourover with a meduim fine grind, ground with a ceramic bur type hand grinder. I am brewing 10 grams in 180/200g water, boiled in electric kettle (so temperature is always consistent) To check on extraction, I did cupping style arrangement of 2 different roasts of the same coffee. The roasts are 4 and 5 days old. I did 4 consecutive tastings of both a minute apart after immersing. And yes this one needed 3 minutes for both roasts to bring out the more desirable notes. I am planning to study a resting time for this coffee as well. Thanks a ton for you feedback. Cheers!
Probably my favorite coffee, bought it roasted for many years and then roasted a few times with a heat gun and also a popcorn popper. Recently bought a Behmor 2020, still learning and adjusting but I have got a few pretty good roasts.
Hello Fredrik, thanks for watching the video and sharing your experience. Did you notice the beans being very lightweight and pale like I did? How long are you waiting after you roast before you drink the Malabar? I'm glad you have gotten some good results and congrats on your new Behmor!
@Virtual Coffee Lab - Home Coffee Roaster Thank you for great videos. Yes they are pale and bigger, less dense than most beans. I find it difficult seeing when the dry phase ends but it also has to do with the behmors light which has a yellow tone. I found the total roast time is similar with other beans though. I usually wait 2-3 days before start drinking, the latest roast day 5-6 tasted a little better but it is a little early to definitely say it was the extra degassing it could have been brewing differences.
Hi Steve, good luck with the roast. One thing I didn't mention in my video is my gas valve is very sensitive. My max gas on my current gauge has a range from 1-5 Kpa while I only use 1-2Kpa in my range. I have a new gauge that has better increments and is 0-2 Kpa range so I will be able to better see the very small changes I make. This will hopefully help with some of my issues with coffee that is very sensitive to heat changes. Let me know how it goes if you decide to buy some.
I roasted Monsooned Malabar and noticed almost no chaff, which was totally unexpected. You are spot on about FC noise. Targeted FC at 4:55. But didn't hear it until 5:55. Beans look lighter for 7:30 total roast time. But they gave nice aroma. Normally when I roast any beans, I get absolutely no aroma. This MM bean is totally different for me. I am curious how it tastes. Previously I bought Dark, Med-Dark roasted MM from roasters. But they all tasted below average. I targeted Dark and got Medium looking coffee. But the roast loss was 16%. I used Ikawa Nicaragua profile.
The thumbnail of me displays my distaste for Monsoon Malabar coffee. The moisture loss for these beans weird. I think because of the strange processing and the low density beans, moisture loss is going to be high. When you taste it, you might experience some really dark chocolate, kind of bitter notes, with some musty jungle type notes. The stuff lights on fire and carbonizes quickly. I hope you enjoy it!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I hear you. I was told MM is only good for blending in small %. I wonder how folks in Malabar make coffee out of it. I guess it'll be good for milk based coffee drinks.
For this video I waited for long. I totally failed with this coffee. It always turned out undrinkable with very sharp aromas.But many roasters like monsooned Malabar . And I am sure you also will give it a try again. I heard that especially Malabar needs time for degassing and reaching its optimum- Thank you for the profile! This coffee must have quite different criteria for roasting. Maybe the ET was still too high, so it ended as kind of of a run-away-roast despite emergency brake.
Hi Erhard, yes, this coffee is really sensitive to heat. My ET was very low compared to a "normal" coffee I would roast. That stored up energy of a high ET would have pushed my roast way to fast through the phases. I waited a few days on the first roast for the reason you mentioned. That coffee was not overwhelming but it was somewhat intense. Thanks for sharing.
Boy, I wished I watched this before buying two pounds of green. I’m not sure I’d like a swampiness flavor note. Have you tried going lighter on this? I haven’t roasted it yet but was thinking of trying today. Good video.
So I did two batches today and I thinks the roasts went ok. I took your advice, I lowered the charge from 165C to 160, and decreased my batch size to account for the larger bean sizes. My ROR was a steady decline although in the dev phase the ROR was kinda wavy. My phases were approx 45, 35, and 25%, with a total time of 10:42 and drop temp of 205C. I wanted to go longer to end at a higher temp but the roast was running out of steam. Weight loss was not very much, only about 12% which would suggest a light roast but I was long after FC which occurred at 8:03 and 193.5C. Maybe the lower moisture loss could be attributed to the drying process of the coffee cherry, I don’t know. Hopefully it doesn’t taste like a swamp!
Because this is such a low density coffee you did the right thing and didn’t push the roast too hard. Now you know how it behaves you can make the necessary adjustments. If you want to go darker then you need to apply a little more energy between dry and first crack to elevate your temps a little and enter first crack at a slightly higher ror to give you that slightly higher rending temp.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thank you Mike, I’ll give that a shot. For my last bean, an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, I started dialling the heat back at dry end and had my best roast yet, and applied the same logic here, and I think I could just hold the temp a bit longer after dry end before reducing the heat, to keep my ROR in decline.
Very new to roasting, this was my second bag of green beans (first was that cheap Nicaraguan Amazon stuff). I'm using either a frying pan or a popcorn popper depend ing on how lazy I'm feeling and a few things jumped at me. My settings for the other beans did NOT work on the stovetop for this one. They almost immediately started scorching so I was stuck in recovery mode right out of the gate to not wreck it worse than I already had. Second big observation was there was NO mess. It was chaffless! That could be why it cooks so quickly - its not shedding a skin like the other coffee did, so the heat was instant going in without that layer of protection the chaff has! (utter newb guess, so likely wrong on that one). I have a feeling the batch I just roasted is wrecked (very dark, because I had way too much heat for what it was), but I'll give it a second attempt later on with the stove temps lower by abouit 75 degrees. (I use a heat sensor to temp the pan before tossing the beans in, seems to help).
Hi John, welcome to the world of home coffee roasting. You touched on a couple of important points. I'll hit those and then ask a few questions for you to consider. 1. Bean quality is one of the most important decisions you can make. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. Starting with good quality coffee gives you a head start towards a great cup. 2. Scorching, as you identified is not a good thing. Keeping the beans moving, not simply sliding around in the pan is really important. 3. Heat management is key. You want to preheat your pan and have a temperature that will move the roasting process along as quick as you can without causing roasting defects. 4. Batch size is critical. If you have too many beans in the pan, the roast will take a long long time and you will have boring flat coffee. You want to have a layer of beans in the pan but not a pile. That way, all the beans are roasting. Frying pan roasting uses conductive heat. Direct contact with the hot metal is its primary energy supply, not necessarily hot air like drum roasters and of course air roasters. So, you want the beans to be in contact with the pan and fewer beans will allow that to happen. What was your roasting temperature? How long did it take to roast your beans? How far into the roasting process are you taking your coffee? First crack, second crack???? How are you brewing this coffee? Let me know and i might be able to offer a few more suggestions if you are interested.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I lost my paper I'd jotted the temps down on, but I want to say it was about 6 1/2 minutes at about 425 degrees - being on the stovetop I think that it was probably (much) higher than that before things were done, but I couldn't stop to retemp things. I went to about a minute after the first crack before throwing it in my colander to start cooling. It actually didn't taste bad, but I also probably ground it before I should have. I tried again with the pan down to 375, and prepared to keep it moving this time a lot more. That batch came out a lot nicer looking, but I haven't ground it yet because I'm trying to give ita good week before diving in. This took longer - about 7 1/2 minutes, but it looks a LOT better/more even. Foir what its worth, I'm using a steel pan rather than a cast iron - its one of those larger sized WearEvers with the steel plate on the bottom (picked it up at a thrift store so cost me next to nothing). The sides are steeper which means I can get a bit more zealous with flipping the pan around moving the beans. Its also lighter than my cast iron so I'm not quite killing my wrists as fast, which is a huge help. The overall end result was a LOT better than what happened with the cast iron before for me. I also tried the popcorn popper - it worked VERY well in that, but I was impatient and ground it before it was probably ready to be ground. It definitely had that 'ocean' taste to it for lack of a better word. The best I can describe it is it was an almost piney slant to it (probably what you called the swampiness - to me it reminded me of my grandmother's cedar-sided house at the shore as a kid, like I'd pulled a shingle off and started sucking on it or something). It wasn't a *bad* taste, just very different. My brewer is one of those Ninjas's, so a somewhat higher end drip brewer. One last observation - I think I've wrecked myself for store-bought coffee. Even when I completely botched the first batch of this stuff it was still better than the off the shelf bags I've been getting.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Sop I just brewed up that second batch - its MUCH better than the first. The slower and lower approach made a huge, huge difference. That swamp taste is much less noticeable and its nowhere near as 'evergreen' as the first batch was. Not sure if my screwing up and forgetting to grind the things made any difference though - I accidentally threw the beans in the filter whole and ran the brewer (oops) so had to re-dry them afterwards overnight before grinding. I was very confused at first why I had almost clear coffee that second time!
I noticed that the coffee taste totally different a few days after the roast. It was more intense. Sometimes waiting several days before drinking is a good idea, while other times, waiting too long you miss out. Experiment by tasting each day after the roast and determine what the best length of rest might be for that coffee.
I'm dying to make this one work for me. I have bought more Monsooned Malabar roasted beans than any other coffee. I just love it. The taste as espresso is absolutely sublime when I get it right (making good espresso is as much of a challenge for me as making a good roast). That's from a reputable roaster though. I'm a new roaster myself now, and out of the 9 roasts I've done, 6 have been Monsooned Malabar. Can't say I've had success yet, though I feel that I'm getting closer. My 9th roast looks and smells very good. I want it to sit for a couple more days before I try it since I'm an espresso drinker. If it turns out to be a winner, I'll share my recipe, which might as least help some Behmor users.
Thanks for sharing Rich. I can say from experience that it isn’t my favorite coffee. I’m glad you enjoy that type of coffee. If you have success please share your recipe! It would be much appreciated!
What an endeavor! This teaches us all to try different things when roasting and see what happens. My first curiosity is how a 14% final development roast would taste, or even a 12%. Since you could not tell Dry End by a color change, just how did you determine it? Did your nose detect any noticeable change? Did the beans look any different in any way? I wonder if the slightly different shades of roasted bean color are characteristic of that coffee? You mentioned it not being easy to detect Dry End and Browning begin. I had a similar problem when I roasted decaf a couple of days ago. The bean color did not change noticeably at the end of the Drying Phase. Since my "green" decaf beans actually looked kind of blotchy brown, I really didn't notice any visual change until at least 1 minute into the Browning Phase (BP). But I did notice a slight change when into BP when it started smelling more grassy, like something was baking. But what I have to keep reminding myself is the exact duration times of the first two phases really don't matter when calculating the Development Time Ratio (DTR). All that is needed is the time to first crack FC, and the overall roast time (RT). DTR = (RT - FC) / RT.
Yep, your right about the DTR calculation. Yes the color cannot be relied on, just like the decaf. I used my nose to call dry end. Was it accurate??? Truthfully, no way to know for sure. That is part of what makes this coffee so hard to roast. I could smell the transition from the grassy wet musty smell to a more baked smell but the range of accuracy is just to large to pinpoint. I had to basically guess. I would say + - 10 seconds or maybe 15. Not a good thing but enough to make a difference on the percentages...
Hi Bill, thanks for your comment and watching my video. I'm hearing that from quite a few people. What are you using to roast your beans? How long are you letting the coffee rest after roasting before you brew ?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I roasted this coffee on a genie Cafe and a hot top roaster and I always let my beans set at least overnight or maybe two days in open air before I bag it up and grind it.
Hello Kamal, there are many types of devices to use to roast coffee as well as heat sources. Safety is always important. As far as a frying pan, it will work. Continually moving the beans is really important because you will burn the beans and that will affect your taste. The heat gun is a good source of heat but too much heat and roasting too fast will cause uneven roasting and a lack of flavor. So, it can work but it will take some effort to figure it all out. I hope my answer was helpful
Hi Mike, "crash" is when there is a significant fall in the Rate of Rise. The "flick" is the opposite, where is a significant increase in the rate of rise. These terms are used during the browning phase and development phase. I'm forgetting that half my viewers are not using logging software where these terms are visibly seen. Sorry I didn't make that more clear in the video. Thanks for your question and for watching my video Mike.
Thank you for the video! The Monsooned Malabar (MM) that I have is actually denser than the Central American coffees that I have which calls for a completely different profile and considerations than this video. MM has been well known to the espresso lovers but probably went out of fashion the last decade due to the likes for a "clean cup" provided by the central american's . MM is often described as "earthy" in taste and is "aged" coffee alike Sumatra Mandheling (often described as "syrupy" in taste). Note that some producers sell it already blended with some robusta (not a bad thing, just a fact). Roasting it at home will certainly allow you to bring more of the taste notes that you like. I am a beginner and not ready to suggest a roasting profile, yet. I was roasting a decaf MM which is even more difficult to nail down. Behmor's manual suggests roasting at P3 vs P1 or P1 (for the central american's). My humble results so far are under roasted beans with fantastic floral and sweet taste countered by sour taste. This was with 2 min after the 1 crack (which is very noticeable). As to the crema, I'd rather wait for several days the CO2 to go away as it brings unwanted sourness. Looking forward to more on this cannel!
Hello Nikolay. More dense than a Central American? That is interesting. The MM I had on my video was as light as Styrofoam. Thanks for sharing your experience with this coffee. My experience with the Behmor is it is under powered. So preheating and using P1 in the manual mode (100% power) is what I use during the dry phase. Now, if I were roasting that MM I had using the Behmor, then I think I would need to lower the power like you mentioned. Sounds like you are having a lot of fun roasting. Thank you for our comments and watching my videos!
Monsooned Malabar was the first coffee I roasted that had an offensive aroma to me in whole bean form. The short version of the story is that I set it aside and revised the aroma daily for about ten days as it was so baffling to me. I also tried to brew it during this time and it was awful. Around day ten, the funky aroma went away, which peeked my curiosity so I brewed it. To my surprise it was really good. I have since roasted this coffee numerous times with the same results in terms of the flavors improving once the aroma improves.
Thank you for sharing this Larry. I have been holding on to some because you and others have said to wait a long time. I guess it makes sense. Everything else about this coffee is strange, so why not a resting time that is 3 times longer. haha
Thanks for making the video and sharing your experience. I roasted it as well. In the first try I used a little less temperature than I usually use on washed beans, the Beans got charred within minutes. Then I used a lot less temperature and aimed for the 2nd Crack. In tasting ( I brewed a cappuccino) the beans acquired a LOT of chocolaty, creamy and caramely flavor, which is not usual in other beans. I also added a little bit of Ceylon when I brewed the next time, the combination tasted really good. It was dark, chocolatey, tobaccoey and spicy . I use an oven for roasting so I don't have the data, that's the reason I wanted you to give me the technical followup. As @Edward Ebel said in the comment below this coffee shines in cappuccino and latte.
Hi Vishal, i hope my tech info was useful. I can see this coffee being used in a cappuccino or latte. Like i mentioned in the video, it isn't my type of coffee but I'm glad I had an opportunity to roast and taste it. Thanks for watching my videos and for your suggestion!
Hi and Thanks for the excellent video. I have roasted Monsooned Malabar a couple of weeks ago. I had a continuous descending ROR (Aillio Bullet - 800gr.) and overcome the crash/flick issue by using the "energy dip" technique. Practically, reduced the Power from 8 to 5 at 170C, increased back from 5 to 6 at 175C and had FC at 190C. Unfortunately I did not have enough momentum to end the roast at 12 min as planned and it got extended till 13:30 minutes. Color was darker than yours and I liked very much the taste with strong hints of sweetness.
Once again, thanks!
Sergio, I'm glad you had some good success with your roast on the Malabar. I have used the energy dip, sometimes with success and others without. I've been trying to work that technique out. I think that a higher fan setting can cause too much loss of energy when using the dip. I have had the same experience where you loose the momentum and I think it was because of too much air. Something for me to practice on for sure. Thanks for sharing your comments and for watching my videos.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks for your response. With your permission I will keep this thread open. Will continue to practice and share results.
Lot of fun!
@@sergiokusevitzky5571 just be sure to ping me with the @ so I see your messages if you reply to this same message thread you and I have going. Otherwise, I don' t get notified and they go unnoticed. Thanks
First time I roasted this - I completely burnt it.. second time was beautiful. I am using a Bocaboca 500. Tasting for first time tomorrow - super excited. I got the beans directly from a farm in madikeri.
Yea, that coffee seems to want to light on fire. I’m glad your second roast was better! Let me know how it tastes. Are you from India? Or is the farm just selling direct online?
love the details!!! subbed!
Thanks for the sub and for watching! I'm glad the video was helpful.
Thanks for this vid. I will be attempting to roast this later this week. Just a quick note: Malabar is well known for its crema when used in espresso. I have never thought of using it as a brewed coffee. The taste is a bit strange, but I use it in combination with other coffees to pull shots of espresso. (You need two grinders to do this because combining two different beans in one espresso grinder is problematic.). I grind 10-15 grams of Malabar into a double or triple basket, and then grind the other coffee (maybe Yirgacheffe or Karundu) on top. The Malabar will give great crema and really work to prevent channeling and the other varietal will provide a different flavor to offset the “unique” Malabar taste. Been doing this for a few years now. However, I have recently gotten a flow control attachment on my espresso machine and that has helped deal with channeling….I have experienced shots pulled with 100% Malabar in the basket coming out as 80% crema…if only the taste was a bit less…er…unique. Anyway, I have five pounds to roast so I will update if I find anything worth mentioning. Again, thanks!
great idea!
That is very interesting Edward. Thank you for sharing that. I'm not an espresso guy but I followed along well with your description. I wonder why the Malabar prevents channeling? What do you think makes it unique? I notices when I ground the Malabar beans it was like sending butter through the grinder. No effort at all and a quick grind.
I'm looking forward to hearing your roasting experience with the Malabar.Thanks for sharing and watching my video !
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I suspect that the Malabar prevents channeling because it expands [somewhat] quickly when the water hits it in the portafilter. Maybe this is because the beans have expanded before roasting from the processing that you described in the video (thanks for that, by the way!) I will let you know my roasting results...which may come a bit later than expected as I have to roast outdoors and the Wash DC area is about to get a return of hot and humid. Glad to have cooler and dryer weather getting closer. Cheers
The only Bean that I've had a fire with! ( Behmor 2000) Couldn't hear FC. I thought 2nd C was first, then fireball. Suffice to say, much more attentive and gentle with heat application on the next attempt. Changes I made was lower Drop in temp and dropped ROR prior to anticipated FC. This worked. I use Monsoon Malabar ( conservatively) to add body to my Blends. This works well. Not a fan on of it on its own. FYI, I brew on a Rocket Giotto V, Grinder Eureka Atom. Thanks for the Video.
Thanks for your comment and for watching my video. Fire 🔥 in the behmor! That would have been a sight but I totally believe it with the Monsoon Malabar. Crack was quiet when I roasted it as well but man, fire!
Blends have always been interesting to me. Thanks for sharing the tips!
I do a drop temp of 370 with 30 min soak then hit it with 2 kpa at browning Turn up the drum air a little over half an turn down the gas at 1 kpa 1 crack hits for me around 7 min around 8 min I turn off the gas an let it coast to around 9 or so min or till a smooth brown then drop it around 9-9:30 min
Ahhh, you setup your 500 gram roaster! Nice. How is it going?
Thanks for sharing how you roast the Monsooned Malabar. Yea, that coffee is so low density that coasting is the only thing you can do to prevent a huge upward flick before drop. 👍
Yeah I love it Right now I’m right now on my profiles by hand until I get artisans hooked up
Im glade that l listened too you about leaving the Indian monsoon till later. Watching your video convinced me
Yea, the Monsoon coffees are weird to roast. When roasting on a new roasting device, find a coffee you can roast over and over and by changing one variable at a time, learn your roaster Shane.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks Mike
Hi, as we speak on my Gene Cafe, I'm currently roasting this coffee
Even though Monsooned Malabar isn't my type of coffee, I can't ignore how popular it is for others. Enjoy your roast Kelly!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks, also if you have a Gene Cafe Roaster, if you've not already done so could you pease do some roasts on that roaster
Have picked up some Monsooned Malabar a few months ago, just have not gotten around to roasting it. The “green” beans are so much unlike any other beans I have seen. They are very unique
Hold on tight when you taste it Kaleb. I'm looking forward to hearing your roasting and tasting experience with this coffee.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I did a sample roast of this yesterday and cupped it today. I definitely feel like I like the aroma better than the taste. It was very much on the earthy/woody side as you said with no acidity at all. A while back I had roasted a Sulawesi Toraja coffee. Tasted like sweet vanilla tobacco. It has been one of my favorites and definitely my favorite “earthy” type flavored coffee so far.
Thanks for the follow-up. Glad you had a chance to try it Kaleb. I think you will find the taste change over the next day or two. For me, it got more intense. I'm glad I had the experience but the Monsooned Malabar won't be my go to in the future that's for sure. I like the Sulawesi coffees. The tobacco, some earthy notes, that's all good but I really enjoy the sweetness. My favorite was a Sulawesi Bone Bone I purchased from Sweet Marias about 5 years ago. It was really good stuff.
Now there's a pretty coffee, exquisite!
So you enjoy the monsooned coffee, nice. I'm glad you watched my video. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Mike, thanks for the info on the monsoon coffee. I bought some just recently haven't tryed it yet.
i'll be interested to hear your experience Shane. Thanks for watching!
Hi, slightly long question aleart! :D
Firstly thankyou for your channel. It's helped be put some discipline to my roasting efforts.
I am from India and I am a home roaster for past 2 years. I started with pan roasting with not knowing what coffee I'm roasting, to pop corn maker roasting with roasting different plantation coffees washed and natural.
My latest upgrade is a 100g air roaster with air flow and 3 levels of heat control. I also insert a thermocouple which gives me a broad idea of the bean temperatures with some imagination (as hot air is blowing in the chamber)
I am having some trouble with my roasts. I am doing a 9-10 minute roast I aim for medium roast and experiment between 1st and beginning of 2nd crack for my roast.
The problem in my cupping/ tasting is that I am getting grassy and sour acidity and mild hay aroma in my coffee. I am roasting Attikan estate Selection 9 variety washed Arabica beans which have good complexity. (Considering roasts by specialty roasters of same coffee.)
There are hints of chocolate and berries but I'm not able to bring them out as the grassy earthy is masking it.
I am doing a 3:30 minute drying, 4 minute browning till i smell some tangy notes just before 1st crack at 7:30/8 and develop till 9/ 9:30 till watching the beans and as the acidic tangy smell starts reducing.
Will you be able to guide on how to loose the earthy grassy hay and bring out the berry and chocolate out with some mild acidty?
I have had this problem with other coffees also that I have roasted.
What should I look for? In terms of smell against temperature of the development?
Hoping I can find some help here.
Thanks again for creating this greatly resourceful channel.
Cheers!
Aniruddha
Hello Aniruddha, thank you for watching my videos. Because you are experiencing this result on multiple different coffees, I would say your brew is under extracted. Check your grind settings, go finer.
What brew method are you using? What is your brew ratio? What type of grinder are you using?
I forgot to also suggest you might consider using an immersion brew method like French press or clever dripper to help eliminate the possibility of your brew technique.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab
Hi thank you for your reply.
This helped to a great extent.
I am brewing it pourover with a meduim fine grind, ground with a ceramic bur type hand grinder.
I am brewing 10 grams in 180/200g water, boiled in electric kettle (so temperature is always consistent)
To check on extraction, I did cupping style arrangement of 2 different roasts of the same coffee.
The roasts are 4 and 5 days old.
I did 4 consecutive tastings of both a minute apart after immersing. And yes this one needed 3 minutes for both roasts to bring out the more desirable notes.
I am planning to study a resting time for this coffee as well.
Thanks a ton for you feedback.
Cheers!
Probably my favorite coffee, bought it roasted for many years and then roasted a few times with a heat gun and also a popcorn popper. Recently bought a Behmor 2020, still learning and adjusting but I have got a few pretty good roasts.
Hello Fredrik, thanks for watching the video and sharing your experience. Did you notice the beans being very lightweight and pale like I did? How long are you waiting after you roast before you drink the Malabar? I'm glad you have gotten some good results and congrats on your new Behmor!
@Virtual Coffee Lab - Home Coffee Roaster Thank you for great videos. Yes they are pale and bigger, less dense than most beans. I find it difficult seeing when the dry phase ends but it also has to do with the behmors light which has a yellow tone. I found the total roast time is similar with other beans though.
I usually wait 2-3 days before start drinking, the latest roast day 5-6 tasted a little better but it is a little early to definitely say it was the extra degassing it could have been brewing differences.
I've wanted to try this coffee for a while thanks for sharing the roast
Hi Steve, good luck with the roast. One thing I didn't mention in my video is my gas valve is very sensitive. My max gas on my current gauge has a range from 1-5 Kpa while I only use 1-2Kpa in my range. I have a new gauge that has better increments and is 0-2 Kpa range so I will be able to better see the very small changes I make. This will hopefully help with some of my issues with coffee that is very sensitive to heat changes. Let me know how it goes if you decide to buy some.
I roasted Monsooned Malabar and noticed almost no chaff, which was totally unexpected. You are spot on about FC noise. Targeted FC at 4:55. But didn't hear it until 5:55. Beans look lighter for 7:30 total roast time. But they gave nice aroma. Normally when I roast any beans, I get absolutely no aroma. This MM bean is totally different for me. I am curious how it tastes. Previously I bought Dark, Med-Dark roasted MM from roasters. But they all tasted below average. I targeted Dark and got Medium looking coffee. But the roast loss was 16%. I used Ikawa Nicaragua profile.
The thumbnail of me displays my distaste for Monsoon Malabar coffee. The moisture loss for these beans weird. I think because of the strange processing and the low density beans, moisture loss is going to be high. When you taste it, you might experience some really dark chocolate, kind of bitter notes, with some musty jungle type notes. The stuff lights on fire and carbonizes quickly. I hope you enjoy it!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I hear you. I was told MM is only good for blending in small %. I wonder how folks in Malabar make coffee out of it. I guess it'll be good for milk based coffee drinks.
Yes, it is mostly used for espresso blends to add the earthy dark notes.
For this video I waited for long. I totally failed with this coffee. It always turned out undrinkable with very sharp aromas.But many roasters like monsooned Malabar . And I am sure you also will give it a try again. I heard that especially Malabar needs time for degassing and reaching its optimum-
Thank you for the profile! This coffee must have quite different criteria for roasting. Maybe the ET was still too high, so it ended as kind of of a run-away-roast despite emergency brake.
Hi Erhard, yes, this coffee is really sensitive to heat. My ET was very low compared to a "normal" coffee I would roast. That stored up energy of a high ET would have pushed my roast way to fast through the phases.
I waited a few days on the first roast for the reason you mentioned. That coffee was not overwhelming but it was somewhat intense. Thanks for sharing.
Boy, I wished I watched this before buying two pounds of green. I’m not sure I’d like a swampiness flavor note. Have you tried going lighter on this? I haven’t roasted it yet but was thinking of trying today. Good video.
So I did two batches today and I thinks the roasts went ok. I took your advice, I lowered the charge from 165C to 160, and decreased my batch size to account for the larger bean sizes. My ROR was a steady decline although in the dev phase the ROR was kinda wavy. My phases were approx 45, 35, and 25%, with a total time of 10:42 and drop temp of 205C. I wanted to go longer to end at a higher temp but the roast was running out of steam. Weight loss was not very much, only about 12% which would suggest a light roast but I was long after FC which occurred at 8:03 and 193.5C. Maybe the lower moisture loss could be attributed to the drying process of the coffee cherry, I don’t know. Hopefully it doesn’t taste like a swamp!
Because this is such a low density coffee you did the right thing and didn’t push the roast too hard. Now you know how it behaves you can make the necessary adjustments. If you want to go darker then you need to apply a little more energy between dry and first crack to elevate your temps a little and enter first crack at a slightly higher ror to give you that slightly higher rending temp.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thank you Mike, I’ll give that a shot. For my last bean, an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, I started dialling the heat back at dry end and had my best roast yet, and applied the same logic here, and I think I could just hold the temp a bit longer after dry end before reducing the heat, to keep my ROR in decline.
Very new to roasting, this was my second bag of green beans (first was that cheap Nicaraguan Amazon stuff). I'm using either a frying pan or a popcorn popper depend
ing on how lazy I'm feeling and a few things jumped at me.
My settings for the other beans did NOT work on the stovetop for this one. They almost immediately started scorching so I was stuck in recovery mode right out of the gate to not wreck it worse than I already had.
Second big observation was there was NO mess. It was chaffless! That could be why it cooks so quickly - its not shedding a skin like the other coffee did, so the heat was instant going in without that layer of protection the chaff has! (utter newb guess, so likely wrong on that one).
I have a feeling the batch I just roasted is wrecked (very dark, because I had way too much heat for what it was), but I'll give it a second attempt later on with the stove temps lower by abouit 75 degrees. (I use a heat sensor to temp the pan before tossing the beans in, seems to help).
Hi John, welcome to the world of home coffee roasting. You touched on a couple of important points. I'll hit those and then ask a few questions for you to consider.
1. Bean quality is one of the most important decisions you can make. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. Starting with good quality coffee gives you a head start towards a great cup.
2. Scorching, as you identified is not a good thing. Keeping the beans moving, not simply sliding around in the pan is really important.
3. Heat management is key. You want to preheat your pan and have a temperature that will move the roasting process along as quick as you can without causing roasting defects.
4. Batch size is critical. If you have too many beans in the pan, the roast will take a long long time and you will have boring flat coffee. You want to have a layer of beans in the pan but not a pile. That way, all the beans are roasting. Frying pan roasting uses conductive heat. Direct contact with the hot metal is its primary energy supply, not necessarily hot air like drum roasters and of course air roasters. So, you want the beans to be in contact with the pan and fewer beans will allow that to happen.
What was your roasting temperature?
How long did it take to roast your beans?
How far into the roasting process are you taking your coffee? First crack, second crack????
How are you brewing this coffee?
Let me know and i might be able to offer a few more suggestions if you are interested.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I lost my paper I'd jotted the temps down on, but I want to say it was about 6 1/2 minutes at about 425 degrees - being on the stovetop I think that it was probably (much) higher than that before things were done, but I couldn't stop to retemp things. I went to about a minute after the first crack before throwing it in my colander to start cooling.
It actually didn't taste bad, but I also probably ground it before I should have.
I tried again with the pan down to 375, and prepared to keep it moving this time a lot more. That batch came out a lot nicer looking, but I haven't ground it yet because I'm trying to give ita good week before diving in. This took longer - about 7 1/2 minutes, but it looks a LOT better/more even.
Foir what its worth, I'm using a steel pan rather than a cast iron - its one of those larger sized WearEvers with the steel plate on the bottom (picked it up at a thrift store so cost me next to nothing). The sides are steeper which means I can get a bit more zealous with flipping the pan around moving the beans. Its also lighter than my cast iron so I'm not quite killing my wrists as fast, which is a huge help. The overall end result was a LOT better than what happened with the cast iron before for me.
I also tried the popcorn popper - it worked VERY well in that, but I was impatient and ground it before it was probably ready to be ground. It definitely had that 'ocean' taste to it for lack of a better word. The best I can describe it is it was an almost piney slant to it (probably what you called the swampiness - to me it reminded me of my grandmother's cedar-sided house at the shore as a kid, like I'd pulled a shingle off and started sucking on it or something). It wasn't a *bad* taste, just very different.
My brewer is one of those Ninjas's, so a somewhat higher end drip brewer.
One last observation - I think I've wrecked myself for store-bought coffee. Even when I completely botched the first batch of this stuff it was still better than the off the shelf bags I've been getting.
Thanks for sharing John. I hope to do some pan-roasting this coming year. Yes, home-roasted coffee wins hands down compared to the store-bought stuff!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Sop I just brewed up that second batch - its MUCH better than the first. The slower and lower approach made a huge, huge difference. That swamp taste is much less noticeable and its nowhere near as 'evergreen' as the first batch was.
Not sure if my screwing up and forgetting to grind the things made any difference though - I accidentally threw the beans in the filter whole and ran the brewer (oops) so had to re-dry them afterwards overnight before grinding.
I was very confused at first why I had almost clear coffee that second time!
I noticed that the coffee taste totally different a few days after the roast. It was more intense. Sometimes waiting several days before drinking is a good idea, while other times, waiting too long you miss out. Experiment by tasting each day after the roast and determine what the best length of rest might be for that coffee.
I'm dying to make this one work for me. I have bought more Monsooned Malabar roasted beans than any other coffee. I just love it. The taste as espresso is absolutely sublime when I get it right (making good espresso is as much of a challenge for me as making a good roast). That's from a reputable roaster though. I'm a new roaster myself now, and out of the 9 roasts I've done, 6 have been Monsooned Malabar. Can't say I've had success yet, though I feel that I'm getting closer. My 9th roast looks and smells very good. I want it to sit for a couple more days before I try it since I'm an espresso drinker. If it turns out to be a winner, I'll share my recipe, which might as least help some Behmor users.
Thanks for sharing Rich. I can say from experience that it isn’t my favorite coffee. I’m glad you enjoy that type of coffee. If you have success please share your recipe! It would be much appreciated!
What an endeavor! This teaches us all to try different things when roasting and see what happens. My first curiosity is how a 14% final development roast would taste, or even a 12%. Since you could not tell Dry End by a color change, just how did you determine it? Did your nose detect any noticeable change? Did the beans look any different in any way? I wonder if the slightly different shades of roasted bean color are characteristic of that coffee?
You mentioned it not being easy to detect Dry End and Browning begin. I had a similar problem when I roasted decaf a couple of days ago. The bean color did not change noticeably at the end of the Drying Phase. Since my "green" decaf beans actually looked kind of blotchy brown, I really didn't notice any visual change until at least 1 minute into the Browning Phase (BP). But I did notice a slight change when into BP when it started smelling more grassy, like something was baking. But what I have to keep reminding myself is the exact duration times of the first two phases really don't matter when calculating the Development Time Ratio (DTR). All that is needed is the time to first crack FC, and the overall roast time (RT). DTR = (RT - FC) / RT.
Yep, your right about the DTR calculation. Yes the color cannot be relied on, just like the decaf. I used my nose to call dry end. Was it accurate??? Truthfully, no way to know for sure. That is part of what makes this coffee so hard to roast. I could smell the transition from the grassy wet musty smell to a more baked smell but the range of accuracy is just to large to pinpoint. I had to basically guess. I would say + - 10 seconds or maybe 15. Not a good thing but enough to make a difference on the percentages...
I love that coffee I roast it a lot makes a great espresso
Hi Bill, thanks for your comment and watching my video. I'm hearing that from quite a few people. What are you using to roast your beans? How long are you letting the coffee rest after roasting before you brew ?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I roasted this coffee on a genie Cafe and a hot top roaster and I always let my beans set at least overnight or maybe two days in open air before I bag it up and grind it.
I just try to roast is really hard to get correct roast
Hello Able. Yea, it is a weird coffee that is really sensitive to heat. It is a very low density coffee.
Hey, Is roasting on a pan with a heat gun a good way to roast coffee?
Hello Kamal, there are many types of devices to use to roast coffee as well as heat sources. Safety is always important. As far as a frying pan, it will work. Continually moving the beans is really important because you will burn the beans and that will affect your taste. The heat gun is a good source of heat but too much heat and roasting too fast will cause uneven roasting and a lack of flavor. So, it can work but it will take some effort to figure it all out. I hope my answer was helpful
What's a crash and a flick?
Hi Mike, "crash" is when there is a significant fall in the Rate of Rise. The "flick" is the opposite, where is a significant increase in the rate of rise. These terms are used during the browning phase and development phase. I'm forgetting that half my viewers are not using logging software where these terms are visibly seen. Sorry I didn't make that more clear in the video. Thanks for your question and for watching my video Mike.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks! Helps me understand more of what's happening.