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COFFEE ARRIVES
IN INDIA AROUND 1600AD
Ranking high among the coffee legends of old, alongside such revered tales as the discovery of coffee by the goatherd Kaldi, is the account of how coffee first arrived in India.
Legend has it that the Muslin Saint Baba Budan, who hailed from India, came across coffee in Yemen around 1600 A.D. during his travels to the Holy Land. He found the drink exhilarating and wanted to introduce it to his native country. But European traders and other travelers were forbidden to take "live" coffee beans out of Yemen (the commodity was considered too valuable). The beans had to be partially roasted or partially boiled first to prevent enterprising outsiders from growing the crop themselves.
But Baba Budan ignored the mandate and strapped seven coffee seeds around his waist when leaving the country. Upon returning home, he planted these seeds around his mountain hut near Chikmagalur in South India, now considered the cradle of Indian coffee. Descendants of these early plants still stand in the coffee-growing regions of Coorg, Mysore, and Nilgiris.
Baba Budan's Final Resting Place, a site considered sacred by Muslims and Hindus |
For additional information read this article. Although few years old, much of the content is still valid. | |
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AVAILABLE: MYSORE NUGGETS EXTRA BOLD COFFEE 
We have been importing this grade of coffee for many years. However, in past crop years, we were able to secure only enough coffee that meet our stringent quality standards, to satisfy the requirements of those roasters who had made firm contractual commitments for this grade of coffee.
For the first time, we have been able to secure a limited number of extra bags of Mysore Nuggets EB coffee to enable us to accommodate more roasters than we had in the past. These include coffees from Harley, Sunticoppa, Goorghully , Mylemoney, Jumboor, Nullore and Margolly Estates in the Chikmagalur and Coorg Growing Regions.
Mysore Nuggets Extra Bold is considered the best of the best of all Arabica from India. It is a 19-screen coffee obtained by re-grading washed Arabica coffee from selected growing regions. Most important, this grade does not tolerate any defects; that it has to be hand garbled to be defect free, an expensive and labor intensive process.
In the cup, it is medium-to-high in acidity, medium in body, highly aromatic and displays a chocolaty spiciness that is uniquely Indian.
Contact us for price, arrival schedule, and availability information.
For additional information see:
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Dear Recipient:
In the first ten years of our business, I traveled to India every year visiting all major Arabica growing regions. I spent four to six arduous weeks on each visit driving from estate to estate while the industry was going through the initial stages of deregulation.
Until then, all coffees were pooled into lots, processed and auctioned off by the Coffee Board. From the proceeds of those sales, expenses incurred by the Board were deducted and the balance was distributed to the growers using a very complex formula. Not only did the coffees lose their identities, but also, by insulating the grower from the product and the proceeds, this mechanism proved to be the perfect prescription for mediocrity.
But the impending deregulation was expected to change all that. While the exact schedule and sequence of this deregulation were undefined, everyone felt that the process was irreversible. Many estates were making serious investments in upgrading their infrastructure aimed at improving the quality of the coffees they produce without receiving any assurance of an eventual payoff. Others were asking how much more would they get for their coffee if they were to improve their quality.
On each of those trips I would visit about ten new estates and find one, occasionally two, estates that had the right combination of infrastructure (water source, labor pool, horticultural practices) and enlightened management that had the potential of producing quality coffee at some time in the near future.
While I was seeing some light at the end of the Indian coffee tunnel, I was frustrated by the low quality of Indian coffee being brought into North America by a handful of importers. It was nowhere near the quality of coffee produced by the pooling system that prevailed in India at that time. This was particularly true of the monsooned coffees. So much so, we had to wait several years before we brought our first container of monsooned coffee into the US.
After a couple of years, I grew up, and realized that there was a market for those lower quality coffees. Somebody had to satisfy that market and we were not going to. We see it even today that many roasters preach the message of quality but are not willing to pay the price and are quite happy to settle for lower quality to get a lower price.
Sincerely,
Dr. Joseph John, President
Josuma Coffee Company
PO Box 1115
Menlo Park, CA 94026
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GREEN COFFEE:
ALL OF INDIA'S COFFEE IS GROWN IN SHADE
All Coffee in India is Shade Grown |
Coffee plants require about four hours of sun each day. Because the southern parts of India, where much of the coffee is grown, is near the equator, temperatures are generally higher than in other parts of the country, and coffee trees need shade to survive. In addition to the prevention of excessive temperature, shade trees also avoid the consequent loss of moisture of the soil.
These shade trees provide some added benefits. The first is to prevent the loss of top soil by erosion. The second benefit conferred by shade is the enrichment of soil by the leaf, branch and twig mulch of the trees.
The shade used in coffee plantations falls into two categories: an upper, permanent canopy and a lower, temporary shade. Upper canopy shade consists primarily of original jungle trees, such as tall ficus, white cedars, mahogany, and Silver Oak that may tower 100 feet or more above ground level.
The lower canopy is traditionally populated by Dadap (Erythrina Lithosperma), a leguminous tree known for Nitrogen fixation, which managers can easily prune to regulate the amount of sunshine and rain reaching the coffee plants.
The increasing variety of overhead shade trees provide a sanctuary for birds and enhance the quality of natural organic matter introduced to the soil from falling leaves. This decomposed organic matter enriches the soil, conserves moisture, and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Shade trees also control the growth of weeds on the estates and reduce the incidence of insects, pests, and leaf disease.
The coffee areas represent some of the best natural forest reserves anywhere in the world, and a real treasure house for trekkers, bird-watchers and wild-life enthusiasts. To the more discerning, the coffee plantations in the region are demonstrably some of the world's finest acres of sustainable agriculture.
For additional information, see: http://www.josuma.com/indian-coffee.html |
ROASTED COFFEE:
MONSOON MEDLEY, Premium Low Acid Coffee
Roasted Monsoon Medley |
This is a truly one-of-a-kind coffee that's quite unlike coffee from any other producing country. The coffee's bean size, color, roast, and cup characteristics are the result of the unique post-harvest processing it undergoes in India, where it is exposed to monsoon winds in an open-walled warehouse for 12 to 16 weeks. During the processing, the coffee loses nearly all of its acidity, making it the lowest-acid coffee in the world. To produce Monsoon Medley®, we roast Monsooned Malabar-AA Super Grade green coffee that is exclusive to Josuma.
When brewed at full strength, Monsoon Medley® makes an excellent straight varietal coffee. Its cup characteristics include very low acidity, extremely high body, and a pleasant earthy taste. Many of our customers use it as their house coffee, while others offer it as a daily low-acid alternative to a standard house coffee. It is especially palatable to people with sensitive stomachs.
Monsoon Medley® is also an excellent blender, as it reduces the acidity and increases the body of certain Central American and African coffees. The pleasant, earthy flavor profile of Monsoon Medley® is so muted that it doesn't conflict with the strong character of its companion coffees. A select group of coffee professionals also appreciate the coffee for its ability to preserve its flavor even as it cools.
One of Monsoon Medley®'s best uses is as a base in an Italian-style espresso blend because of its low acidity, ample body, and crema-producing qualities.
Monsoon Medley® is also excellent for iced coffee beverages. It complements ice cubes when brewed at double strength and crushed ice when brewed at triple strength. The low acidity helps preserve the coffee's flavor characteristics even at low temperatures.
Monsoon Medley® is roasted to order and shipped the same day of roasting. Our roasted coffee is typically packaged in 5-pound, one-way valve bags. To ensure freshness, we always stamp the roast date on the bag. Freshness is extremely important, so we recommend that you purchase only a week's supply at a time. The minimum order is 10 pounds. In return for this modest minimum, we ask that payment accompany your order. You may also charge your purchase to MasterCard, Visa, or American Express.
Monsoon Medley® is attractively priced at
$ 6.00 /lb, ex-roasting plant. Shipping and Handling is extra. Because we buy the green coffee directly from the estates where they are grown, picked, and processed to meet our exacting standards and because they are custom monsooned for us, we eliminate the middlemen in India as well as in the US. The resulting savings, $1.50 - $2.00 /lb for the roasted coffee, is passed on to you.
As an exception, individual coffee connoisseurs (not businesses) may order as little as 5 pounds of Monsoon Medley® in single 5-pound, one-way valve bags @ $ 6.50 /lb or packed in 1-lb bags @
$ 7.00 /lb.
To order, please call us at 650-366-5453.
For additional information, see this brochure. |
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