India / Monsoon Moonshine

Ah, Hollywood. There you are. Thanks for coming, man. I'm Todd Carmichael. I'm gonna show you something that you've never seen before. No, man. I'm moonshining. You already know that coffee's my business. But what you don't know is that I've been perfecting rum in my homemade still. And it tastes like nothing you've ever had before. I started trying to combine it with coffees. I mean, who knows more about that than me, right? The best rum is distilled from raw sugarcane, But this one I infuse with a rare type of aged coffee from India. The result? Tastes like a barrel of sweet aged bourbon. I sent out some samples to friends and clients. And the response is off the charts. And now I've got orders from all around the country from people thinking that I'm an official distiller. In fact, this was all really done from my man cave. So I'm taking a big swing at this one, investing a half-a-million dollars into a space for a full-blown distillery. And to finance it, I'm taking preorders on the first cases of the rum. I mean, everything's perfectly teed up. Everything is ready. I've got a line out of the door of people who are looking for bottles of the rum. So, why are you here? Well, you're here because we've got one ingredient that's missing. This coffee from India is called Monsoon Malabar, and it's cured during the monsoon season. The salty air from the Indian Ocean cures it, and the result is an aged-oak flavor that gives my rum its one-of-a-kind taste. But getting my hands on a full ton of Monsoon Malabar this time of year is nearly impossible. It's only sold a few weeks annually, and then, long story short, it vanishes. You know what that means, right? That's right. What does that take? Getting off the beaten path in India to hunt down one guy in a country with 1.2 billion people. Worst yet, I don't even know his name. SAHIL: Yes. And to find him is gonna take some new tactics, like breaking and entering... ...grand theft auto... [ Engine turns over ] ...and some pyrotechnics. But let's rewind. 20 years ago, I started with nothing and built my company from the ground up. I'm a guy who hunts coffee in the world's most dangerous places... ...for the most demanding names in the business. The pay is good if I get the coffee home. -- Captions by VITAC -- Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC. My job has taken me to almost every country on the map, but never to this one -- India. It's India, one of the most exciting, adventurous, flavorful, spicy, profound, cultural places on the planet. [ Horn honks ] India has been calling me ever since I began traveling -- the sights, the smells... the mass of people... [ Moos ] People travel from all over the world to experience this sensory overload. But I'm here to find the impossible. The treasure is a coffee called Monsoon Malabar. I have called every single one of my contacts. The word is, there's no more Monsoon Malabar in India -- period. You're thinking, "Well, why don't you buy it somewhere else?" right? Well, you can only get it in India. It's something that started years and years ago by the English. You see, raw coffee doesn't travel well. It molds. So what they did is, they found that if they put it out on platforms and let monsoon winds -- like salt and the sea air -- careen across this beautiful coffee, it yellows it, and it preserves it, and it's that process that gives it that oaky, oaky flavor. And what's better in rum than oak? Game plan. Finding Monsoon Malabar on-season -- not a difficult thing. Finding it off-season -- completely different challenge. So, what I've done is, I've begged and pleaded to get a meeting with one guy. Globalization has many countries shifting from tea to coffee, and India's transition is happening fast. Specialty coffee is achieving an underground cult status, and at the center of all that buzz is Sahil Jatana. Now, if anyone knows where to find Monsoon Malabar now, on off-season, it's gonna be this guy. Sahil is the expert on Indian coffee. Once a month, he holds a secret meeting of what he calls "The Coffee Society." It's so exclusive that members are picked up on motorcycles and driven to undisclosed locations for each meeting. Is it overkill? Maybe. But it is Sahil's secret society, and who am I judge when I'm the one who needs the favor? I'm supposed to be walking in this area, and they're gonna see us. It's two guys on a motorcycle, and they're gonna take us to the secret society. You following? Are you from Coffee Society? Oh, excellent. Oh, those are beautiful. All right. Pick your ride. Mine's this one. Let's go! I've made Hollywood do some pretty sketchy things these past few years. [ Horn honking ] But riding on the back of a motorcycle through Mumbai traffic may actually be the most frightening. Yeah? It gets your blood going, doesn't it? Nearly 130,000 road deaths occur every year in India, making it the most dangerous country in the world to drive in. So I'll let Hollywood slide for making us pull over and put the camera down so he can hold on with both hands. Hello? Is Sahil here? Ah. I see your coffee. How are you? This is my friend Hollywood. HOLLYWOOD: How's it going? Do you mind if he uses the camera? Okay. Yeah. ...because I have a dilemma. Okay. It's Monsoon Malabar, and no other coffee will replace it or can replace it. Okay. Uh-huh. Have you ever tried it infused under pressure in rum? Would you like to try it? [ Laughs ] All right. This is a really small, small, small scale of what I do on a larger scale back in Philadelphia. My secret recipe can be mimicked with this -- my own white rum, roasted Monsoon Malabar coffee, and an immense amount of pressure brought on by a nitrous-oxide cartridge. [ Air hissing ] You hear that pressure? And at 30 seconds, what I do is that when I let that pressure off, that nitrous, that takes the juices and infuses the rum with it. [ Air hissing ] Perfect. Ultimately, that means one thing -- that I can create with Monsoon Malabar an incredible rum. So, you ready to try this? Yes. You didn't think I was gonna do that, did you? So, now you can see my problem. You can't. I will tell you words I never say, and I say this because you're fellow coffee guys. You know what I mean. Right. ...because right now price is not a problem. And what's his name? The German? Okay. Yes. I've got no name, no address -- just a guy called The German. Could be anywhere in the 2,000 square miles that make up the district of Coorg. Coorg region is way down south, right? In order to get there, what we need to do is fly from Mumbai due south to Mangalore. From Mangalore, we'll head east for a city called Kushinagar. And that little village is known for processing. First hit -- visit there to see if the German is storing any coffee there. A lot of farmers all over those mountains get their coffee processed and store it in Kushinagar. If we can get a solid lead from there, we'll head on up and look for the German in the mountains. We're looking for one guy in a country of 1.2 billion people. My new business venture -- producing high-end rum -- has led me to India. I'm looking for one guy in a country of 1.2 billion people. SAHIL: Yes. The German may be holding the last major stash of Monsoon Malabar coffee in India, holding out for the highest bidder. I need a ton of this rare coffee, and it's gonna cost me. We start in the port city of Mangalore. [ Horns honking ] And we need a truck to get us deep into the mountains and to a storage complex where the German may keep his stash. The problem is, in India, you can't rent trucks here. You got to rent a truck with a driver. I got to go deep into that jungle, and most drivers won't go that deep. They all want to get home by dark. So there's only one way around it. I need to buy a set of wheels. All right. Come on. Hello. Are you the owner? Yeah. Yeah. So, these are all secondhand cars? Okay. And is this one right here -- Is it a 4x4? Yeah. Ah. The steering wheel's on the wrong side. Yeah. [ Laughing ] I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Negotiating is like an Olympic sport in this part of India, and this guy already has his game face on. I mean, this isn't the thing that you want to drive to the prom. You know what I mean? But it's the one you want to take to the mountains. She isn't beautiful, but it's gonna get us there. Yeah. All right. [ Engine idling ] It's brilliant. Are you kidding? Vibration. It doesn't feel like tin. Well, that'll get us there. How do I turn it off? You see? I turn off like this? No. There is no button. No. Yeah, yeah. Okay. It's over there. All right. Now I got to start the ugly process of negotiating with this guy. I'm gonna go into his office and get him down, all right? All right. It was remarkably, uh... painful. No. I didn't get a good deal. No. But he threw in the spare tire for no extra charge, huh? [ Laughs ] That's perfectly normal. That's your speedometer. How else can you tell how fast you're going? I mean, if you can't trust a used-car salesman, who can you trust, you know? And it's really kind of hard to tell what constitutes a parking space here. You know what I mean? I know. Right? Hey, can you pull the stop button on that? Thanks, buddy. [ Hollywood chuckles ] Big cities like this, Hollywood, you know, the caste system, it virtually doesn't exist anymore. In fact, it's outlawed, you know. But when you get off the grid and you start getting out there in the outback, man, it's a whole different world. What that means to us -- you and me -- is we can't go waltzing around, smelling like wet dogs. It's simple. I want to slip into the coffee warehouse and start asking questions about the German. If I look haggard, I won't get past the security guards. We got to stay clean-shaven and kind of be presentable. You know what I"m saying? Can I have two bars of soap? I might not need shampoo, but some for Hollywood couldn't hurt. It says it's nourishingly soft and smooth. You good with that? Thank you. Ah, yeah. I got fireworks, baby. Fireworks. I can't help myself. Cheap, sketchy explosives? I'm in. What's your most spectacular firework? Yeah. But I see the smile on your face, too, buddy. [ Laughs ] I mean, it's fireworks, man. You can't turn that down. All right, my friend. Thank you. Right. Exactly. We got four bottles of water, some soap, and we have 50 pounds' worth of fireworks. Right? All right. Thank you. Here's the strategy. Gonna be a cakewalk. We drive quickly. We make it to the warehouse. Inside there, there are going to be people who will tell us exactly where to find the German. We then get back in the truck. We drive to the German's. We make an easy deal. We shake hands. I light the fuse of the fireworks -- huge display, giant party. Boom. Piece of cake. What happens when I say, "Piece of cake"? [ Chuckles ] You're gonna start giving us bad karma, dude. Karma's not gonna be our problem. The deeper we go, the more difficult it's gonna get to communicate with people. Those signs are starting to move away from being in English, aren't they? Before the sun goes down, we need to find a place to stay for the night, but no one is gonna welcome us into their home if we're not cleaned up. See that guy out there? Those guys are washing up. So you wash up. Ready to rub-a-dub-dub? Two men in a tub. All right. Let's go. You are not getting out of this. Let's do this. Yeah. Yeah. It's up this way. Ah, great. Thank you. Thank you. I want you to stay off this region down here. Yep. Soaping up in a river looks bizarre. But around here, looking bizarre seems just about right. Yeah. I do need to find a bed for the night, and everyone seems friendly enough. But I have to say I'm a little weirded out. So it's time to fly. I feel clean, man. All right. Where did you put my shoes? Where did you put my stuff? I put it right there. Come on. You moved it, right? No. It wasn't those guys. This is giving me an instant headache, man. I lost my jeans with all my stuff, my keys, and my boots. We don't have any money, dude. I might have got a U.S. dollar, but out here, a U.S. dollar is like walking around with Monopoly money, man. It gets you nothing. I had the fricking car keys in there. Uh, let's think. Let's walk. Just let me walk, okay? That side's locked. Oh, man. [ Sighs ] You know what this means, don't you? Means you got to -- You ever use a towel to break into a car? All right. First you stand by the door you want to get in, right? Then you lay the towel just on the ground like that. And then, you just take a small stone. You put it in the middle. Gather up the corners. You see where this is going, don't you? [ Laughing ] Yeah. Then, you just... knock on the window. Ever wonder what you'd do if you were in India, say, looking for a coffee out of season to fill all your preorders for a new rum you just created and on top of that, were stranded in your underwear with no boots, money, or car keys? Me either...until now. Oh, wait. Did I mention I do have a towel? You see where this is going, don't you? [ Laughing ] Yeah. Then, you just... knock on the window. Ooh. Told you. The towel trick works every time. Yeah. Let's clean up the glass. Let's get on the road. Can't make it all the way to the German by nightfall now, and I absolutely can't show up to see the German with no shoes. What? Oh, yeah. I'm gonna hot-wire the car. Yeah. Every farm boy knows how to hot-wire a tractor because, inevitably, you lose the keys, and you still need to get the tractor going, so you learn how to hot-wire it. Put these two little suckers together. [ Engine turns over ] That's how you do it. [ Engine revving ] It'll start the starter motor. [ Both laugh ] And it'll make an awful noise. Yeah. We got to find a bed and some boots and a meal, and we don't have any money. U.S. dollars don't work as currency down here, so I can't buy a newspaper, let alone a pair of boots. And where we are is so remote, a size-12 boot isn't something that's easy to find. Just a tiny, tiny village, isn't it? Let's jump out. Oh, look. A store. Hello. Do you speak English? I knew language was gonna be an issue out here. Shoes. But tiptoeing around here in my socks is making it worse. You speak English? Huh? U.S.A. Keep moving. Keep moving on. I mean, what if you had, like, just two people walk right into your neighborhood shoeless, asking if they could pay in yen or something like that, right? It's simple math at this point. I don't have enough gas to get to another village, and I don't have any rupees to buy gas. It's either make friends here or start hiking without my boots. I protect my dogs. The way I see it, Hollywood, it could take us hours, right, going house to house, trying to find someone with my shoe size and willing to give us a bed for the night. The thought is this -- Either we go to them, or you get them to come to us. I got one ace in the hole that will get people's attention. Who doesn't love a firework display? You know what I'm saying? Let's just do a reality check here. Is this a good idea? Here goes nothing. Holy mama! You got to love stuff that explodes. Look down there. Look at all these people coming. [ Laughing ] It's working! What did I tell you, man? How are you? I'm Todd. Hi. I'm Todd. Hey. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hello. Do you speak English? SHIAB: Yeah. Yeah? Hi. I'm Todd. And what's your name? Shiab? I'm Todd. Nice to meet you. This is Hollywood. Yeah. Would you know anyone in the village that sells shoes or has boots? Yeah? I go with you? Yeah. Okay. HOLLYWOOD: [ Chuckles ] I've been lucky enough to find friends in almost every country I've visited, but giving me his boots puts Shiab on my top-10 list of Good Samaritans. CARMICHAEL: Oh. Beautiful. I got to tell you -- These are sincerely one of the most beautiful gifts I've ever been given. Okay. I mean, it means the world to me. You have no idea. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? Shiab's parents invited me and Hollywood to be guests at their dinner table. Yeah. This is tikka masala. Yeah. Tikka masala. This is chicken tikka masala. Look at that. If you like Indian food and you're, like, at home and you're watching this, this is the authentic Indian experience. Tikka masala, a traditional dish of marinated chicken in a spicy tomato sauce made with yogurt and coriander. And here, you even get to eat it with your hands. My wife would kill me for doing this, and yours is just standing there like it's nothing. Oh, my God. Mmm. HOLLYWOOD: Yeah? I kid you not, dude. It's the best meal you've had ever when traveling with me -- ever. So put your camera down. Eat up, okay? [ Girl singing in native language ] There are many versions of what happens next. I don't know if it was the spicy curry, but what started as a beautiful dinner has quickly escalated into some sort of bizarro Bollywood music video. [ Singing continues ] Let me tell you -- These guys like to party. [ Singing continues ] [ Chuckles ] 32 missed calls. You got to listen to this one. You tell me. You feel like you're under the gun now? Listen to this. MAN: Hey, Toto, it's me. Haven't heard from you in a while. Hope everything's okay out there. Hey, just a heads up, man. Wine and Spirits is bumping their order from 200 cases to 900. Buy accordingly. Call me. Ciao. 900 cases of Monsoon rum. You know how much 900 cases is? It would fill this house. I mean, that's how much it is. I mean, as a business guy, that gets me really super-excited. I mean, that's a huge order, right? That's gonna pay for the trip, the truck, everything else. But the downside is, if I don't bring it home, it pays for nothing, right? What I do know is that I"m running short of time. Orders like that, they need to be fulfilled. So we need to get this coffee out of this country, like A.S.A.P. Hey, Mutanda. Let me break it down for you. I'm still broke, and I"m out of gas. I need to get back to the road with some cash in my pockets, stat. So my new friends here are my lifeline right now. Mutanda explained to me that there's a quicker, better way to get to our village than the route we were on. The only issue we have is this relatively large river we've got to get across. But friends from the village have a pontoon boat that's gonna get us across that river. How's that sound? Ah. Yeah. I got a plan. It's not with the truck. It's time for us to downsize and solve two problems at once. I need a smaller ride that we can fit onto a pontoon boat, and I need rupees. So I'm gonna trade Mutanda our truck for his motorcycle and enough cash to get us through the next few days. Yes, yes. We have a deal? Very good. Oh. This is the difference. I'm gonna take a loss on the deal, but getting on the road fast is worth a few thousand rupees. Thank you. Hello. Is your father here? Yeah? Can you get him? I think the word "pontoon boat" was a little lost in translation. More like a bread basket. And from the blank stares on my new friends' faces, I get the distinct impression even they seem to think that this might be a bad idea. I don't want to think about it right now. I just -- I just... I'm gonna go into denial on this one for a little bit. It doesn't. Well, we don't really have a lot of options. There's very little turning back now. I just push it in the basket? I've been called a lot of things in my life, but patient and timid have never been on that list. The tank... I've got to get to a warehouse in a remote region of southern India, and let me tell you, if you ever find yourself in India and you're offered a quick trip on a boat to cross a river, I would suggest asking them for clarification on what they mean by the term "boat." Well, I can tell you, the truck would have never fit in this thing. The tank... And my bike is leaking gas. Truth is, I could turn around, head towards the main road, and it may only cost me a five-hour delay in getting to the German. But you know me. I don't backtrack. I say we go. No smoking. Right? And we go really fast. [ Grunts ] Okay. Wow. Look at that. It's really close. I'll be back for you, Hollywood. Well, it all started innocently enough, didn't it? Started making rum for my friends. Then I get this idea, you know, to infuse the flavors of coffee in it. Thought maybe it was gonna be two, three, four cases. Next thing I know, I'm sitting in a basket in the middle of a river in India with a motorcycle spewing fuel all over myself. Dude, we got door-to-door service. This is, I mean, incredible. Is this the first class? See? And then we got to go get that really large guy over there. See? Sometimes the crazy road is the right road. Does that feel good? Is that a microphone in my back, or you just happy to hear me? HOLLYWOOD: [ Chuckles ] Now, the warehouses are empty -- mostly all empty, I'm guessing -- but those people will know where to find the German. So I'll sneak into a warehouse and just start asking around, and from there, we should be within striking distance of meeting the German. I hear you, man. This is the town of Kushinagar, home of the major coffee warehouse in the region. Going there smelling like gas and looking like a rag doll isn't going to get us in the gates or answers to the German's location. The rules still apply. You can't be walking around or approaching people looking like you've just slept in the gutter, so keeping clean is really important. What I know about these small villages, they have loads of these. Little barbershops. Hello. Last time I tried to shave, I got my boots stolen. Looking a little rough, wouldn't you say? So I thought I'd leave it to the professionals this time. It burns. Ahh. Let's get rock 'n' rolling. All right. Just act like you know what you're doing. All right. You work in coffee, okay? You work in coffee. MAN: Hi. A pleasure, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Oh, it's Ludwig. Ludwig, 17. The German's Ludwig. There's only one German name in the visitors' log -- Ludwig. He's checked into stall 17 six times in the last few months. My bet is he's our guy. Follow me. Ah, geez. Look at this, man. It's like showing up, and the party's over. Look, it's just dead. Most coffee people know about this place. And all the farmers in the region? They know about it, too. And this is where they store a lot of their precious stock. That really expensive, beautiful bean -- They keep it here 'cause it's stable. During the height of the season, this would be just swarming with workers. Now, there's gonna be little remnants of stock in here. Most of it's gonna be traditional coffee. Some of these stalls are just completely empty. This is a classic off-season scenario. What few bags are here are traditional -- not Monsoon Malabar. I need to see what Ludwig is holding in stall 17. 16. Ah [bleep] It looks empty. No. Wait a minute. There's some in there. Look at that. [ Laughing ] Ooh! Look. [ Laughs ] Well, oh, my God. Did that look empty to you? That's about 100 bags, right? That's about how much I need. He's got coffee, but is it Monsoon Malabar? I've got a quick way to find out. I'm in Kushinagar, India, searching for a coffee grower called the German. He's holding the last of this season's rare and expensive Monsoon Malabar bean. That bean infused in my rum means a big future for me and La Colombe, distilling a one-of-a-kind product. No. Wait a minute. There's some in there. Look at that. [ Laughing ] Ooh! Look. [ Laughs ] In my hand is the German's coffee. But there's one way to test to see if it's the bean I need. That oak that I keep going on about? There's a way you can smell it. Break up a little bit of this. [ Bean cracks ] All right. On the end of my knife. Heat it up, and all those smoky aromas will come off of it. Okay. It smells like a campfire, right? Campfire made of oak. HOLLYWOOD: Mm-hmm. That's the flavor we're after. That's the real article, man. You can't fake that. That's about 100 bags of genuine grade-"A" Monsoon Malabar, man. The German has what I need, but I still got to find out where the son of a [bleep] lives. Have you heard of -- Some people call him the German and some people call him Ludwig. I think his name is Ludwig. He's Ludwig. Okay. All right. Would you mind showing me on a map? Okay. Yeah. I don't have an address, but I have the German in my sights. He's within a 20-mile radius of where I am right now. It's near the village? Or how would I find it from there? So, I just -- Okay. I arrive and say, "Hi. I'm looking for this German guy." Right. Listen, I appreciate all the time that you've taken with me. All right, Hollywood. You ready? [ Engine turns over ] I know the closest village to the German, so asking around at places the farmer's likely to visit and people he's likely to have come in contact with, like these mechanics, is my strategy for finding out where he lives. You know, I understand there's a man named Ludwig. He's a German. Well, I see. And he lives somewhere here. He has a coffee farm. Yeah. How do I know his farm? Is there like a number or...? Yeah, yeah. You're like a gold mine. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's been a long, long road, Yes, sir. Ahh. Oh, yeah. "Do not trespass. Plantation." Look for the giant tree. I think that qualifies as a giant tree. Yeah. This is for sure the farm. Do we look presentable? [ Sniffs ] I know you know that smell, right? Coffee roasting. And there he is. Hi. Good afternoon. I'm Todd. American coffee roaster. Ludwig. Nice to meet you, sir. This is my friend Hollywood. HOLLYWOOD: Pleasure. Thank you. We've been on a bit of a trip to come see you. You have a reputation among the coffee elite here in India. I know that. They talk very highly of you. They say that you're a little mad, though. Is this true? [ Laughs ] I've never been to a coffee farm that roasts, too. Can I see inside? LUDWIG: Right. ...sell this locally at restaurants. Shops and... Yeah. Ludwig thinks he can make more money selling his coffee roasted locally -- a couple of pounds here and a couple of pounds there. But a foreign buyer like me with a stack of cash is probably something he wasn't counting on. There's some coffee down in the warehouse in Tata, right? Yeah. Right. Hmm. That coffee, I'd like to know if I can buy from you. I don't have two things. I don't have the Monsoon Malabar, Mm. If I showed up tomorrow at the warehouse for 80 bags with cash in hand -- a really solid amount of money -- would that be possible? Let's say, hypothetically, it were the same amount of money, but it were only 60 bags of your coffee. Mm-hmm. Could you peel off 40 bags and still have enough to take care of your clients? Uh... Because I could really... I could really use the 40 bags. For 40 bags, half-a-million rupees. I've finally met the German, and he's got all the Monsoon Malabar I could possibly need. I just made an offer of $10,000 U.S. dollars for 40 bags of coffee -- well over twice what anyone else would ever consider paying. But, to me, it's invaluable, if I want to get this rum made on time. 40 bags, if someone said a half-a-million rupees, that would bring us around 14,000 rupees a bag. You would not be able to refuse that offer? That's the offer I'm offering you. Okay. Beautiful. I actually got the chills. I'm gonna send you a bottle of rum like you've never had in your life. It's a deal. All we need to do now is turn my little bag of cash -- $10,000 -- into a briefcase full of rupees. Let's hightail it. The moment of truth. We're almost at the gate. Remember this place? Hi. It's me again. It's Mr. Carmichael. I'm here for Ludwig's coffee. I'm to meet Sunil. Sunil -- He's inside? Oh, great. Thanks. Come on. Hello, Todd. Hi. I'm happy to see you. Hi, hi. I have this for you. This is for Ludwig. All of it's in there. Super. Just take a look. There it is -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Thank you. Thank you. Is that my coffee? That coffee there? Ooh! You can just hop on the back, and it'll take you to the next village. All right. That's not a problem at all. [ Grunts ] Man. You know how much rum I can make with this? Ha ha! A man and his coffee -- That's what happiness is made of. Man, I hope you weren't betting against me. You would have lost big, man! I got the coffee, the still, the bottling line fired up at 300 miles an hour. It's time to make beautiful rum. And this is the finish line. It's like a ballet of bottles. All those orders we received, they're getting filled right now, baby. My rum has been distilled and infused with Monsoon Malabar. The bottles are filled, corked, and hand-dipped in wax, ready to be shipped to waiting customers. This bottle, this one's for me and you. Yeah. None of this would be possible without you and me, so here's to you, brother. I'll cheers to that. Cheers. Ahh. Mamacita, that's beautiful. [ Laughs ]