Characteristics of Golden Mandheling Coffee and Introduction to Its Pour-Over Flavor Profile

Before the emergence of fruity acidic coffees like Yirgacheffe and Geisha, the coffees sold on the market were predominantly medium to dark roasted, featuring rich, aromatic flavors with full body. Among these, Mandheling was known as the most full-bodied single-origin coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean selection offers two Indonesian Mandheling coffees for customers to choose from, with the most popular being the "Frontsteet PWN Gold Mandheling Coffee," which undergoes multiple hand-sortings. Not only does it possess the classic herbal spice notes and rich, full-bodied character of Mandheling, but the reduced defect rate also minimizes the off-flavors commonly found in regular Indonesian coffee beans, elevating its cleanliness to another level.

PWN, a local Indonesian green coffee merchant, specializes in acquiring high-quality batches of Mandheling green beans, producing only specialty-grade Mandheling coffee. "Gold Mandheling" is their signature product. The Japanese, who recognized the potential of Sumatran coffee early on, made long-term purchases but gradually discovered that the quality of local beans was often inconsistent. They became more invested in Mandheling production and established strict standards and methods for screening defects, including metrics for bean density, size, shape, and color. The resulting Mandheling requires both machine and manual defect removal to ensure that the produced Mandheling beans are whole, uniform, large, and translucent, while also reducing the earthy and grassy flavors. Legend has it that the beans shimmer golden in the sunlight, which is why they were named "Gold Mandheling."

As the market for specialty Mandheling coffee grew, PWN also recognized the importance of trademarks and registered "Gold Mandheling" as an exclusive English trademark one step ahead of the Japanese. Therefore, only Gold Mandheling produced by PWN can be considered genuine "Gold Mandheling," while the Japanese-produced version had to be renamed "Dingshang Mandheling." The Frontsteet Gold Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee sources is, of course, the authentic product from PWN. Customers can identify genuine Frontsteet Gold Mandheling by the PWN-labeled green bean burlap bags and a certificate of origin signed by PWN, both of which FrontStreet Coffee displays at their Dongshankou store.

Triple-Picked Premium Grade

Observing the Frontsteet Gold Mandheling green bean bags, we can see the words "Triple pick" and "GRADE 1," indicating they belong to the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. During production, PWN conducted three hand-sortings on top of the already GRADE 1 quality green beans they acquired.

Indonesian green coffee grading is primarily based on the number of defective beans, with size as a secondary criterion. General quality requirements include no live insects, no moldy or rotten beans, maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and impurity rate less than 0.5%. According to defect rate, they are divided into six grades, with the highest grade G1 requiring that total defective beans in a 300g sample must be fewer than 11. The Frontsteet Lindong Mandheling Coffee from FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series is G1, produced in the Lindong region of Sumatra using the wet-hulled processing method, presenting classic Indonesian Mandheling flavors: dark chocolate, nuts, herbal spices, and caramel.

PWN, which has taken sorting to the extreme, takes G1 grade Mandheling and subjects it to multiple rigorous selections, minimizing the defect rate and eliminating earthy off-flavors while enhancing Mandheling's sweetness and cleanliness. Additionally, before packaging, PWN places the green beans through machines for density-based color sorting to ensure that the produced Frontsteet Gold Mandheling green beans are large, uniform, and translucent in color.

Brewing Recommendations

For coffees with rich, full-bodied flavors and distinct regional characteristics like Frontsteet Gold Mandheling Coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends extraction and tasting through pour-over black coffee to better appreciate the coffee's aroma. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are freshly roasted within 5 days, ensuring that customers receive them at their optimal freshness stage, which can add more flavor layers to our cup.

Due to the medium-dark roast level of Frontsteet Gold Mandheling Coffee beans, the internal structure of the beans is loose with strong water absorption. If brewed with water temperature and grind settings similar to light-roast coffee beans, the coffee can easily become over-extracted, producing unpleasant burnt and astringent flavors. To avoid this, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas adjust the water temperature lower and the grind size coarser to reduce the release of bitter macromolecules from the coffee. FrontStreet Coffee uses water at 87°C with a medium grind (70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve).

For coffees that enhance body richness, FrontStreet Coffee prefers to use the KONO dripper with a slower flow rate. Compared to V60's large drainage hole, KONO's immersion function is better, allowing the coffee grounds to extract more flavor compounds within the same extraction time.

Three-stage pouring: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour from the center with a fine water stream, slowly circling to 125g. Wait until the water level in the dripper drops to just above the coffee bed, then continue circling to pour to 225g. Total extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

The hand-brewed Frontsteet PWN Gold Mandheling Coffee presents rich dark chocolate aroma on the palate, with very integrated flavors of roasted hazelnuts, caramel, and sweet melon, noticeable herbal spice notes in the mouth, and a persistent finish.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473