Characteristics of Indonesian Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans, PWN Golden Mandheling Flavor Profile and Taste Description - Is It Good?

When customers visit FrontStreet Coffee's shop hoping for a cup of coffee with almost no acidity, FrontStreet Coffee's barista will recommend the Indonesia-produced FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling has a rich, mellow bitter taste, which is quite different from many "fresh-tasting" coffees, making it a bold choice in the coffee world.

What is Indonesia Golden Mandheling Coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling is a product from Indonesia's renowned Pwani Coffee Company. PWN Company specializes in acquiring high-quality Mandheling green beans, covering the best coffee growing regions in Sumatra. After purchasing Mandheling green beans, PWN Company conducts one machine selection and three manual selections to ensure each green bean is complete, uniform, plump, and must reach a size of 18 mesh or above, which is the local G1 grade in Indonesia. It is said that because the green coffee beans glistened golden in the sun during processing, it was named Golden Mandheling. PWN Company not only minimizes the defect rate of coffee but also places the green beans in machines for density and color sorting before packaging, making Golden Mandheling coffee uniform and translucent.

There are many different types of Mandheling products on the market. Since PWN Company has registered "Golden Mandheling" in English as their trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN Company is truly FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling. You can identify authentic FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling by the gunny sacks with PWN logo and a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company, both of which FrontStreet Coffee displays in its Dongshankou store.

Semi-Washed Processing - Wet Hulling Method

Traditional washed processing requires 1-3 weeks, while the wet hulling method takes much less time, completing the entire process in just a few days. The wet hulling process first removes the skin and pulp of the coffee fruit, followed by a brief fermentation and drying. When the beans are semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and the drying process continues. When the moisture content reaches 12%, the beans can be packaged for selection and grading.

The seemingly time-saving wet hulling process is highly susceptible to moisture and mold in Indonesia's hot and humid environment without strict control. However, besides Sumatra Island, Sulawesi and Papua New Guinea in Indonesia also widely use this processing method. This is because Indonesia has a tropical rainforest climate with air humidity as high as 70-90%, making it impossible to dry coffee green beans through prolonged sun exposure, and the cost of washed processing is quite high. Coffee farmers had no choice but to develop this semi-washed processing method. Although the time for each step is greatly reduced, the dehulled green beans still absorb moisture from the hot and humid air, thus the produced FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling has more woody, herbal, and spicy mellow aromas. However, FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling has undergone multiple screenings, greatly reducing the defect rate of coffee beans, thus lacking the earthy, grassy, woody off-flavors typical of regular Mandheling, making the various premium flavors clearer.

FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling Hand Brew Reference

The parameters for FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling brewed at FrontStreet Coffee's shop are as follows:

Filter: KONO filter

Water temperature: 87-88°C

Dose: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: Medium grind (70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)

Three-stage pouring: Use 30g of water to evenly moisten the FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling coffee bed and bloom for 30 seconds. For the second stage, pour 95g of water evenly in circular motions from inside to outside. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the filter bed, you can start pouring the third stage of 100g. Note that the entire process should use a small water flow, and remove the filter after approximately 2 minutes when dripping is complete.

Brewing Suggestions

When brewing coffee by hand, parameters are not fixed. The flavor of coffee will vary with parameter changes and pouring methods. As long as you grasp the relationship between water temperature, grind, and coffee-to-water ratio, brewing a delicious cup of coffee is not difficult. For example, the hand brew approach for FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling is based on the characteristics and flavor profile of the coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee brews 15 grams of coffee for 1-2 servings, with 1:15 being the standard coffee-to-water ratio. The selected coffee beans are within their optimal flavor window, resulting in better brewed flavors. Coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are freshly roasted within 5 days, so they are typically still fresh when customers receive them.

In terms of grinding, FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling has undergone medium-dark roast, making the coffee beans' texture loose and prone to absorbing hot water and releasing many substances. Therefore, if using the same grind as medium-light roast coffee beans, the coffee is likely to have only a bitter, burnt taste. FrontStreet Coffee will adjust the grind to be coarser. Similarly, excessively high water temperatures easily extract the bitter macromolecules from coffee, so FrontStreet Coffee recommends using water temperatures of 86-87°C for brewing.

To highlight the richness of FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee uses the KONO filter, which has better immersion extraction effects. Due to its relatively small outlet diameter, it can extend the contact time between coffee particles and water, effectively extracting soluble substances with the water flow, thereby enhancing the rich, full-bodied taste of coffee. Therefore, this filter is also suitable for brewing medium-dark roast beans such as FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee and FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate.

Note that during brewing, the water flow must be steadily poured into the coffee grounds throughout the entire process. Excessive stirring force can damage the coffee bed, leading to uneven extraction.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473