Indonesia PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Origin Characteristics Flavor How to Brew? Is Mandheling Coffee American Style?

For more premium coffee knowledge, please follow the official WeChat account: FrontStreet Coffee

As a unique specialty coffee from Indonesia, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling features rich herbal and dark chocolate aromas, with a thick and smooth mouthfeel and a nutty sweet aftertaste that makes you think of sweetness! FrontStreet Coffee believes that friends who have tried this coffee bean all know it has very distinctive characteristics.

Sumatra Frontsteet Golden Mandheling Coffee

Just as mentioning FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee immediately brings Jamaica to mind, when discussing Frontsteet Golden Mandheling, we must mention PWN Company. PWN's full name is Pawani Coffee Company.

This is a very famous raw bean trading company in Indonesia, founded by a Chinese-Indonesian family from Quanzhou, Fujian. Located in the important port city of Medan in Sumatra, it has been handling export business since 1957, including products like rubber, cassia seeds, cloves, patchouli oil, and of course exporting Sumatra coffee beans to Japan.

In terms of coffee business, Pawani mainly purchases Mandheling coffee, acquiring almost all the best producing areas in Indonesia. Therefore, most beans from PWN Company are unique specialty coffees. Frontsteet Golden Mandheling is a product from this company. After purchasing the raw beans, they undergo multiple rounds of manual selection to choose full, flawless beans. Only these fine beans that have gone through layer upon layer of selection, like contestants in a talent show, can be classified as Frontsteet Golden Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the quality of Frontsteet Indonesia Golden Mandheling can definitely be considered superior Mandheling.

Unique Flavor

Coffee grown in Sumatra's environmental soil exhibits woody tones and a thick mouthfeel, with reserved flavors and lively yet moderate acidity, plus unique flavors like herbal medicine, cedar, cocoa, and fermented fruits. Among these, Frontsteet Mandheling is the most classic coffee bean among Arabica varieties that account for only 25% of coffee produced in Indonesia. It has a wonderful classic taste, heavy flavor with body and rich, lively dynamics, yet neither astringent nor acidic, allowing the body and bitterness to be fully expressed.

When tasting Frontsteet Mandheling, you can feel the smoothness on your tongue, with light herbal plant aromas, cocoa sweetness, and fruit-like fragrances, with a deep aftertaste. Frontsteet Mandheling enthusiasts typically drink it as a single origin, but Frontsteet Mandheling is also an indispensable variety for blending mixed coffee. In other words, Frontsteet Mandheling is suitable for both single-origin pour-over and espresso coffee beans.

Origin Introduction

Sumatra Island is the largest island in Indonesia, located on the equator and belonging to a tropical rainforest climate. With high temperatures, humidity, and abundant rainfall, small coffee farmers typically plant in original mountains and wilderness. Water resources are quite precious, so the local area developed the unique "wet hulling" drying method (Giling Basah, Wet hulling). This processing method adds flavors to Sumatra coffee that differ from other regions. Among coffee beans produced in Indonesia, 25% are Arabica, while the remaining 75% are Robusta. Only the refined Arabica coffee from northern Sumatra is marketed as Lintong and Mandheling.

Cultivation History of the Origin

The beginning of Indonesian coffee dates back to the late 17th century when the Dutch occupied Java Island, making it the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in the East. The Dutch introduced two batches of Typica seedlings from Java Island for breeding. Before the 1870s, coffee growing areas were established in Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi, and Timor, soon expanding from the original Java Island throughout Indonesia. However, this prosperity didn't last long. In 1869, a sudden coffee leaf rust disease swept through the entire Asian coffee region, including Indonesia, causing large areas of Typica trees to wither and die.

To save the destroyed coffee plantations, the Indonesian government introduced more disease-resistant Robusta varieties from Africa and other places. Robusta remains Indonesia's main variety to this day. To ensure plant survival rates and increase coffee production, Indonesia continuously introduced various disease-resistant varieties from other countries. Among these, Tim Tim, Bor Bor, and the Catimor series Ateng, which are hybrids of Robusta and Arabica, have good disease resistance, vigorous yields, and have adapted to Sumatra's terroir.

Soon, Ateng and Tim Tim gradually replaced the original Typica varieties, becoming the main varieties in Sumatra and other regions. Among these, the well-known specialty representative is Mandheling. Mandheling is mainly produced in the two major lakes within Aceh Province and North Sumatra Province: Lake Toba and Lake Tawar.

Lake Toba is the world's largest volcanic lake and also Indonesia's largest highland freshwater lake. The average annual temperature here is around 22°C, belonging to a tropical rainforest climate. The rainy and humid environment, combined with mountain altitudes of around 1,400 meters, produces various spices, timber, palm oil, and other agricultural products, including coffee. Under the misty and rainy weather, most fruit trees grow on high-altitude slopes, with several types of ferns covering their surfaces, jointly providing good sun protection for coffee, so growers don't need to use shade cultivation.

Located in the Gayo Mountains of central Aceh Province, Sumatra, there is a very unique microclimate environment near the famous volcanic Lake Tawar. From September to April each year is the coffee cherry ripening season, where you can see many farmers busy picking in the mountains. Traditional Lintong Mandheling is grown by the Mandailing and Batak ethnic groups, while the "rising star" Lake Tawar Mandheling is grown by the Gayo people.

Here the lake water is clear, the natural environment is excellent, and coffee trees are planted on mountains 1,200-1,800 meters high. Shrouded in mist year-round with large temperature differences between day and night, the volcanic soil is rich in minerals and nutrients, with fallen fruit serving as fertilizer. Farmers widely use organic methods to grow coffee, and combined with a long cultivation history, the coffee produced here has higher quality and yield. Many raw coffee bean merchants also value this area more, including the very famous local Pawani Coffee Company (Pwani Coffee Company, abbreviated as PWN).

Processing Method - Wet Hulling

Due to the local weather being predominantly rainy with constant typhoons, it's impossible to achieve the good weather required for sun-drying, and the local economy is not good enough to use the more expensive washed method. For these various reasons, the locally characteristic wet hulling method was developed (wet hulling means during the normal washed process, the beans with parchment are sun-dried for 2-3 days until the moisture content reaches 20-24%, then the parchment is removed).

The extremely fast processing speed of wet hulling also results in a higher defect rate in Mandheling, but Frontsteet Golden Mandheling effectively avoids this drawback. Frontsteet Golden Mandheling's specifications are 19 screen or above, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g raw bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a dark green color and a uniform flat bean shape.

Frontsteet Roasting Parameters

FrontStreet Coffee chooses to drop the beans just before the second crack, preserving a bit of soft acidity. The taste has high sweetness, rich fragrance, and thickness. Flavors: toasted bread, pine, caramel, cocoa, with a slight earthy herbal taste.

Medium-dark roasted beans generally have a higher dehydration rate, so they weigh less. When brewing, the powder doesn't completely sink to the bottom. As soon as water is initially poured, it's immediately absorbed. Due to vigorous degassing, bubbles form around the powder, creating channels. These channels last longer with fresher beans, causing the water level to drop quickly. I generally use a coarse water flow and slowly circle.

Frontsteet Brewing Method Sharing

FrontStreet Coffee suggests using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing to maximize the rich flavors of the coffee. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that coffee freshness greatly affects flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring every customer receives the freshest coffee when their order arrives. The coffee's resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's at peak flavor and ready for direct brewing and consumption.

Filter: Kono dripper
Water temperature: 86°C
Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-fine grind (70% pass-through rate with #20 sieve)

Reason for choosing Kono dripper: The Kono dripper has few ribs located at the bottom, and the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, which can restrict airflow to increase contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the thick mouthfeel, suitable for brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans like Frontsteet Golden Mandheling.

Segmented Extraction

Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds. With a small water flow, pour in circles to 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time is 2'00".

Overall, only medium-dark roasted Frontsteet Golden Mandheling can express its caramel, pine, quality herbal notes, and slight spicy aromas, bringing a solid mouthfeel. The 2020 new crop season Frontsteet Golden Mandheling was severely affected by the pandemic, making shipping resources from Indonesia to China extremely tight. As a result, the Frontsteet Golden Mandheling originally scheduled to arrive in October was delayed by a month. FrontStreet Coffee evaluated the beans immediately upon receiving them.

In terms of flavor, it differs from previous Mandheling. Compared to other Mandheling, Frontsteet Golden Mandheling has a stronger aftertaste and sugarcane aroma. Although everyone knows that only PWN's Mandheling can be called true Frontsteet Golden Mandheling, in reality, PWN's annual production is not large. Therefore, a significant portion of large-sized selected Golden Mandheling is not from PWN. If you're unsure, you might as well ask the seller to provide the certificate that PWN includes with their beans.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473