How to Brew Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans - Indonesian Mandheling Pour-Over Coffee Tutorial and Flavor Profile

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Mandheling is a world-renowned specialty coffee that has conquered many palates with its low acidity and rich, mellow flavor profile. It is a coffee-producing region that FrontStreet Coffee has been exploring for many years. Mandheling is a beautiful misunderstanding, and FrontStreet Coffee has shared the background story of Mandheling many times, which many people now understand. The flavor of Mandheling can be described as classic yet with a wonderful mouthfeel, predominantly heavy in tone. Upon entry, you can feel the rich body yet with a vibrant and lively dynamic, low in acidity without astringency, where body and bitterness blend perfectly. No wonder, before Blue Mountain coffee was discovered, Mandheling was once considered the world's most full-bodied coffee. When tasting Mandheling, the smoothness on the tongue is distinctly noticeable, but there's a faint herbal plant aroma, and the sweetness in the aftertaste is intoxicating, giving FrontStreet Coffee a persistent obsession with Mandheling.

Indonesian Sumatra Production Region

Indonesia is located in southeastern Asia, and its coffee history dates back to 1696 when Dutch coffee farm owners sought to find broader coffee cultivation areas. After extensive exploration, they finally settled on Java Island in Indonesia. After 30 years, Indonesia had established a sufficient foundation in the coffee market. However, today, Indonesia's coffee representative is Mandheling, which is actually not surprising, because most of the Java coffee originally exported to Europe came from the Sumatra region, and Mandheling comes from Sumatra. Therefore, Sumatra can be considered an important coffee production area in Indonesia.

Mandheling is also known as "Sumatra Coffee," and the hometown of premium Mandheling—the Lake Toba region—is located at the northern end of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. Lake Toba, situated in central North Sumatra Province, where Dutch colonists moved "Java Coffee" northward to the Lake Toba region in 1888. TheLintong area in southern Sumatra and the Lake Toba area can be called Mandheling, but theLintong area is actually the Mandheling production region. Mandheling is produced from the mountainous areas surrounding Lake Toba. This lake is geographically located north of Medan, the capital of Sumatra Island, and belongs to high-altitude freshwater lakes with an average height of about 900 meters above sea level. The commonly referred to Mandheling refers to Typica or its variant coffee beans grown in the mountainous areas surrounding Lake Toba.

Lake Tawar

Lake Tawar is located in the Gayo Mountains in northern Aceh Province, Sumatra. Situated at the northern end of Sumatra Island, most coffee produced in North Sumatra is Gayo, predominantly of the Ateng variety. Lake Tawar at the northern end can be called Aceh coffee or Lake Tawar coffee. Its area is less than one-tenth of Lake Toba. However, in recent years, coffee quality and production have surpassed those of Lake Toba.

The Name Mandheling

Mandheling originally referred to the name of a tribe in Indonesia. After Japanese soldiers colonized Indonesia and returned to Japan, they couldn't forget the delicious local coffee, so they sought help from trade friends to ask locals to help collect premium coffee beans, including this Mandheling. The Japanese were very fond of these coffee beans. Since commercial sources couldn't be easily disclosed, the locals casually mentioned "Mandheling," and thus Mandheling accidentally became the name of this coffee bean through this misunderstanding. This local person was the owner of Indonesia's PWN company (Pwani Coffee Company). PWN company was the first to export gold Mandheling coffee beans to Japan, and only Mandheling produced by this company is authentic gold Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee has been using PWN gold Mandheling for many years. PWN also changed from 60kg bags to 30kg bags, and the production region changed fromLintong to GAYO Mountain.

Processing Method

-Special Processing Method: Wet Hulling- Most Mandheling adopts the unique Sumatran coffee bean processing method—wet hulling. Due to the local weather, which is often 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 water washing method, thus the very local characteristic wet hulling method was developed. Now Indonesian coffee development is no longer the impoverished scene it once was, and there are many estates and companies with certain conditions that can use the water washing method. However, why hasn't the wet hulling method been abandoned? FrontStreet Coffee believes that the wet hulling method is the factor that made Mandheling coffee famous worldwide. As soon as Mandheling coffee is mentioned, the wet hulling method comes to mind, so they have become complementary relationships.

The specific steps of wet hulling can be divided into the following two stages: The first stage involves using a wooden peeler to remove the skin and pulp, followed by 3 hours of fermentation, then drying to reduce the moisture content to 30-50% semi-dry and semi-wet. The second stage removes the mucilage and parchment layer, continuing with the final drying process. The drying process takes 2-4 days, reducing the moisture content to 12-13%.

Gold Mandheling is produced in theLintong region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The harvesting operation is limited to manual picking of fully ripe single fruits to ensure initial bean selection quality. Coffee cherries are processed using the SEMI-WASHED method, naturally sun-dried, and after hulling, they undergo another drying refinement process, two raw bean cleaning operations, and four Hand-Pick manual selection processes! Therefore, it can be said to be a strictly selected premium Mandheling coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Gold Mandheling Roasting Analysis

Gold Mandheling belongs to raw beans with higher moisture content, with a higher deviation value in moisture compared to sun-dried beans, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. For raw beans with high moisture content, you can immediately close the air damper after putting in the raw beans, steam for 30 seconds, then open it to 3, until the color of the raw beans turns light green or white, then open the air damper to 4, and after first crack, open it to 5 (maximum).

FrontStreet Coffee recommends keeping good data records before roasting, including the moisture content and density of the coffee beans, origin, processing method, roasting environment temperature and humidity in the roasting room, etc., and planning your roasting curve. During the roasting process, record relevant chemical and physical changes, which will help you better understand the final roasting results and help improve the roasting curve.

Preheat the roaster to 200°C, set the air damper to 3, after 1 minute adjust the heat to 160°C, keeping the air damper unchanged. Roast until 5'40", when the temperature reaches 148°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete, adjust the heat to 140°C, air damper to 4; at 9'40 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black patterns appear on the bean surface, the toast aroma clearly changes to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'54" first crack begins, reduce the heat to 60°C, fully open the air damper (be very careful when adjusting heat, don't reduce it so much that there's no cracking sound), and discharge at 204.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Gold Mandheling Cupping Report

Gold Mandheling tastes cleaner thanLintong Mandheling. The original herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is stronger, and the fruit acidity is brighter and more elegant. Generally,Lintong Mandheling is best roasted to after second crack to effectively reduce off-flavors, but Gold Mandheling has good clarity and sweetness whether discharged before or after second crack, allowing for broader roasting interpretation space.

How to Brew Indonesian Mandheling Coffee?

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 roasted within 5 days, because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that the freshness of coffee beans greatly affects the flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when they receive it. The coffee's resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's at the peak of its flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a KONO dripper for daily Mandheling brewing because it can bring out a rounder and fuller body, with more direct flavor expression. However, the KONO dripper has relatively poor exhaust effect because its ribs are straight and only one-quarter of the dripper's depth. Apart from the area above this one-quarter, the rest fits tightly against the cup wall, forming a sealed state.

Therefore, when the beans have passed their resting time, I will choose the KONO dripper, because the only exhaust part of this dripper is in that one-quarter rib area. When the water level exceeds the rib area, the water in the dripper continuously rises, increasing pressure through the weight of the water. Since the outlet is relatively small, it can extend the contact time between coffee particles and water. As the water flow drives this, it can more effectively extract soluble substances, generally achieving the high body effect that customers expect.

To better express Mandheling's spice, herbal flavors, and full body, FrontStreet Coffee roasts Mandheling coffee beans using medium-dark roasting. Medium-dark roasted beans generally have a higher dehydration rate, so they are lighter in weight. During brewing, the grounds don't completely sink to the bottom. When water is first poured, it's immediately absorbed. Due to vigorous degassing, bubbles form around the grounds, creating channels. The fresher the beans, the longer these channels are maintained, causing the water level to drop quickly. I generally use a coarse water flow, slowly circling, using a single-pour method.

Taking FrontStreet Coffee's Sumatra Gold Mandheling as an Example

Origin: Aceh Gayo Mountain, Indonesia
Altitude: 1100-1600m
Variety: Ateng
Processing Method: Wet Hulling
Grade: G1, 3 hand-picked selections

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Mandheling Coffee

1. Dripper: KONO

2. Water Temperature: 88°C

3. Grind Size: Medium-coarse grind, 70% pass-through rate with #20 sieve

5. Bloom Time: 30 seconds

6. Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Technique: First pour 30g of water for 30s bloom, then directly pour in circles until reaching 125g, then stop pouring. Wait until the liquid level drops to 1/2, then directly pour water at the center until reaching 225g. Extraction time is about 2:00.

[Gold Mandheling Brewing Flavor]: Nuts, spices, herbal plants, licorice, chocolate, caramel, with clean and smooth flavors

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