Distinguishing Between Mandheling, Golden Mandheling, and Golden Kinding Mandheling: Methods and Pour-Over Parameters

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Whether it's FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling or FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling, both originate from Sumatra, Indonesia. The name "Golden Mandheling" was coined by Japanese connoisseurs. Because Japanese connoisseurs deeply love the intense and diverse flavors of Mandheling coffee, they have been particularly concerned with Mandheling production for many years. However, the quality of Mandheling coffee beans varies greatly—sometimes you can taste creamy aromas, herbal notes, or grassy scents, but other times the flavors are muddled, even emitting unpleasant woody and earthy notes that can be off-putting.

To improve quality, the Japanese took the lead over a decade ago by implementing multiple rounds of manual selection, starting with numerical values for bean density, size, shape, and color. The resulting Mandheling requires both machine and manual removal of defects to ensure the coffee beans are whole, uniform, large, and translucent. This gradually gave rise to high-quality Mandheling batches that reportedly emit a brilliant golden glow in the sunlight, hence earning the name "Golden Mandheling."

Product Information

Product Name: FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesia PWN Golden Mandheling
Origin: Indonesia, Sumatra
Altitude: 1100～1600m
Variety: Teng
Processing Method: Wet-hulled
Roast Level: Medium-dark roast
Acidity: Low

It's worth noting that PWN Company first registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as their trademark, so the Japanese had to use "Top Mandheling" to refer to their high-quality Mandheling coffee beans. Therefore, only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN Company can be considered true "Golden Mandheling." In other words, the FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling mentioned here is an exclusive brand from Indonesia's Pwani Coffee Company (PWN). There are many different types of Mandheling products on the market. You can identify authentic Golden Mandheling by looking for PWN logos on raw bean burlap bags and a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company. FrontStreet Coffee displays these two identifiers in their Dongshankou store.

PWN Quality Standards

PWN Company subjects their purchased Mandheling green beans to one machine selection plus three manual selections, resulting in quality far exceeding Indonesia's highest local G1 grade. To meet PWN Golden Mandheling production standards, the following requirements must be satisfied:

1. Green bean size: First manual selection of 18-19 screen or above
2. Fewer than 3 defective beans in a 300-gram green bean sample
3. Green coffee beans must be G1 grade
4. Deep green color, uniform size, and neat shape

Before launching any coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping to evaluate the coffee. Cupping is a quality and flavor assessment method for coffee beans. Unified standards allow for more objective identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the beans' presented flavors and their characteristics. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that their Lin Dong Mandheling daily brew presents rich nutty notes with a hint of melon aroma in the finish. As the temperature drops, herbal plant flavors emerge, with a full-bodied texture and saturated aromas. PWN Golden Mandheling not only has black chocolate, nut, and caramel aromas but also herbal spice and pine flavors, with black chocolate aftertaste, abundant finish, high clarity, and light fruit acidity as it cools.

FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling Pour-Over Parameters and Techniques

Brewing Water Temperature: 87～88°C
Coffee Dose: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Dripper: KONO dripper
Grind Size: Medium-coarse grind (70% pass-through on Chinese standard #20 sieve)
Brewing Method: Three-stage pour

Dark roasting makes the internal texture of coffee beans loose—they can be easily crushed with a gentle pinch, indicating that the bean structure has been significantly altered. After grinding, the coffee powder has strong water absorption. To avoid over-extraction from the coffee powder absorbing water and releasing large amounts of bitter substances, FrontStreet Coffee uses a coarser grind than for light-roast coffee beans. Here, medium-coarse grinding is used (70% pass-through on Chinese standard #20 sieve), with the EK43s grind setting at 11. In terms of technique, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas consistently use the three-stage pour method, which better expresses the full-bodied texture and caramel sweetness of Golden Mandheling coffee while providing better control over time and water volume.

First, wet the filter paper to make it fit better with the coffee dripper. After pouring out the water from the sharing pot, add 15g of ground coffee powder and bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. This initial pour completely wets the coffee powder for degassing, allowing for better extraction of flavor compounds in subsequent steps.

Some friends extend the bloom time to 45 or 50 seconds when brewing light-roast coffee beans to enhance the initial aroma. However, if dark-roast Mandheling coffee is bloomed for too long, it tends to release excessive woody and mixed flavors. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a 30-second bloom.

For the second stage, start from the center and slowly pour hot water in small circular motions until reaching 125g. The water flow must be steady throughout. Excessive stirring can easily break apart the coffee powder bed, leading to uneven extraction.

Wait until the coffee powder bed drops to half the dripper's height, exposing the coffee bed, then begin the third pour using the same technique until reaching 225g. Remove the dripper once all dripping is complete. The total extraction time should be two minutes, with a 10-second margin of error.

Finally, shake the coffee liquid in the bottom pot to mix well, and you can begin tasting the hand-poured Golden Mandheling black coffee. The brewed Mandheling coffee presents notes of spice, black chocolate, nuts, caramel, and pine, with a full-bodied yet clean mouthfeel, noticeable aftertaste, and persistent finish.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473