Flavor Profile, Grading, and Distinctions: Sumatra Mandheling vs. Brazil and Colombia Coffee Varieties

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow FrontStreet Coffee on WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee). FrontStreet Coffee often encounters customers asking how to choose coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's physical stores and Tmall flagship store currently display over 30 different types of coffee beans, each with unique characteristics, and we regularly update our selection with new coffee growing regions. FrontStreet Coffee's goal is actually to let every guest who comes to FrontStreet Coffee be able to drink coffee they love, and to understand different coffee flavors from around the world. Our original intention is to understand every coffee variety, every coffee growing region, and every processing flavor. FrontStreet Coffee hopes that every fellow coffee enthusiast can gain a deeper understanding of the coffee world. Today, we will introduce and explore Colombian coffee, Brazilian coffee, and Mandheling coffee.

Coffee Background Comparison

Colombian Coffee Introduction

Colombia's suitable climate provides a true "natural pasture" for coffee. The country has become the second largest coffee producer after Brazil, the world's largest exporter of Arabica coffee beans, and the world's largest exporter of washed coffee beans. Colombia grows coffee on approximately 875,000 hectares across 590 cities and 14 coffee growing regions. The country exports an average of 75% of its products worldwide, with crops accounting for 10% to 16% of agricultural GDP. What surprised FrontStreet Coffee is that most of these coffees come from small farms - 60% of Colombian coffee growing farms are less than one hectare, while only 0.5% of coffee growing areas exceed 20 hectares.

Colombian coffee is quite a representative excellent variety among Arabica coffee species, and also a traditional dark roast coffee with a strong and memorable taste. Colombian coffee bean characteristics include rich and thick aroma with bright, high-quality acidity, high balance, sometimes with nutty flavors, and endless aftertaste. Whether in appearance or quality, Colombian coffee is considered top-grade.

Brazilian Coffee Introduction

In the 18th century, coffee began to be introduced to Brazil. Currently, Brazil's emerging middle class is promoting rapid growth in the domestic coffee market, with Brazilian coffee bean consumption maintaining an annual growth rate of about 5%. Per capita coffee consumption has already surpassed that of the United States, making it the world's largest coffee consuming country. Its production ranks first globally - whenever the country's coffee production is affected, it directly impacts global coffee fluctuations. In FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series, there is a Brazilian coffee bean with obvious chocolate and nut flavors, with moderate richness and smoothness, making it the top choice for friends who don't like acidic coffee. FrontStreet Coffee not only includes Brazil in its daily bean series, but Brazilian coffee beans can also be found in the current season's drip coffee bag series. This shows that Brazil, as a coffee producing country, is indispensable in classic coffee flavors.

Brazil is located in the Western Hemisphere's Latin American region, in eastern South America on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean. On land, it borders all countries on the South American continent except Ecuador and Chile. The vast majority of its territory lies between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, making it the country with the world's widest tropical range. One-third of its territory has a tropical rainforest climate, while two-thirds have a tropical savanna climate. These superior tropical natural conditions are very suitable for the growth and production of tropical economic crops like coffee.

Brazil has fully utilized its tropical geographical environment, emphasizing coffee production and sales, making its coffee production, export volume, and per capita consumption rank first in the world for many years. It has been acclaimed by the world as the "Coffee Kingdom."

Mandheling Origin Introduction

Mandheling is not a region name, place name, port name, nor a coffee variety name. Its name is actually the phonetic transliteration of the Indonesian Mandheling ethnic group.

During World War II, when Japanese soldiers occupied Indonesia, they tasted delicious coffee locally. Later, when they returned to Japan, they couldn't forget the delicious local coffee. Through their trading friends, they asked locals to help collect high-quality coffee beans, including this Mandheling. The Japanese loved this coffee bean and asked for its name. Since the business source was inconvenient to disclose, the locals casually said "Mandheling," and thus Mandheling accidentally became the name of this coffee bean. The locals mentioned earlier are actually the owners of the Indonesian PWN company (Pawani Coffee Company), from whom FrontStreet Coffee purchases its Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

The main coffee producing areas in Indonesia include Sumatra Island, Java Island, and Sulawesi Island, with "Mandheling" from Sumatra being the most famous. Mandheling is also called "Sumatran Coffee." Coffee from the Toba Lake area in the north can be called Aceh Coffee or Toba Lake Coffee, while Lintong and the Toba Lake area can be called Mandheling. Traditionally speaking strictly, coffee beans produced from the Lake Toba area (located in northwestern Sumatra Island, Indonesia) are called "Mandheling."

Coffee Grading Comparison

Colombian Coffee Grading System

Colombia uses bean size as the differentiation standard. Both Excelso and Supremo are considered large beans, but the latter is slightly larger than the former. Colombian coffee bean characteristics are often used as examples: compared to bean size, if you can know the growing region origin, it's more helpful for understanding quality.

Supremo: 17 mesh
Excelso: 14-16.5 mesh

Brazilian Coffee Grading System

Among many coffee growing countries in Central and South America, Brazil's altitude is relatively low. Therefore, unlike Colombia and other countries that emphasize hard beans that can only grow in high-altitude areas, Brazil divides coffee bean grades based on four criteria: particle size, defect rate, cupping score, and flavor.

Flavor grade classification (from high to low): Strictly Soft (very smooth), Soft (smooth), Softish (slightly smooth), Hardish (unpleasant), Rioy (iodine taste).

Defect rate grading: Based on the number of defective beans, with 6 defective beans per 300g of raw beans being NY.2. Completely defect-free beans can only become NY.1, but completely defect-free beans are rare and cannot maintain a consistent supply, so the best raw beans in Brazil are NY.2.

Cupping quality grading (from high to low): Fine Cup, Fine, Good Cup, Fair Cup, Poor Cup, Bad Cup. FC (Fine Cup) and GC (Good Cup) are more common.

Particle size grading: The largest mesh size for Brazilian coffee beans is 19 mesh, but production is limited, so 17 and 18 mesh are considered the highest grades.

Mandheling Coffee Grading

G1: Less than 11 defective beans
G2: 12-25 defective beans
G3: 26-44 defective beans
G4a: 45-60 defective beans
G4b: 61-80 defective beans
G5: 81-150 defective beans

Brewing Flavor Comparison

FrontStreet Coffee · Colombian Rose Valley

Farm: Colombian Big Tree Farm
Region: Santander region
Processing: Anaerobic double enzyme washed
Altitude: 1700 meters
Variety: Caturra

Roasting Suggestions

Bean entry temperature: 180°C, yellowing point: 6'00", 151°C, first crack: 9'48", 183.3°C, develop for 2'10" after first crack, remove at 197°C.

Brewing Parameters

Filter: Hario V60
Water temperature: 90-92°C
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: EK43s setting 9.5 (80% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve)

Brewing Method

First pour 30g of water for bloom, bloom time about 30 seconds. Second pour to 125g with segmentation, continue third pour to 225g when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove filter when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Extraction time: 2 minutes (timing starts from bloom).

Flavor Description

Floral aroma, bright acidity, prominent acidity and sweetness, juice-like mouthfeel, grapes, strawberries, green plums.

FrontStreet Coffee · Brazil Queen Farm

Region: Mogiana
Farm name: Fazenda Rainha (Queen Farm)
Owner: Regina Helena Mello de Carvalho Dias, belonging to Carvalho Dias family
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing: Natural process
Altitude: 1400-1950m

Roasting Analysis

Raw beans have solid texture and excellent flavor performance, with slight orange peel and spice notes. Raw bean moisture content: 9.9%.

This bean has relatively low moisture content, which makes its heat absorption very strong. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's roasting plan is to enter beans at 200°C, then use high heat and low air pressure to speed up dehydration. After the dehydration phase ends, use medium air pressure and medium heat for the Maillard reaction, without rushing the time. Remove from roaster near the end of first crack.

FrontStreet Coffee trial-roasted this bean 4 times and finally chose the optimal time between 1 minute 45 seconds to 2 minutes after first crack ended. The flavor has obvious sweetness, but not boring sweetness. The background has a faint lemon aroma, which is more prominent in the wet aroma phase. The later stage shows obvious dark chocolate flavor. The overall feeling is relatively round, reflecting Brazil's characteristics while maintaining liveliness.

Brewing Parameters

Filter: KONO
Water temperature: 87°C
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind degree: 70% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve
Pouring method: Three-stage pouring

Brewing Method

First pour 30g of water for bloom, bloom time about 30 seconds. Second pour to 125g with segmentation, continue third pour to 225g when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove filter when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Extraction time: 2 minutes (timing starts from bloom).

Flavor Description

Sweet beans, clean character. Using semi-natural processing makes its acidity slightly bright but well-balanced with sweetness. The abundant aroma during brewing is particularly appealing. Fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, smooth and pleasant fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavors, balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, with rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavors, bright and refreshing mouthfeel, smooth and delicate texture.

Indonesian Selected Frontsteet Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Region: Aceh GAYO Mountain
Altitude: 1100-1600m
Variety: Typica
Processing: Wet-hulled method

Roasting Curve

FrontStreet Coffee believes that Golden Mandheling belongs to raw beans with relatively high moisture content, with a high deviation in moisture compared to natural process beans, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. For raw beans with high moisture content, you can immediately close the air damper after entering beans, bloom for 30 seconds, then open to 3 until the beans turn light green or white. Open air damper to 4, and open to 5 (maximum) after first crack.

Brewing Parameters

For daily Mandheling brewing, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a KONO filter because it can produce a rounder, richer mouthfeel and more direct flavor expression. The KONO filter's only exhaust area is in those quarter ribs. When water level exceeds the rib area, the filter cup's water volume continuously increases, creating pressure through the water's weight. Since the outlet is relatively small, it can extend the contact time between coffee particles and water. This can more effectively extract soluble substances as the water flow带动. FrontStreet Coffee's brewing method can generally achieve the high richness that customers expect.

Filter: KONO
Water temperature: 87°C
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind degree: 70% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve
Pouring method: Three-stage pouring

Brewing Method

Segmented extraction: Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour with small circular motion to 125g for segmentation. Continue pouring to 225g when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, then stop pouring. Remove filter when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Extraction time: 2 minutes (timing starts from bloom).

Flavor Description

Multi-layered, rich and clean, high balance, rich nut and caramel aroma, with chocolate notes, long-lasting aftertaste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473