PWN GOLDEN MANDHELING

Golden Mandheling

01 | Region Introduction

Indonesia's main coffee-producing regions include Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi islands, with Mandheling from Sumatra being the most renowned. Mandheling is also known as Sumatran coffee. Most coffee from North Sumatra is Gayo, primarily of the Ateng variety. Lake Tawar in the northern part can be called Aceh coffee or Tawar Lake coffee, while South Sumatra's Lintong and Lake Toba regions can be called Mandheling. The Lintong area is truly the Mandheling-producing region, and the best Mandheling varieties include four types: Sidikalang, Bergendar, Siborong Borong, and Telok Sanggul.

Lake Toba, located in central North Sumatra Province, was where Dutch colonists moved "Java Mandheling" northward in 1888, establishing the modern Mandheling legend.

Lake Tawar, located in central Aceh Special Autonomous Region. Situated at the northern tip of Sumatra Island, its area is less than one-tenth of Lake Toba. However, in recent years, coffee quality and production from this region have surpassed Lake Toba.

The Gayo mountains are located in the Aceh region of North Sumatra province. Most coffee farmers working in the Gayo area are local farmers. The name Gayo comes from a tribe in Indonesia's Aceh region. This area has ideal growing conditions, a long historical culture, and unique flavors. The region widely adopts organic methods for coffee cultivation, without using chemical fertilizers, and is considered a world green coffee production area. Therefore, Gayo coffee is often called green coffee or Gayo organic coffee.

What is Golden Mandheling?

Speaking of Golden Mandheling, we must start with PWN. This abbreviation is often mixed with the name Mandheling coffee. It is actually an abbreviation for Pwani Coffee Company.

This company is a very famous local coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, mainly acquiring Mandheling coffee. Almost the best producing regions in Indonesia are acquired by them, so most beans from PWN Company are unique specialty coffees. Golden Mandheling is a product produced by this company. After acquiring raw beans, they undergo one machine selection + three or more manual hand selections to select full, defect-free beans. Only these premium beans that have undergone层层筛选 like talent competitions can be classified as Golden Mandheling.

The purpose of machine selection is to first screen that bean sizes must be 18 mesh or above. The subsequent multiple manual selections are to remove uneven defective beans. The reduction in defect rate greatly improves the quality of Mandheling coffee.

However, PWN Company has trademarked Golden Mandheling, meaning that only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN Company in the future can be considered genuine Golden Mandheling. Many beans on the market not produced by PWN Company but carrying the Golden Mandheling brand should actually be called Premium Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans all come from PWN Company. At FrontStreet Coffee's physical stores, you can see certification certificates issued by PWN, as well as raw bean bags printed with PWN markings.

02 | Processing Method

Wet Hulling, also known as Wet Hulling or Giling Basah in the local language, is a traditional Indonesian coffee processing method. Judging from the name alone, Wet Hulling appears similar to wet processing (washed processing), but the cupping flavors of these two processing methods are completely different. Coffee processed by Wet Hulling typically has a rich and strong taste with a very distinct personality.

Wet Hulling Processing Steps

1. Remove skin and pulp, keep parchment and mucilage
2. Pool fermentation
3. Wash off mucilage
4. Sun-dry with parchment for 2-3 days to 20-24% moisture content
5. Hull off parchment
6. Dry raw beans to 12-13% moisture content
7. Prepare for export

Why Use Wet Hulling?

a. Climate Reasons

The tradition of using Wet Hulling in Indonesia starts with the local weather. Indonesia's humidity stays between 70-90% year-round with constant typhoons. In some regions, annual rainfall can even reach as much as 2,000mm. We know that raw beans fear rain most, so how does Indonesia overcome such harsh weather conditions to produce rich and mellow Mandheling coffee? That's where Wet Hulling comes in.

Under tropical climate conditions, coffee takes an average of 2-3 weeks to dry. In Indonesia's humid climate, drying coffee becomes a big problem. Coffee drying must take longer, during which time the coffee still maintains high humidity, making it easier for bacteria to penetrate the raw coffee beans.

In regular washed processing, the drying process is done with parchment to protect the raw beans from external damage to some extent. However, we can note that Wet Hulling removes parchment for the final drying step, allowing sunlight to directly hit the surface of raw beans, making them dry 2-3 times faster than washed processing.

b. Economic Benefits

Dutch colonists first introduced coffee to Indonesia in the 17th century. These colonists pursued more and faster economic returns. Wet Hulling greatly shortened the time spent on farms and also significantly reduced labor costs. This aligned with the investor mentality of pursuing rapid profits and reducing costs. This is also one reason promoting the Wet Hulling method.

c. Defects and Kuku Kambing (Goat Hoof Beans)

When Wet Hulling removes parchment, the coffee's moisture content is still as high as 20-24%, while in general processing methods, coffee moisture content drops to 10-12% before hulling. In a semi-dry state, parchment tends to stick to the surface of raw beans, making hulling more difficult than fully dry beans. The hulling process requires greater friction.

But on the other hand, semi-dry raw coffee beans are very fragile at this time, with hardness far less than fully dry beans, so beans are more easily squeezed and form small gaps. This is what we often call horse hoof or goat hoof beans (locally called kuku kambing).

The ultra-fast processing speed of Wet Hulling also results in higher defects in Mandheling. Processing plants arrange employees for manual defect selection, generally including DP (double picking) and TP (triple picking). Mandheling that undergoes triple picking will have better defect rates than double picking.

Wet-hulled flavors, aside from those subtle differences, we generally believe Wet-hulled beans have earthy, smoky, and chocolate flavors. Acidity is called low acid, rich and mellow yet appears quite dull.

Low acid comes from shorter, weaker fermentation processes and longer drying times. The earthy flavors of Wet-hulled beans are subject to various opinions. Some say it's related to the bean varieties used in Wet-hulled related regions (Timor & Catimor lines: with Robusta blood), some say it's the result of raw beans interacting with external organic matter, and some even say it's because there are too many defective beans.

03 | Raw Bean Analysis

PWN Golden Mandheling Gold Mandheling Raw Beans

FrontStreet Coffee - PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Region: Aceh Province, Gayo Mountains, Sumatra, Indonesia

Company: PWN Pwani Coffee Company

Altitude: 1100-1600m

Grade: G1 Triple Hand-picked

Processing: Wet Hulling

FrontStreet Coffee chooses to drop the beans before the second crack, retaining a soft acidity. The taste has high sweetness, rich aroma, and mellow texture. Flavors: toasted bread, pine, caramel, cocoa, with a slight grassy earthy taste.

In the specialty coffee system, Sumatran coffee is a wonderful existence. You see, the famous Mandheling is actually not the name of a producing region, nor the name of a coffee bean variety, and even its bean variety source is so mixed.

04 | Common Coffee Varieties in Indonesian Regions

Ateng

A hybrid variety between Arabica and Robusta with several subtypes, widely planted in Sumatra and other Indonesian islands. Simply put, it's a branch of Catimor, with Ateng being the local name.

Djember

Looking up Djember on Baidu shows it's a place name in Sumatra, looking quite mysterious, but the variety is actually S-795. Because this bean variety was spread to the island by Jember Coffee Research Center, locals call S-795 by this name.

What is S-795? It's a hybrid created by Indian botanists crossing the Typica mutation Kent with S-288.

What is S-288? It's a natural hybrid of Arabica and Liberica.

Tim Tim

Tim Tim is a bean from Indonesia. Due to its elongated shape, many people call it horse face bean, and some call it long Mandheling. Actually, Tim Tim is not a pure variety but a natural hybrid between Arabica coffee trees and Robusta coffee trees.

This variety was discovered on Timor Island in the 1940s and was cultivated due to its natural disease resistance. In the Americas, this variety is called Hybrido de Timor, abbreviated as Tim Tim, while in Indonesia this variety is also called Bor Bor.

05 | Roasting Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee notes that Golden Mandheling belongs to raw beans with higher moisture content, with a higher deviation value from sun-dried beans in moisture, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. Raw beans with high moisture content can be immediately closed off the air vent after putting in the raw beans, steamed for 30 seconds, then opened to 3, until the raw beans' color turns light green or white, then open the air vent to 4, and after the first crack open to 5 (maximum).

FrontStreet Coffee suggests making data records before roasting: coffee bean moisture content, density, origin, processing method, roasting room temperature and humidity, etc., and planning your roasting curve. Record relevant chemical and physical changes during the roasting process, which will help you better understand the final roasting results and improve the roasting curve.

Roasting Curve:

Heat the roaster to 200°C, set air vent to 3, after 1 minute adjust heat to 160°C, air vent unchanged, roast until temperature reaches 148°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete, adjust heat to 140°C, air vent to 4;

At the 9th minute, bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast smell obviously turns to coffee aroma, can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack, when first crack begins, adjust heat to 60°C, air vent fully open (adjust heat very carefully, not so small that there's no cracking sound), drop at 204.5°C.

Cupping Report:

FrontStreet Coffee discovered through cupping comparison that PWN Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner than Lintong Mandheling. The original herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is stronger, and the fruit acidity is relatively bright and elegant. Generally, Lintong Mandheling is best roasted to after the second crack to effectively reduce miscellaneous flavors, but Golden Mandheling has good transparency and sweetness whether dropped before or after the second crack, allowing wider roasting interpretation space.

06 | Brewing Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans have a dark roast degree. To let everyone enjoy more complete coffee flavors, all sold coffee beans are shipped within 5 days after roasting completion, ensuring 100% fresh roasting.

Medium-dark roasted beans generally have higher dehydration rates, so they are lighter in weight. When brewing, the powder doesn't completely sink to the bottom. When water is initially injected, it's immediately absorbed. Due to vigorous degassing, there are bubbles around the powder, creating channels. These channels last longer with fresher beans, causing water level to drop quickly. I generally use coarse water flow and slowly circle around.

1. Filter: KONO

2. Water temperature: 88°C

3. Grind size: Medium-coarse grind (70% pass-through rate with China #20 standard sieve)

4. Roast degree: Medium-dark roast

5. Coffee amount: 15g

6. Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Segmented water pouring: Use twice the amount of coffee powder to moisten the coffee bed, forming a dome, steam for 30s, then use small water flow to pour in circles from inside to outside until 125g, then segment. Wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the filter cup's position, continue with the same fine water flow to pour the third segment to 225g, until all coffee liquid filters through, remove the filter cup, time about 2 minutes. Finally, shake the coffee liquid in the pot evenly and you can start enjoying~

The hand-poured FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling coffee has varied layers overall, rich and mellow, with a clean taste. Nut and caramel aromas, with chocolate notes, persistent aftertaste, and high balance.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473