Indonesian Golden Mandheling Coffee Variety Grade Classification System How to Select and Purchase Raw Mandheling Coffee Beans

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In recent years, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has become increasingly popular among coffee enthusiasts in the international coffee market. Many coffee enthusiasts who visit FrontStreet Coffee also have a special fondness for FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling. A few days ago, some coffee enthusiast friends noticed that the Golden Mandheling beans that FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) acquired have particularly large beans with many elephant beans, all quite uniform with almost no defects, which is quite different from the many defective Golden Mandheling coffee beans that coffee enthusiasts buy elsewhere. So in this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explain how FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is graded.

FrontStreet Coffee: FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Country: Indonesia

Region: Sumatra, Aceh, Gayo Mountain

Altitude: 1100-1600m

Variety: Ateng

Processing Method: Wet-hulled

Flavor: Toasted bread, nuts, pine, caramel, herbal

Regional Flavor Characteristics of Golden Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling comes from Sumatra Island in Indonesia. This is Indonesia's largest island, located near the equator, featuring a typical tropical rainforest climate with high temperatures, humidity, and abundant rainfall. In terms of conditions, it is indeed very suitable for coffee bean production. However, due to the humid climate and limited water resources, traditional washed processing or natural processing methods cannot be used. Therefore, local Indonesian coffee farmers invented the wet-hulled processing method to handle coffee beans, which has formed Indonesia's unique coffee flavor with herbal and earthy notes.

At the same time, because the Indonesian region has limited altitude suitable for growing Arabica coffee trees, only 25% of coffee beans produced in Indonesia belong to the Arabica species. Since Arabica can only be grown at high altitudes to achieve optimal flavor, the remaining 75% are Robusta coffee trees that can be planted in low-altitude areas. This means that the quality of coffee cherries in Indonesian regions varies, so Indonesia has established a grading system based on defective beans that suits the Indonesian coffee market.

FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Bean Grading

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Indonesian Mandheling coffee grading is mainly based on the number of defective beans, supplemented by size grading. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Indonesia's requirements for general quality coffee beans are: no live insects, no moldy or rotten beans, maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and impurity rate less than 0.5%.

The following are FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Mandheling coffee bean defect grading standards (based on 300g):

Grade 1: Total defects less than 11
Grade 2: Total defects greater than 12 and less than 25
Grade 3: Total defects greater than 26 and less than 44
Grade 4a: Total defects greater than 45 and less than 60
Grade 4b: Total defects greater than 61 and less than 80
Grade 5: Total defects greater than 81 and less than 150
Grade 6: Total defects greater than 151 and less than 225

Among these, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Golden Mandheling grade is G1, and G1 is an extremely rare product, originally a grade specially tailored for Japanese trading companies. G1 means that within 300 grams, there can be a maximum of only 3 defective beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling

Here FrontStreet Coffee needs to talk about the special characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling. Coffee enthusiast friends may have noticed that Sumatra's Mandheling is divided into many types, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling, etc. Among these, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has the highest price because its coffee cherries are strictly selected beans.

This brings us to the PWN company that specializes in producing Golden Mandheling. Their Golden Mandheling must undergo 4 manual screenings to remove defective beans and preserve the best and most complete coffee beans. This is equivalent to being even stricter than screening G1 grade coffee beans. It is precisely because of this that PWN company's Golden Mandheling has a cleaner and sweeter flavor compared to other Mandheling varieties.

Golden Mandheling Coffee Varieties

Currently, PWN company has also changed from the commonly used Typica variety under Arabica to using Catimor, a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta. Catimor variety coffee beans were initially developed in 1959 and began to be promoted in Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. With its disease resistance and high yield, it has secured a place among Central and South American coffee varieties. The occasional coffee leaf rust crises in Central and South America have also contributed to the application of Catimor coffee beans.

Its characteristics are high yield, short plants that can be densely planted, and new leaves that are reddish-brown. However, due to fast maturity and high yield, it requires sufficient fertilizer supply and shade. But according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, its lifespan is very short, averaging only ten years.

It can be seen that PWN company is also trying to move in the direction of increasing production. As for the flavor performance of this Catimor-based coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee believes that compared to the past, it has more toasted bread flavor and is slightly richer, which is also thanks to the Robusta genes, but it still retains the excellent flavor of the Arabica variety.

The above is FrontStreet Coffee's summary of the grading standards and flavor characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will teach coffee enthusiasts how to avoid unscrupulous Mandheling merchants.

Precautions When Selecting Mandheling:

1. The largest coffee cultivation in Indonesia is still low-quality Robusta (mainly used for making instant coffee with poor flavor; therefore not in the specialty coffee discussion category), while Arabica coffee beans account for only 10% of annual production. Poor or unprofessional coffee operators will use Indonesian-produced Robusta to fake Mandheling.

2. Product names with the word "flavor": For example, Mandheling "flavor," Mamba (Mandheling & Brazil) "flavor," etc.; in reality, there is not a single Mandheling bean in the ingredients.

3. Many defects: Due to the humid climate of Lake Toba area, pests, and local coffee farmers' lack of processing equipment, defects can easily occur during Mandheling planting, harvesting, and processing. Of course, besides cupping and tasting, having the opportunity to see complete roasted beans (whole beans) or even green beans is also a good way to ensure quality.

The above are some small tips compiled by FrontStreet Coffee on how to select authentic Mandheling, hoping to help all coffee enthusiast friends.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add private WeChat FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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