Golden Mandheling Pour-Over Coffee Tutorial - SCAA Standard Brewing Method and Parameters

As the most full-bodied and distinctly bitter coffee bean on FrontStreet Coffee's menu, Frontsteet Golden Mandheling remains the top recommendation for guests who love rich, bitter coffee. When FrontStreet Coffee serves pour-over coffee, some guests might ask FrontStreet Coffee about various brewing parameters. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explain how to brew Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee to bring out that authentic Mandheling flavor.

What is Mandheling Flavor?

Since 1699, when Dutch colonists introduced coffee to Indonesia for cultivation, coffee has become a primary economic crop for local farmers. If traditional natural processing methods were used, they would take too much time and make it difficult to sell to merchants for profit in a timely manner. Both sun-drying and washed processing require at least 2-3 weeks of drying time. Most critically, the various islands in Indonesia frequently experience wind and rain, with high air humidity, so coffee beans often become moldy and spoiled before they can dry completely.

The initial steps of wet hulling are the same as the washed process. Indonesians first remove the pulp from coffee cherries and ferment them in water for 3 hours. After washing away the mucilage, the parchment coffee beans undergo brief drying for 2-3 days. When the moisture content reaches 20-24% in a semi-soft, semi-hard state, the hull is removed from the parchment, and then drying continues until the coffee's moisture content reaches 13%, at which point it can be packaged.

Due to the significant friction used by hulling machines, the parchment layer tightly attached to the green beans is torn off. Through this friction-based agitation, the green beans are also more easily crushed or bruised, particularly at the ends, forming small gaps that create "elephant beans." The "naked beans" that have lost their parchment layer dry very quickly and are also directly exposed to humid environments, where various microorganisms thrive. This gives Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbal aromas—what we call "Mandheling flavor."

Some friends might already be curious about this Southeast Asian flavor. If you haven't yet tasted FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with small packages of wet-hulled FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Lintong Mandheling daily brew beans, which present classic Mandheling flavors and are convenient for trying at home. If you're an "experienced coffee enthusiast" who wants to taste the exceptional aroma of Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee believes Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee is perfect for you.

What are the characteristics of Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee?

The Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list is PWN company's exclusive signature product. Since they registered the "Golden Mandheling" trademark early on, only Mandheling produced by PWN company can be called "Golden Mandheling."

The characteristic of Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee lies in the multiple screenings of green beans, resulting in very high overall quality, thus the extracted coffee flavor presents excellent clarity. PWN purchases Mandheling green beans above 18 mesh, with G1 grade where fewer than 3 defective beans are found in 300g samples—the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. Subsequently, they strictly follow standards for 1 machine selection + 3 manual selections of defective beans, ensuring uniform color, shape, and size of Mandheling coffee beans.

After FrontStreet Coffee acquires PWN's Golden Mandheling, they use medium-dark roasting, hoping to present Mandheling's classic caramelized flavor. Freshly roasted Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee was first cupped and tasted by FrontStreet Coffee. In the dry aroma stage, Frontsteet Golden Mandheling reveals cedar, nuts, spices, and herbal plants. With the addition of hot water, licorice and caramel aromas emerge. The taste presents flavors of dark chocolate, cocoa, nuts, and spices—overall clean with obvious sweet aftertaste and high body. With such rich flavors, FrontStreet Coffee naturally chooses to extract and taste it via pour-over. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will explain the pour-over details for Frontsteet Golden Mandheling regarding several key parameters.

Pour-Over Grind Size

Grind degree is one of the key factors affecting coffee flavor. After coffee beans are ground into powder and contact with hot water, they release large amounts of water-soluble flavor compounds. With the same steeping time, smaller particles extract more substances, while larger particles extract less. Simply put, the coarser the grind, the more mellow the coffee flavor; the finer the grind, the more intense the coffee taste.

FrontStreet Coffee uses a tool to adjust grind size—China's No. 20 0.85mm standard sieve. For medium-light roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee consistently uses 75-80% sieve pass rate, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses 70-75%. Compared to light-roasted coffee, the internal structure of medium-dark roasted Mandheling beans is looser, so water absorption is better, making it easier to release large-molecule bitter compounds. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the grind size with a 75% pass rate through the No. 20 standard sieve.

When using it, FrontStreet Coffee first weighs 10 grams of coffee beans, grinds them according to the estimated setting, then places the ground coffee powder in the upper sieve and shakes vigorously. Particles smaller than 0.85mm will fall into the lower layer. Finally, the coffee powder collected in the lower layer is weighed and divided by 10 grams to get the sieve pass rate. If the pass rate is smaller than the target parameter, it means the coffee powder is too coarse and needs to be adjusted finer; if it's larger, it means it's too fine and needs to be adjusted coarser.

Pour-Over Water Temperature

Water temperature plays a similar role to grind size. The higher the water temperature, the higher the coffee extraction efficiency, making it easier to release various substance components, resulting in higher concentration. If using near-boiling hot water for brewing, it's easy to extract unpleasant bitter and astringent substances. Therefore, when brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses different brewing parameters than for light-roasted coffee beans. The caramelization reaction is greater than in light-roasted coffee beans, making it easier to release large-molecule bitter compounds. To avoid extracting excessive off-flavors, FrontStreet Coffee lowers the water temperature slightly. The brewing water temperature for light-roasted coffee is 91-93°C, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88°C.

Dripper

If you usually read FrontStreet Coffee's brewing suggestions, you should know that FrontStreet Coffee prioritizes KONO drippers when brewing coffee beans that express body. We can observe from the KONO dripper's shape that it only has ribs in the middle and lower parts, while the upper part is all smooth curved surface. This way, when we wet the dripper, it can fit tightly with the filter paper, restricting coffee degassing during extraction. Therefore, hot water stays in the dripper longer, coffee extraction rate increases, concentration also rises, and the coffee flavor becomes richer and fuller. KONO drippers are also suitable for beans with full-bodied flavors like FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1.

Segmented Pouring

If you're a beginner with limited control over water flow and unstable streams, then segmented pouring is the simplest and most compatible pouring method. For example, if our total brewing time is 2 minutes, and the initial pouring takes more time than planned, then subsequent pouring needs to increase the flow rate. Conversely, if the initial flow rate is too fast, you can control it with a slower, smaller stream.

FrontStreet Coffee generally uses three-stage pouring with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio. For 1-2 servings, use 15 grams of coffee, meaning total water injection of 225 grams.

The first stage gently injects 30 grams of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. The second stage injects water to about 125 grams, pouring evenly and steadily in outward circles. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, inject the final stage of water to 225 grams. Wait for all the coffee to finish dripping—the total extraction time is generally around 2 minutes.

The pour-over FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling coffee clearly has a solid mouthfeel, with more intense aromas of fir, spices, dark chocolate, and roasted hazelnuts. The aftertaste is clean, the flavor is full and substantial, and you can feel the sweetness of caramel and the lingering finish.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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