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Sumatra Coffee Beans - The Origin of Mandheling

Mandheling is not a region name, place name, port name, nor a coffee variety name. Its origin actually comes from a mispronunciation of the Mandheling ethnic group in Indonesia. During World War II when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier drank an incredibly mellow and aromatic coffee at a café. When he asked the owner for the coffee's name, the owner mistakenly thought he was asking where he was from and replied: "Mandheling." After the war, the Japanese soldier recalled the "Mandheling" he had drunk in Indonesia. He then commissioned an Indonesian coffee exporter to ship 15 tons to Japan, which became surprisingly popular. The name Mandheling thus spread.

What is "Golden Mandheling"?

Some friends who have run coffee shops for several years say that "Golden Mandheling" is aged Mandheling. When speaking of "Golden Mandheling," we must first start with PWN, an abbreviation often mixed together with Mandheling coffee's name. It actually stands for Pwani Coffee Company. This company is a very famous coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, mainly acquiring Mandheling coffee. Almost all the best growing 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 purchasing the green beans, they undergo multiple rounds of manual selection to pick out full, flawless beans. Only these fine beans that seem to have undergone talent show-like layered screening can be classified as Golden Mandheling.

However, PWN company has registered Golden Mandheling as a trademark, meaning that only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN company can be considered genuine "Golden Mandheling" in the future. Many beans on the market not produced by PWN company but labeled with the Golden Mandheling brand name should actually be called Specialty Mandheling. "Golden Mandheling" is not aged coffee - it's merely a product name created by the company.

Differences Between Mandheling and Golden Mandheling

Some coffee friends have asked, as a coffee beginner, what's the difference between Golden Mandheling and Mandheling G1 - I really can't taste the difference. For professional-level coffee connoisseurs and coffee friends with sensitive palates, if drinking these two coffees simultaneously, the comparison results will be very obvious. Golden Mandheling's sweetness and cleanliness, richness, and wild spice flavors are slightly superior to G1, which is one reason why Golden Mandheling is much more expensive than G1.

Mandheling requires layered screening, and I think this is absolutely necessary. Its probability of defective beans is too high, plus their ugly appearance - sometimes good beans look like defective beans. Every time I sort Mandheling, I can pick out a handful of defective beans, but then looking back at the defective beans, I feel they can't really be considered defective - their appearance is just so unappealing. However, roasted Mandheling is like a caterpillar breaking through its cocoon to become a butterfly - the roasted beans are very full and quite pleasing to the eye.

Golden Mandheling, on the other hand, has a defect rate of only 2% and is very beautiful.

What is Aged Golden Mandheling?

Aged coffee actually has a long history in Indonesia. Because early shipping was not so developed, transporting coffee from Indonesia to other countries took considerable time. Over time, originally moisture-rich fresh coffee beans gradually dried, and the addition of sea breezes created a rather special flavor. Due to advancements in modern shipping greatly reducing transport time, coffee with such special flavors has become a specially processed coffee bean. Processing aged beans is a technical skill that requires strict monitoring during the coffee bean aging process. Warehouse humidity and temperature have standard requirements, and the green coffee beans must be turned periodically to prevent differences in humidity between top and bottom or mold that would render them useless. The aging process is not about losing flavor but creating another flavor - and a pleasant one at that.

Four Types of Mandheling Coffee Collected

Four types of Mandheling were collected: Golden Mandheling, Horse Face Mandheling (timtim Mandheling long berry) from Sumatra Island, Mandehling Longberry, Timtim Belangele, Lintong Mandheling Grade-1, and Emerald Mandheling (from Aceh, Sumatra).

Green Bean Photos

Above: Golden Mandheling semi-washed green beans

Above: Horse Face Mandheling fully natural sun-dried green beans, a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta called Timor, known as timtim variety in Indonesia.

Above: Lintong Mandheling G1. Although graded as Grade-1, it still can't escape the characteristic of Indonesian beans having high defect rates, with about 8% defective beans.

Above: Emerald Mandheling (from Aceh, Sumatra), 18+ screen size. The green beans are green, full, and crystal clear, just like emeralds.

Roasted Bean Photos

From left to right: Lintong Mandheling G1, Horse Face Mandheling, Golden Mandheling

Sumatra Coffee Origins

The most famous coffee-producing region in Asia is the various islands of the Malay Archipelago: Sumatra Island, Java Island, and Kalimantan Island. Among these, Sumatra Mandheling coffee produced on Sumatra Island in Indonesia is the most renowned.

Both Lake Toba in North Sumatra province and Lake Tawa in Aceh region produce Mandheling coffee - this is the famous "Two Lakes, Double Mandheling." The common characteristic of the "Two Lakes, Double Mandheling" is that both are rich and mellow, but the difference is that Lake Toba's Mandheling is more subdued, deep, and even has a grass jelly flavor, while Lake Tawa Mandheling has brighter fruit acidity and sometimes a cedar or woody taste.

Mandheling Flavor Description

1. Mouthfeel: Mellow and rich, with a sweet-bitter nature. The entry is strong and stimulating, with clove and woody aromatic flavors. Medium-dark roasted Mandheling has low acidity, spice and mint flavors, and a strong, persistent, rich sweet taste.

2. Aroma: The dry fragrance has glutinous rice, malt, spice, caramel, and woody flavors. After adding hot water, the wet aroma is deep burnt caramel and pine flavors, with a faint earthy fragrance.

3. Visual: Full, uniform particles. After roasting, the beans are quite large. Green beans are brown or dark green.

Sumatra Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Sumatra Mandheling coffee beans are fully guaranteed in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value - a 227-gram bag costs only 89 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams per cup, one bag can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to café prices that often reach dozens of yuan per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473