How to Brew Premium Gold Mandheling from Sumatra Coffee Beans | Sumatra Coffee Bean Price Guide

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

PWN GOLD Mantheling Gold Mandheling

01 | Origin Introduction

Indonesia's main coffee producing regions include Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi islands, with Sumatra's "Mandheling" coffee beans being the most famous.

Mandheling, also known as "Sumatra Coffee," is predominantly grown in North Sumatra as Gayo, mainly of the Ateng variety. The Tawar Lake area in the northern part can be called Aceh coffee or Tawar Lake coffee, while the Lintong and Lake Toba regions in South Sumatra can be called Mandheling. Lintong is the true Mandheling producing area. The best Mandheling varieties include four types: Sidikalang, Bergendar, Siborong Borong, and Telok Sanggul.

Lake Toba, located in central North Sumatra Province, where Dutch colonists moved "Java Mandheling" northward to the Lake Toba region in 1888, creating 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 have surpassed Lake Toba.

The Gayo Mountains are located in the Aceh producing area of northern Sumatra Province. Most coffee farmers working in Gayo are local farmers. The term "Gayo" originates from tribes 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 "Gold Mandheling"?

When discussing "Gold Mandheling," we must first start with PWN. This abbreviation is often mixed together with Mandheling coffee names; it's actually an abbreviation for a company - Pwani Coffee Company.

This company is a very famous coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, mainly acquiring Mandheling coffee. Almost all of Indonesia's best producing areas are acquired by them, so most beans from PWN company are unique specialty coffees. Gold Mandheling is a product produced by this company. After acquiring the raw beans, they undergo multiple manual hand-selection processes to select full, defect-free beans. Only these fine beans that seem to undergo layer-by-layer selection like talent shows can be classified as Gold Mandheling.

However, PWN company has registered Gold Mandheling as a trademark, meaning that in the future, only Gold Mandheling produced by PWN company can be considered genuine "Gold Mandheling." Many beans on the market not produced by PWN company but bearing the Gold Mandheling brand name should actually be called Premium Mandheling.

"Gold Mandheling" is merely a product name designated by the company.

02 | Processing Method

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

Wet Hulling Processing Steps

① Remove skin and pulp, retaining parchment and mucilage

② Ferment in water pools

③ Wash away mucilage

④ Sun-dry with parchment for 2-3 days until moisture content reaches 20-24%

⑤ Hull off parchment

⑥ Dry raw beans until moisture content reaches 12-13%

⑦ Prepare for export

Why Use Wet Hulling?

a. Climate Reasons

Indonesia's tradition of using Wet Hulling stems from local weather conditions. Indonesia's humidity remains between 70-90% year-round with constant typhoons, and in some areas, annual rainfall can even reach 2,000mm. Considering that raw beans fear rain most, 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 significant problem. Coffee drying must take longer, during which time the coffee maintains high humidity, making it easier for bacteria to penetrate the raw beans.

In regular washed processing, the drying process is carried out with parchment to protect raw beans from external damage to some extent. However, we can notice that Wet Hulling removes parchment for the final drying step, allowing direct sunlight to hit the raw bean surface, making coffee beans dry 2-3 times faster than washed processing.

b. Economic Benefits

17th-century Dutch colonists first introduced coffee to Indonesia. These colonists pursued more and faster economic returns. Wet Hulling significantly reduces the time spent on farms and greatly reduces labor costs. This aligns with the investor mentality of pursuing quick profits and reducing costs. This is also a driving force behind Wet Hulling processing.

c. Defects and Kuku Kambing (Goat Hoof Beans)

When hulling off parchment in Wet Hulling, 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 adhere to the raw bean surface, making hulling more difficult than "fully dry" hulling, requiring greater friction during the hulling process.

But on the other hand, "semi-dry" raw coffee beans are very fragile at this time, with hardness far less than "fully dry" raw beans, so beans are more easily crushed, forming 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 causes Mandheling to have higher defect rates. Processing plants arrange employees for manual defect sorting, generally including DP (double picking) and TP (triple picking). Mandheling that undergoes triple picking will have better defect rates than double picking.

Regarding the flavor of Wet Hulling, aside from those subtle differences, we generally believe that Wet Hulling beans have earthy, smoky, and chocolate flavors. Acidity is described as "low acid," rich yet seemingly dull.

Low acidity originates from shorter, less effective fermentation processes and longer drying times. The "earthy flavor" and similar tastes in Wet Hulling beans are subject to various interpretations. Some say it's related to the bean varieties used in Wet Hulling-related producing areas (Timor hybrid & Catimor: with Robusta bloodlines), some say it's the result of organic interaction between raw beans and the external environment, and some even say it's because there are too many defective beans! Of course, there are quite a few...

03 | Raw Bean Analysis

Gold Mandheling Raw Beans

Gold Mandheling

Origin: Sumatra Island, Indonesia

Processing Method: Wet Hulling

Variety: Typica

Roast Level: Medium-Dark

We choose to drop the beans before the second crack to retain some soft acidity. The taste has high sweetness, rich aroma, and mellow body. Flavors: toasted bread, pine, caramel, cocoa, with slight earthy notes.

In the specialty coffee system, Sumatra coffee is a wondrous existence. You see, the famous Mandheling is actually not the name of a producing area, nor the name of a coffee bean variety, and even its bean variety origins are quite mixed.

Ateng

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

Djember

Djember, when searched on Baidu, is a place name in Sumatra. It looks quite mysterious, but the variety is actually S-795. Because this 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.

TimTim

Is Timor Hybrid, translated as East Timor Hybrid, which is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta. Our familiar Catimor is created by hybridizing with it again.

Tim Tim - Longberry Mandheling

Tim Tim is a bean from Indonesia. Due to its long 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 variety of 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 America, this variety is called Hybrido de Timor, abbreviated as Tim Tim. In Indonesia, this variety is also called Bor Bor.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Gold Mandheling belongs to raw beans with relatively high moisture content, with high deviation values from natural processed beans in moisture, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. For raw beans with high moisture content, you can immediately close the air damper after putting in the raw beans, steam for 30 seconds, then open to 3, until the raw beans turn light green or white, open the air damper to 4, and after the first crack, open to 5 (maximum).

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

Roasting Curve:

Heat the roaster to 200°C, set air damper to 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 160°C, keep air damper unchanged. Roast until 5'40", temperature 148°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 140°C, change air damper to 4.

At 9'40 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly turns to coffee aroma, can be defined as prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'54", first crack begins, adjust heat down to 60°C, open air damper fully (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that crack sounds disappear). Drop at 204.5°C.

Cupping Report:

Gold Mandheling tastes cleaner than Lintong Mandheling. The original herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is more intense, and the fruit acidity is brighter and more elegant. Generally, Lintong Mandheling is best roasted to after the second crack to effectively reduce off-flavors, but Gold Mandheling has good clarity and sweetness whether dropped before or after the second crack, offering wider roasting interpretation space.

04 | Brewing Analysis

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 first poured, it's immediately absorbed. Due to vigorous degassing, bubbles surround the powder, creating channels. These channels last longer with fresher beans, causing water level to drop quickly. I generally use coarse water flow and slow circular pouring.

1. Dripper: KONO

2. Water temperature: 88°C

3. Grind size: Fuji Royal R4

4. Roast level: Medium-dark roast

5. Bloom time: 25 seconds

Flavor: Multi-layered, clean, balanced, persistent caramel sweetness in aftertaste

Specific Technique:

15g powder, Fuji Royal ghost tooth grinder R4, Kono dripper, 88-89°C water temperature. First pour 30g water for 25s bloom. Pour to 104g water and stop. Wait until the powder bed water level drops to half, then continue pouring. Slowly pour until 220g water. Don't use the last 5g. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15. Extraction time around 2:00.

Sumatra Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Sumatra Mandheling coffee beans guarantee both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. One 227-gram package costs only 89 yuan. Calculating at 15g powder per cup of coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to cafes selling cups for dozens of yuan each, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473