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Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Bean Flavor Profile | How to Brew Indonesian Coffee Beans | Are Indonesian Coffee Beans Expensive

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). 01 | Growing Region Introduction Indonesia is an archipelagic country with main growing regions located on the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. The northern part of Sumatra Island has relatively high terrain elevation, with the Aceh Province where Lake Tawa is located and North Sumatra where Lake Toba sits being the main Arabi

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information. Please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

01 | Region Introduction

Indonesia is an archipelagic country with main producing areas located on the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. The northern part of Sumatra Island has relatively high altitude terrain. Aceh Province, where Lake Tawa is located, and North Sumatra, where Lake Toba is situated, are the main Arabica coffee producing regions. Lake Tawa is located in the Gayo Mountain area of northern Aceh Province in Sumatra. Indonesia, which straddles both sides of the equator, has a humid tropical rainforest climate with abundant rainfall and fertile volcanic soil that provides rich nutrients for coffee. However, due to its remote location and inconvenient transportation, coffee cultivation only began in 1924, mostly using traditional shade-grown, pesticide-free organic cultivation methods.

In Aceh, coffee is the second-largest export economic crop in the region. Local estimates suggest there are about 60,000 small-scale coffee farmers, each owning approximately 1-2 hectares of coffee cultivation land. The traditional coffee trade method in Indonesia is multi-point supply chain, starting from farmers, through multiple intermediaries, before gradually accumulating large quantities of export goods. In Indonesia's coffee trading system, direct trade where a single window collects goods from farmers and arranges exports is quite rare locally.

02 | Processing Method

Wet hulling, also known as Wet Hulling, is called Giling Basah in the local language and is a traditional Indonesian coffee bean 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 mellow and strong flavor with a very distinct character.

Wet Hulling Process Steps

① Remove the peel and pulp, retaining the parchment and mucilage

② Ferment in water pools

③ Wash away the mucilage

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

⑤ Hull the parchment

⑥ Dry the green 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 stems from local weather conditions. Indonesia maintains humidity between 70-90% year-round with constant typhoons, and in some regions, annual rainfall can reach as much as 2,000mm. Considering that green beans are most vulnerable to rain, how does Indonesia overcome such harsh weather conditions to produce rich and mellow Mandheling coffee? The answer lies in wet hulling.

Under tropical climate conditions, coffee typically takes 2-3 weeks to dry. In Indonesia's humid climate, drying coffee becomes a significant problem. Coffee drying requires longer time, during which the coffee maintains higher humidity, making it easier for bacteria to penetrate the green beans.

In regular washed processing, the drying process is conducted with parchment to protect the green beans from external damage to some extent. However, we can note that wet hulling removes the parchment for the final drying step, allowing direct sunlight to reach the surface of the green beans, causing them to dry quickly - 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 significantly shortened the time spent on farms and greatly reduced labor costs. This aligns with the investor mindset of pursuing rapid profits and reducing costs. This is also a driving factor behind the wet hulling method.

c. Defects and kuku kambing (goat hoof beans)

When hulling the parchment in wet hulling, the coffee still has a high moisture content of 20-24%, whereas in regular processing methods, coffee moisture content is reduced to 10-12% before hulling. In the "semi-dry" state, the parchment tends to adhere to the surface of the green beans, making hulling more difficult than in the "fully dry" state, requiring greater friction during the hulling process.

On the other hand, "semi-dry" green beans are very fragile at this stage, with hardness far less than "fully dry" beans, making them more susceptible to being squeezed and forming small cracks. This is what we commonly call horse hoof or goat hoof beans (locally known as kuku kambing).

The ultra-fast processing speed of wet hulling also results in higher defect rates in Mandheling. Employees are arranged at processing plants for manual defect sorting, typically including DP (double picking) and TP (triple picking). Mandheling that has undergone triple picking will have a better defect rate than double picking.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

【Indonesian Tiger Mandheling】

The varieties of Indonesian Tiger Mandheling are Catuai, Typica, and Sidikalong.

Catuai has a lemon or citrus acidity in flavor. In terms of sweetness, it doesn't match Typica and Bourbon. The sweetness of Catuai is determined by the frequency and dosage of fertilization by growers. It has high yield capacity, but to maintain this capacity, continuous fertilization and pruning are required, resulting in short plants with many branches. Although yield capacity increases, due to the 2-year harvest period and higher care costs, production is still somewhat limited.

Typica is the variety closest to the original species. The beans are slightly elongated, like stretched eggs, and are called Arabigo or criollo in Central America. It has clean lemon acidity, sweet aftertaste, low resistance to leaf rust disease, making care difficult. The plants have low yield, and combined with the long harvest period (harvesting once every 2 years), production is not high.

04 | Roasting Analysis

This coffee has rounded green beans with a greenish-yellow color, relatively uniform quality, and high moisture content. The roasting goal is medium-dark roast to eliminate excessive acidity and enhance its body and balance.

In the first batch of roasting, the bean drop temperature was relatively high, with an entry temperature of 200°C and relatively high heat. During the roasting process, because this bean only has medium altitude, the bean quality is very soft. To remove excess moisture content and avoid acidity from insufficient dehydration, I adopted a roasting technique of extending the dehydration time with heat reduction sliding. The heat was adjusted finer when the beans entered the yellowing point, completed dehydration, and before first crack to avoid surface scorching. I chose to drop the beans 4 minutes after the end of first crack and 20 seconds before second crack, extending the caramelization reaction time to showcase its excellent cleanliness and sweetness.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 600g semi-direct flame

Heat to 200°C, open damper to 3. After 30s, adjust heat to 160°C, damper unchanged. Return to temperature point at 1'45". Maintain heat. At 5'18", bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. Reduce heat to 140°C, adjust damper to 4.

At 7'30", dehydration completed. Heat reduced to 140°C. At 8'55", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast smell obviously transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'00", first crack begins. Adjust heat to 110°C, fully open damper to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not so small that there's no crackling sound). Develop for 4'00" after first crack, drop at 203°C.

This Tiger Mandheling has relatively balanced flavor, high cleanliness, with distinct cream, dark chocolate, and nut flavors.

05 | Brewing Data

Dripper: KONO

Water to coffee ratio: 1:14

Grind size: Fuji 3.5

Water temperature: 86°C

Brewing method:

Use 26g of water for 30s bloom, slowly inject water with small flow to 118g for segmentation, then slightly increase flow and slowly brew to 210g.

Total time: 1'45"

BG Grinding 4Z

Grinder

Grind size

Dose

Dripper

15g

KONO

Water temperature

Bloom

Second stage water amount

Third stage water amount

Total time 1:45

86°C

26g water 30s

144g

92g

Total water amount: 210

Sweetness: ☆☆

Acidity: ☆

Bitterness: ☆☆

Other drip extraction suggestions:

French press, recommended grind size 3.5-4, water temperature 86°C

Indonesian Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Indonesian coffee beans, West Java honey processed, offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high cost-performance. A half-pound (227g) package costs only about 118 yuan. Calculating at 15g per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 7 yuan. Compared to cafes selling at dozens of yuan per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.