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Flavor Differences of Mandheling Coffee from Various Growing Regions_Is PWN Gold Mandheling Coffee Bean Price Expensive

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). Since the late 17th century, Typica was transplanted from India to Indonesia, and after hundreds of years of cultivation, a variant of Typica has developed in Sumatra. Although smaller in size than the original species, it maintains the delicious flavor of Typica. Mandheling

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

In the late 17th century, Typica was transplanted from India to Indonesia. After hundreds of years of cultivation, it has developed into a variant Typica in Sumatra. Although smaller in size than the original species, it retains the delicious flavor of Typica.

FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee is produced in the mountainous area surrounding Lake Toba. This lake is located north of Medan, the capital of Sumatra Island, and is a high-altitude freshwater lake with an average elevation of about 900 meters. Generally, when we talk about Mandheling, we refer to coffee beans of Typica or its variants grown in the mountainous areas around Lake Toba.

FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling

The FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling and Gold Top Mandheling available on the market are of higher quality than regular Mandheling. Golden Mandheling and regular Mandheling show significant differences. Golden Mandheling green beans undergo 3-4 rounds of manual selection. The green beans are larger, darker green, and appear as neat flat beans. In terms of flavor, Golden Mandheling is rich and thick with honey and cream aromas, making it unique and irreplaceable in the coffee market.

FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling G1 vs. FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling

Some coffee enthusiasts have asked, as a coffee beginner, what's the difference between FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling G1? I really can't tell the difference. For professional-level coffee connoisseurs and coffee friends with sensitive palates, if these two coffees are tasted together, the results will show a very obvious contrast. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling surpasses FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling G1 in terms of sweetness, cleanliness, richness, and wild spice flavors.

Mouthfeel Differences

FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner than FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Lintong Mandheling. The typical herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of regular Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is stronger, and the fruit acidity is brighter and more elegant.

What are G1, G2, G3, G4 Grading Methods?

Indonesian coffee beans use this grading method based on the proportion of defective beans. Indonesian beans are mainly divided into 6 grades, namely G1~G6.

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic country. As early as the 18th century during Dutch rule, Arabica coffee trees were introduced for cultivation. The main producing areas are located on Sumatra Island, Java Island, and Sulawesi Island. The Mandheling produced there has a deep, low-acidity, and rich taste, leading people to call it "the world's most important coffee." Among these, Sumatra has the largest production, with the northern Aceh province being the largest producing area.

Southeast of Sumatra Island, it faces Java Island across the Sunda Strait. To the north, it faces the Malay Peninsula across the Strait of Malacca. To the east, it is adjacent to Borneo across the Karimata Strait. To the west, it borders the Indian Ocean.

About Lake Toba

The hometown of quality Mandheling—the Lake Toba area—is located at the northern end of Sumatra Island, Indonesia.

The Barisan Mountains are a continuation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's Cenozoic mountain range, running through Sumatra Island. Coal and gold deposits have been discovered in this area. Minerals erupted by volcanoes have made the soil fertile. The mountain scenery is beautiful and fascinating, such as the area around Lake Toba.

Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba, English: Lake Toba) is a volcanic lake located in northern Sumatra Island, Indonesia. The lake is diamond-shaped, 100 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide, with an area of 1,130 square kilometers. It is a high-altitude lake with an average elevation of about 900 meters. At the same time, it is also the world's largest volcanic lake.

Lake Toba Environment

The mountainous area is already foggy, and the abundant water vapor from Lake Toba makes the nearby mountainous areas often shrouded in clouds and mist. This special environment enables this area, which is not particularly high in altitude, to produce high-quality Mandheling. It is by no means inferior to other famous coffee producing regions in the world.

About "Lake Tawar"

Lake Tawar is located in the Gayo mountainous area north of Aceh Province, Sumatra.

The hot and humid tropical rainforest climate has abundant rainfall and fertile volcanic soil. Coffee cultivation has natural advantages, but due to its remote location and inconvenient transportation, coffee cultivation did not begin until 1924. The coffee beans from the two major lake areas of Lake Toba and Lake Tawar are quite different.

Aceh, at the northernmost tip of Sumatra Island, is a fascinating and complex place. Due to long-term political instability, Aceh is not an area that ordinary people visit. The Gayo mountain range area is located in Aceh Province in the north of Sumatra Island. Coffee in the Gayo mountain range area is grown on the slopes surrounding the town of Takegon and Lake Tawar. The cultivation height in the production area averages between 1,110 and 1,300 meters.

FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling grows in Indonesia, with main producing areas located on the three islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. The northern part of Sumatra Island has a relatively high altitude, with Aceh Province where Lake Tawar is located and North Sumatra where Lake Toba is situated being the main Arabica coffee producing areas. Lake Tawar is located in the Gayo mountainous area north of Aceh Province, Sumatra.

FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling is somewhat different from other Mandheling. The main varieties are Catuai, Typica, and Sidikalong. Catuai has citrus and lemon acidity in taste. To maintain its sweetness, regular and quantitative fertilization is required to maintain stable production capacity. Typica has a long-lasting sweet aftertaste but low resistance to leaf rust disease, which also makes Tiger Mandheling have a more uniform taste, high cleanliness, and nutty, creamy, and dark chocolate flavors. Daily Brewing | Extracting Tiger Mandheling with 5 Different Devices

Differences Between Gold Top Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling

Both Gold Top Mandheling and Golden Mandheling are produced in the Lintong area of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The harvesting is limited to fully manual single-fruit picking of ripe fruits to ensure preliminary bean selection quality. The coffee cherries are processed using the SEMI-WASHED method, naturally sun-dried, and then subjected to another drying refinement process after hulling, along with two green bean cleaning operations and four rounds of Hand-Pick manual selection! Therefore, both can be said to be strictly selected top-grade Mandheling coffee.

Golden Mandheling is called "Golden Mandheling" by Indonesia's Pawani Coffee Company—it's just a product named by the company.

The predecessor of Gold Top Mandheling was Golden Mandheling. Golden Mandheling was originally a Japanese product, introduced to Taiwan about ten years ago. At that time, it was called Golden Mandheling. Because the Indonesian Pawani Company registered Golden Mandheling as the company's trademark, all Japanese companies that imported this product had to remove the name Golden Mandheling and could not use it. Therefore, Japanese importers changed Golden Mandheling to Gold Top Mandheling and simultaneously translated its name to - 鼎上黄金曼特宁 (Gold Top Mandheling).

The "PWN" marked on Golden Mandheling is the abbreviation of Indonesia's Pawani Company. The Golden Mandheling coffee produced by its company has been registered in Indonesia; therefore, Japanese companies can only sell coffee beans produced in the same region as "Gold Top Mandheling," with "BIWA" marked on the packaging.

Mandheling from the Lintong area has also begun to be subdivided. In recent years, some Mandheling named after regions have begun to appear on the market (for example: Sidikalang, abbreviated as SDK Mandheling). The meaning of the Lintong area has also gradually narrowed to become the producing area near Lintongnihuta.

Green Coffee Beans

(Indonesian Aged Processing Green Beans) (Indonesian Traditional Semi-washed Green Beans) (Indonesian Natural Process Green Beans)

Mandheling coffee beans are relatively large with hard bean quality. Defects easily occur during the cultivation process. After harvest, they usually undergo strict manual selection. If the control process is not strict enough, it can easily lead to uneven quality. Additionally, different roasting degrees directly affect the taste, making it a single-origin coffee with more controversy.

Above: Golden Mandheling semi-washed green beans

Above: Ma-face Mandheling fully natural processed green beans, a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta, called Timor, known as timtim variety in Indonesia.

Tim Tim—Ma-face Mandheling longberry

Tim Tim is a bean from Indonesia. Due to its long strip shape, many people call it Ma-face bean, while others call it long-strip Mandheling. In fact, tim tim is not a pure variety but a natural hybrid between 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 the Americas, this variety is called Hybrido de Timor, abbreviated as Tim Tim. In Indonesia, this variety is also called Bor Bor.

Above: Lintong Mandheling G1, although the grade is Grade-1, it still cannot change the characteristics of Indonesian beans with high defect rates, with about 8% defective beans.

Above: Emerald Mandheling (Aceh, Sumatra), 19 screen+, green beans are full, green, and crystal clear, just like emeralds.

What is Aged Golden Mandheling like?

Aged coffee actually has a long history in Indonesia. Because early shipping was not so developed, transporting coffee from Indonesia to other countries required a considerable amount of time. Over time, the originally moisture-rich fresh coffee beans gradually dried, and the addition of sea breeze created a very special flavor. Due to advances in modern shipping that have greatly reduced transportation time, coffee with such special flavors has become a specially processed coffee bean. Processing Method | Differences Between Aged Coffee Beans and Monsoon Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling

After the precipitation of time, FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling has less of the wildness of Mandheling, with more richness and delicacy in taste. After the aging process of coffee beans, the acidity becomes weaker, but the body becomes higher, and the texture becomes thicker, giving a feeling of mature stability, completely different from the lively and bright taste of new beans. Roasted aged coffee beans require a longer development time to reveal their richness.

Are You Really Drinking Mandheling? Avoid the Following Traps:

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

Ateng—is a hybrid variety between Arabica and Robusta, with several subtypes, widely grown in Sumatra and other Indonesian islands. To be blunt, it's a branch of Catimor, and Ateng is the local name.

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

FrontStreet Coffee · V60 Pour-over Mandheling

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 88 degrees

Grind Size: Fuji grinder setting 4

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g of coffee, first pour 25g of water, bloom for 25s, second pour to 120g then stop pouring, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, slowly pour until reaching 225g, extraction time about 2:00

Analysis: Using three-stage brewing to clearly distinguish the flavors of the front, middle, and back sections of the coffee. Because V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, stopping the flow can extend the extraction time, better extracting the nutty and chocolate flavors of the back section.

Flavor: Multi-layered, overall clean, relatively light mouthfeel, persistent caramel sweetness in the aftertaste, with a hint of bitterness.

FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean Brand Recommendation

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the cost-performance ratio is extremely high. A half-pound package of 227 grams costs only about 89 yuan. Calculated based on 15g of coffee per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, each costing less than 6 yuan. Compared to the price of tens of yuan per cup sold in coffee shops, this is a conscientious recommendation, suitable for coffee enthusiasts interested in Indonesian coffee to enjoy~