The Ultimate Guide to How to Drink PWN Gold Mandheling Coffee & How Much Does Gold Mandheling Coffee Cost

PWN GOLD Mandheling

How should you drink Gold Mandheling? Comparable to café-quality Gold Mandheling coffee, it's reasonably priced and perfect for those who love rich, aromatic, and pure coffee flavors.

01 | Growing Region Introduction

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

Mandheling, also known as "Sumatra Coffee," mostly produces Gayo in North Sumatra, primarily of the Ateng variety. Lake Tawar in the northern part can be called Aceh Coffee or Tawar Lake Coffee, while Lintong and Lake Toba areas in South Sumatra can be called Mandheling. The Lintong area is the true Mandheling region, and 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 region 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 region has ideal growing conditions, a long historical culture, and unique flavors. The area widely uses organic methods for coffee cultivation, without 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 it comes to "Gold Mandheling," we must start with PWN. This abbreviation is often mixed with Mandheling coffee names; it's actually an abbreviation for Pwani Coffee Company.

This company is a very famous coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, mainly acquiring Mandheling coffee. Almost all the best producing regions in Indonesia 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 green beans, they undergo multiple manual selections to select plump, defect-free beans. Finally, these fine beans that seem to experience selection show层层筛选 can be classified as Gold Mandheling.

However, PWN company has registered Gold Mandheling as a trademark, meaning that only Gold Mandheling produced by PWN company can be considered真正的 "Gold Mandheling" in the future. Many beans on the market not produced by PWN company but labeled with the Gold Mandheling brand should actually be called Fine Mandheling.

"Gold Mandheling" is merely a product named by the company.

02 | Processing Method

Wet Hulling, also called Wet Hulling, is known locally as Giling Basah and is the traditional Indonesian coffee processing method. Judging from the name alone, Wet Hulling seems very similar to wet processing (washed processing), however, the cupping flavors of these two processing methods are completely different. Coffee processed with Wet Hulling is usually thick and strong, with a very distinct personality.

Wet Hulling Process Steps

① Remove fruit skin and pulp, keep parchment and mucilage

② Water pool fermentation

③ Wash off mucilage

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

⑤ Hull off parchment

⑥ Dry 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 starts with local weather. Indonesia's humidity is between 70-90% year-round, with constant typhoons. In some regions, annual rainfall can even reach 2,000mm. We know that green beans are most afraid of rain, so how does Indonesia overcome such harsh weather conditions to produce rich and mellow Mandheling coffee? That is by relying on Wet Hulling.

Under tropical climate conditions, coffee takes an average of 2-3 weeks to dry. In Indonesia's humid climate, drying coffee becomes a big problem. Coffee drying must take longer, during which time the coffee still maintains high humidity, making it easier for bacteria to penetrate the green beans.

In the normal washing process, drying is done with parchment to protect the green beans from external damage to a certain extent. However, we can notice that Wet Hulling removes the parchment for the final drying step, allowing sunlight to directly hit the green bean surface, making the green beans dry quickly, 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 greatly shortened the time spent on farms and significantly reduced labor costs. This aligns with the investor mentality of pursuing quick profits and reducing costs. This is also a driving force for Wet Hulling.

c. Defects and kuku kambing (goat hoof beans)

When Wet Hulling removes the parchment, 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 the "semi-dry" state, parchment tends to stick to the green bean surface, making hulling more difficult than "fully dry" hulling, requiring greater friction force.

But on the other hand, "semi-dry" green beans are very fragile at this time, with hardness far below that of "fully dry" green beans, so beans are more easily squeezed and form small gaps. This is what we often call horseshoe or goat hoof beans (locally called kuku kambing).

The ultra-fast speed of Wet Hulling also causes Mandheling to have higher defects. Employees are arranged at the processing plant for manual defect sorting. Generally, there will be DP (double picking) and TP (triple picking). Mandheling that undergoes triple picking will have better defect rates than double picking.

The flavor of Wet Hulling, apart from those subtle differences, we generally believe that Wet Hulling beans have earthy, smoky, and chocolate flavors. Acidity is called "low acid," thick yet somewhat dull.

Low acid comes from the shorter, weaker fermentation process and longer drying time. The "earthy flavor" and other tastes of Wet Hulling beans are debated. Some say it's related to the bean varieties used in Wet Hulling-related regions (Tim & Catimor lines: with Robusta blood), some say it's the result of organic interaction between green beans and the external environment, and some even say it's because there are too many defective beans! Of course, there are quite many...

03 | Green Bean Analysis

Gold Mandheling Green Beans

Origin: Sumatra Island, Indonesia

Processing Method: Wet Hulling

Variety: Typica

Roast Level: Medium-Dark

We choose to drop the beans before the second crack, preserving some soft acidity. The taste is high in sweetness, rich and mellow, with flavors: toast, pine, caramel, cocoa, slightly grassy and earthy.

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

Ateng —

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

Djember —

Djember in Baidu search is a place name in Sumatra, looks quite mysterious, but the variety is actually S-795. Since 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 mutant Kent with S-288.

What is S-288? It's a natural hybrid of Arabica and Liberica.

TimTim —

It's Timor Hybrid, which translates to Timor Hybrid, meaning 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 bean variety but a variety naturally hybridized from Arabica coffee trees and Robusta coffee trees. This variety was discovered on Timor Island in the 1940s and cultivated due to its natural disease resistance. In America, this variety is called Hybrido de Timor, abbreviated as Tim Tim, while in Indonesia this variety is also called Bor Bor.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Gold Mandheling belongs to green beans with relatively high moisture content, with a high deviation value from natural beans in moisture, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. Green beans with high moisture content can have the air damper closed immediately after dropping beans, steaming for 30 seconds before opening to 3, until the beans turn light green or white, then open the air damper to 4, and after first crack open to 5 (maximum).

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

Roasting Curve:

Heat the roaster to 200°C, open air damper to 3, after 1 minute adjust heat to 160°C, 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, air damper changes to 4;

At 9'40 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell obviously turns to coffee aroma, can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack, which starts at 9'54". Adjust heat to 60°C, open air damper fully (adjust heat very carefully, not so small that there's no crackling sound), 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 stronger, and the fruit acidity is brighter and more elegant. Generally, Lintong Mandheling is best roasted after second crack before dropping, which can effectively reduce miscellaneous flavors, but Gold Mandheling has good transparency and sweetness whether dropped before or after second crack, with wider roasting interpretation space.

04 | Brewing Analysis

Medium-dark roasted beans generally have higher dehydration rates, so they weigh less. When brewing, the powder doesn't completely sink to the bottom. Water is immediately absorbed upon initial injection. Due to vigorous degassing, there are bubbles around the powder, creating channels. The fresher the beans, the longer these channels are maintained, causing the water level to drop quickly. I generally use coarse water flow and slowly circle.

1. Dripper: KONO

2. Water temperature: 88°C

3. Grind size: Fuji Rokou grinder setting 4

4. Roast level: Medium-dark roast

5. Bloom time: 25 seconds

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

Specific method: 15g powder, Fuji Rokou grinder setting 4, Kono dripper, 88-89°C water temperature. First injection 30g water, bloom for 25s, inject to 104g water then stop. Wait until the powder bed water level drops to half before injecting again. Slowly inject until 220g water. Don't use the last 5g. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time about 2:00.

Gold Mandheling Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

Indonesian PWN Gold Mandheling coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the cost-performance ratio is extremely high. One half-pound (227g) package costs only about 89 yuan. Calculating at 15g powder per cup of coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 6 yuan. Compared to café prices that often cost dozens of yuan per cup, this is a conscientious recommendation.

More Promotional Activities

Please stay tuned for us

Our Taobao store: Coffee Workshop FrontStreet Coffee

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473