Who Should Drink Indonesian Mandheling Coffee and How to Brew It - Mandheling Flavor Profile Characteristics

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FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) conducted a blind tasting of Mandheling coffee a few days ago, where all participating FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas didn't know which of the 7 coffee beans in front of them corresponded to which. After this round of blind tasting, FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas were quickest to identify the Golden Mandheling from FrontStreet Coffee's PWN. However, among the 7 coffees, there was also another FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling coffee bean. So what's the difference between FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling? Why could the baristas immediately identify FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling?

Coffee Growing Regions of Two Golden Mandheling Varieties

To better distinguish between the two Golden Mandheling varieties, FrontStreet Coffee will refer to them as FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling. Both of these Golden Mandheling coffees come from the Gayo Mountain area in the northern Aceh region of Sumatra. Most coffee farmers working locally on Gayo Mountain are native farmers. Gayo Mountain is located around Lake Toba in the Takengon area of Indonesia, within the Aceh special region at the northernmost part of Sumatra Island.

The growing altitude ranges between 1100-1600 meters, and most coffee is grown under shade in small coffee estates. Coffee beans from the Gayo Mountain region are typically estate-grade and processed using the wet-hulled method. Since the two coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) sourced have undergone multiple screenings, the coffee beans from the Gayo Mountain region have a cleaner taste and more pronounced sweetness compared to other Mandheling coffee beans from Sumatra regions.

Differences Between FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling

Although they come from the same coffee growing region and both use the wet-hulled processing method, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans undergo extremely strict screening during the coffee bean selection process.

PWN company's Golden Mandheling is the true FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling in the real sense, and PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean packaging will also bear the PWN logo. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling undergoes three manual screenings and one machine screening, totaling four screenings. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling uses the Ateng variety, which is another hybrid of Timor and Arabica. In terms of flavor, it will be cleaner than the Timor variety. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans are sized above 18 mesh, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g raw bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a color leaning towards dark green, and are flat-shaped beans. After strict screening, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling not only eliminates the characteristic earthy impurities of regular Mandheling but also tastes cleaner and brighter, with more intense sweetness and aroma.

Although everyone knows that only PWN's Golden Mandheling can be called Golden Mandheling, in reality, PWN's annual production is not large. Therefore, a significant portion of large-grain selected Golden Mandheling does not come from PWN. If you're not sure, you might ask the seller to provide PWN raw bean burlap bags or certificates that come with the beans to know if it's the PWN Golden Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee refers to. FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling coffee comes from PWN company, and the certificates also arrived at FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) together with the PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans that arrived at the port in November this year.

Why FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling is Also Called Golden Mandheling

Why is FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling also called Golden Mandheling? Because this coffee bean also adopts a multiple screening model. FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling undergoes 3 manual screenings and uses the timtim coffee variety, which is what we commonly call the Timor variety. Timor is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta. Although its flavor is more refined than Robusta, it still retains many of the rich coffee flavors of Robusta. Therefore, even though it reaches G1 grade through 3 screenings, FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling still cannot achieve the cleanliness and sweetness level of FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling in terms of flavor.

Wet-Hulled Processing Method

The specific steps of the wet-hulled method can be divided into the following two stages: The first stage involves using a wooden peeler to remove the skin and pulp, followed by fermentation for 3 hours, then drying to reduce the moisture content to semi-dry and semi-wet 30-50%. The second stage removes the pectin and parchment layer, continuing with the final drying process, which takes 2-4 days to reduce the moisture content to 12-13%. Although Indonesian coffee development is no longer in the impoverished state it once was, and there are now many estates and companies with conditions to use the washed method, why haven't they abandoned the wet-hulled method? FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) believes that the wet-hulled method is a factor that made Mandheling coffee go global. When you think of Mandheling coffee, you think of the wet-hulled method, so they have a complementary relationship.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Roasting Records

FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Roasting Record:

Yangjia 800N, bean input 480g. Heat the roaster to 200°C and add beans, set air damper to 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 160°C, keep air damper unchanged. Roast until 5'40'', temperature reaches 148°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration completed. Adjust heat to 140°C, change air damper to 4. At 9'40" minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell clearly changes 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 9'54'' first crack begins, adjust heat to 60°C, set air damper to 5, discharge at 204.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling Coffee Roasting Record:

Yangjia 800N, bean input 480g. Heat to 200°C and add beans, set air damper to 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 160°C, keep air damper unchanged. Roast until 5'18'', temperature reaches 148°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration completed. Adjust heat to 140°C, change air damper to 4. At 8'00" time, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell clearly changes 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 80°C, set air damper to 5, discharge at 202°C.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brewing Comparison

This brewing aims to highlight the rich, clean, and aromatic characteristics of the two Golden Mandheling varieties, using a KONO dripper for brewing (this dripper was invented to mimic the thick coffee produced by flannel filtering). For medium-dark roasted coffee, choose a medium-coarse hand-pour grind (70% passes through #20 standard sieve). For the coffee-to-water ratio, use 1:13, with 20g of coffee powder, reducing the ratio will make the coffee taste richer. Use water temperature of 87°C.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brewing Process:

Slowly pour the coffee powder, trying to keep it as level as possible during pouring, avoid shaking the dripper (because shaking will reduce the spacing between coffee powders, which is not conducive to bloom exhaust). For the first stage, pour 40g of water in small circles in the center and bloom for 30 seconds. The coffee powder layer will slowly expand into a "hamburger" shape. For the second stage, pour 120g of water in circles from the center outward, keeping the pouring height as close to the powder layer as possible, with slow movements to avoid over-stirring. Finally, pour 100g for the last stage, and wait until all the coffee liquid in the dripper flows into the lower pot to finish extraction. Extraction time: 2 minutes.

Flavor Descriptions:

FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling Flavor Description: Sweet herbs, cinnamon-like spices, orange and citrus peel notes, rich and thick sweetness, creamy walnut chocolate. The fruit acidity is reserved and gentle, with strong melon aroma in the fragrance. As the temperature decreases, herbal notes emerge, with light spices and thick herbal notes carrying rich sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Gayo Golden Mandheling Flavor Description: Spicy and herbal notes, gentle acidity, cocoa and nutty aftertaste, obvious sweetness, high body.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473