What Grade is Indonesian Golden Mandheling Coffee? Introduction to Golden Mandheling Coffee's Grade, Variety, Flavor, and Taste Characteristics

If you come to FrontStreet Coffee wanting to drink a cup of rich, bitter coffee, FrontStreet Coffee will serve you FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee. Like FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain coffee, the name Mandheling has long been renowned in the coffee world. Behind these three characters lies an interesting story.

So what's the connection between these two events?

This story begins during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II. At that time, a Japanese soldier went to a local café and drank a cup of incredibly fragrant coffee. He asked the owner for the name of the coffee, but the owner mistakenly thought the Japanese soldier was asking where he was from. The owner replied: Mandailing. After the war, when the Japanese soldier recalled the Mandheling coffee he had drunk in Indonesia, he found a local Indonesian coffee merchant to help him ship 15 tons to Japan. When asked about the name, the Japanese soldier mistakenly said Mandehling instead of Mandailing.

It was due to this double misunderstanding that the term Mandehling came into existence. Because Mandheling coffee became extremely popular in Japan, the name Mandheling spread from there. That coffee merchant was none other than the now-famous PWN (Pawani Coffee Company). As for PWN company, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce them in detail in future articles.

Now let's first understand what Mandheling coffee is.

FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee is an Arabica coffee, originally from the Mandailing region near the Bukit Barisan mountains in North Sumatra. FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee has high body, low acidity, with slight herbal flavors.

Historically, it's said that Mandailing coffee plantations originated from the forced cultivation system introduced by the Dutch East Indies government. In 1835, the Dutch brought coffee seeds from Java and attempted to grow them on Sumatran soil. With the help of the Dutch East Indies government, coffee was subsequently spread to several areas in North Sumatra. The commonly referred to Mandheling typically refers to Typica or other variety coffee beans grown in the mountainous areas around Lake Toba. Different names are used to distinguish Mandheling from different regions based on area and green bean suppliers.

FrontStreet Coffee has five types of Mandheling coffee: FrontStreet Coffee Sumatra Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee Lintong Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee Aged Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee Aceh Sumatra Tiger Mandheling, and FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling. So what are the differences between them?

FrontStreet Coffee Sumatra Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling

This is a Typica coffee bean from the Wahana Estate in Sumatra, Indonesia. The Wahana Estate was established in 2005, located near LeaMungkur village in the Sidikalang region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Sidikalang has been one of Indonesia's famous coffee-producing regions since ancient times. The Wahana Estate has about 30 hectares of coffee nurseries. Mandheling coffee gives the impression of rich bitterness and fragrance, but this FrontStreet Coffee natural Mandheling has its unique style, bringing more sweet and sour notes of preserved fruits.

FrontStreet Coffee Lintong Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee Lintong Mandheling comes from the Lintong mountainous area in central-north Sumatra, near the southwestern part of Lake Toba. High-quality Lintong is distinguished from other Sumatran coffees by its fresh taste and relatively bright acidity. Mandheling coffee beans are relatively large and hard, and because they have many defects, they require strict selection during coffee processing. The Lintong region's Mandheling has also been subdivided in recent years, and some Mandheling named after regions have started appearing on the market. The significance of the Lintong region has also been narrowed to the production area near Lintonghuta.

FrontStreet Coffee Aged Mandheling

Indonesian aged beans are most famous for Mandheling and Old Brown Java. So-called aged Mandheling refers to coffee beans that have undergone a certain degree of processing and long-term storage. The acidic and astringent components in the coffee beans precipitate and convert to sugars, making the flavor more rounded.

FrontStreet Coffee Aged Mandheling has excellent sweetness and is suitable for single-origin or espresso.

FrontStreet Coffee Aceh Sumatra Tiger Mandheling

The main varieties of FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian Tiger Mandheling are Catuai, Typica, and Sidikalong. Only Mandheling with less than 4% defect rate and above 17 screen size can be called Tiger Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling is produced at the Tiger Estate in Sumatra's Aceh province, located in the Gayo mountains of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, straddling both sides of the equator. FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling has a relatively balanced taste, high cleanliness, with distinct cream, dark chocolate, and nut flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling is produced in the Lintong region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, and is a higher grade of Mandheling - processed with more refined methods, with coffee beans harvested purely by hand.

The specifications of FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling are above 18 screen size, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a dark green color and uniform flat bean shape. After strict selection, FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling not only lacks the earthy impurity flavors characteristic of regular Mandheling but is cleaner and clearer to drink, with stronger sweetness and aroma.

The FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling obtained by FrontStreet Coffee is produced by PWN company, coming from Lake Tawa in the Gayo mountains of northwestern Sumatra. The Japanese have been very attentive to this coffee bean since discovering Mandheling. In cooperation with local green bean suppliers, they established strict selection standards. After processing, the green beans undergo density and color sorting, followed by four rounds of manual bean selection, finally presenting Golden Mandheling with uniform color and consistent bean shape. PWN company set such high standards for Golden Mandheling, which destined FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling to be more expensive than regular Mandheling.

But what about some Golden Mandheling coffee beans on the market that are not labeled as PWN company products? Actually, some green bean merchants selling Golden Mandheling on the market raise prices by selecting beans above 18 screen size from G1 grade Golden Mandheling coffee beans. Some even use three rounds of selection to make the appearance as close as possible to PWN Golden Mandheling. Even if the appearance is similar, it's ultimately superficial - the taste cannot deceive people. FrontStreet Coffee obtained several coffee beans also called "Golden Mandheling" for blind testing, and FrontStreet Coffee's barista could identify FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling because the cleanliness of FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling is incomparable to other "Golden Mandheling."

Why is it called Golden Mandheling? It's said that when processing green beans, the Mandheling beans emit a golden luster under sunlight, so it was named Golden Mandheling.

However, it wasn't a Japanese company that registered Golden Mandheling as a trademark, but PWN company (Pawani Coffee Company), which previously cooperated with Japanese companies to export Mandheling green beans.

Because PWN company registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as their company's trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN company is truly FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling. Everyone can identify authentic FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling by the green bean sacks with PWN logo and a certificate of origin signed by PWN company. FrontStreet Coffee displays these two identifiers in the Dongshankou store.

Mandheling Coffee's Unique Processing Method - Wet Hulling

People who often drink Mandheling coffee should know that Mandheling's characteristic flavor profile (low acidity, full-bodied, and intense) is inseparable from its processing method. Wet hulling appeared because Indonesia's annual humidity is between 70%-90%, with high annual rainfall. To pursue greater economic returns, Indonesian farmers created the Giling Basah (Wet Hulled) processing method. Its processing is faster than other methods, but this processing method makes the beans more susceptible to crushing and forming small gaps, which is what we call elephant beans or sheep's hoof beans.

With Indonesia's economic development, more and more processing stations or estates have sufficient funds to invest in processing technology development. However, most Mandheling coffee is still processed using wet hulling. Traditional Sumatrans call this processing method "Giling Basah."

After coffee cherries are harvested and sorted, they undergo depulping, then are placed in water pools to ferment for 24 to 36 hours to remove some mucilage. The wet coffee beans are evenly spread to dry to a semi-dry, semi-wet state, then the parchment layer is removed, completely exposing the coffee beans for sun drying. When the moisture content of coffee beans drops to 10% to 12%, they are appropriately bagged for storage.

The Coffee Varieties of FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling Coffee

The coffee bean variety of FrontStreet Coffee new harvest FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling coffee beans is Ateng, which is the local Sumatran name for Catimor coffee. The name Ateng comes from the Aceh Tenggah region.

Actually, as early as 1658, the Dutch transplanted descendants of European Typica mother plants to Sri Lanka, but unfortunately, the cultivation failed. Later in 1699, the Dutch transplanted Malabar coffee trees from eastern India to Java. This trial cultivation was successful, and Typica grew steadily in Java. In 1718, the Dutch transplanted the successfully trialed Typica from Java to Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. After more than a century of propagation, just as Indonesia's Typica was at its peak, a leaf rust epidemic swept through most of Indonesia's Typica at the end of the 19th century, forcing the introduction of more disease-resistant Robusta varieties.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using the following brewing parameters: Kono dripper, 86°C water temperature, 15g coffee dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size BG#6K (70-75% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve).

Readers who often read FrontStreet Coffee related articles should know that light-roasted and dark-roasted coffee beans differ in water temperature and dripper selection. The water temperature is lower to avoid extracting too many undesirable flavors. When FrontStreet Coffee chooses dark roast, too many aromatic substances have already been released. If we continue to use light roast water temperature for extraction, it will lead to over-extraction. FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono dripper because V60 drippers flow too fast, making extraction insufficient at low water temperatures. The Kono dripper has few ribs located at the bottom, and the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, which can restrict airflow, increase contact time between water and coffee powder, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the full-bodied texture.

Brewing Technique

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction. Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. When injecting water in small circles to 125g, segment the extraction. Continue injecting water to 225g when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove the dripper when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor Descriptions

FrontStreet Coffee Sumatra Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling: Ginseng, ripe plums, chocolate, with a thick and solid mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee Lintong Mandheling: Herbal, chocolate, caramel, overall quite balanced.

FrontStreet Coffee Aged Mandheling: Ripe pu-erh tea, caramel, herbal, chocolate, with low acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling: Nuts, spices, herbal plants, licorice, chocolate, caramel, with clean and gentle flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling: Nuts, cream, dark chocolate, caramel, traditional Chinese medicine, with noticeable sweetness, relatively clean and clear flavors.

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