Flavor and Characteristics of Golden Mandheling Wet-Hulling - Detailed Steps of Mandheling Coffee Bean Wet-Hulling Process

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Herbal medicinal notes, strong lingering sweetness, and a solid, full-bodied口感 are the distinctive aromas of Golden Mandheling coffee beans, deeply loved by coffee connoisseurs. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Golden Mandheling coffee has such a unique and rich coffee flavor for two main reasons: one is the contribution of variety and terroir, and the other is the inseparable relationship with Indonesia's unique coffee processing method—wet hulling.

The Birth of Wet Hulling

The Indonesia region has a tropical rainforest climate, with perennial hot, humid weather and very high air humidity. Such humid conditions are not conducive to coffee bean drying, as they easily promote mold growth. Therefore, coffee farmers must reduce drying time while ensuring the beans reach adequate dryness for storage. This led them to invent a coffee processing method that lies between washed and natural processing—wet hulling.

Detailed Steps of Wet Hulling

Step 1: Remove the outer pulp of the coffee fruit, keeping the inner parchment and mucilage. Place in concrete boxes or plastic barrels for overnight fermentation. This helps decompose the mucilage, making it easier to remove.

Step 2: Wash the coffee fruits. The mucilage will be removed during this washing process, leaving coffee beans with only the parchment. Dry them in the sun for 2-3 days until moisture content drops to 20-24%, allowing the beans to reach sufficient hardness to be separated from the parchment.

Step 3: At 20-24% moisture content, the coffee beans themselves are soft and still contain considerable moisture, while the parchment is semi-dry. However, Sumatra's humid climate no longer allows for further drying. At this point, machines are needed to separate the parchment from the coffee beans. In this situation, removing semi-dry parchment often cannot be completely done, with some residue always remaining. Each additional removal attempt damages the coffee beans, forming Sumatra's characteristic elephant beans. Therefore, many Mandheling green beans on the market often have some instability.

Step 4: Continue drying these unevenly parchment-removed coffee beans until moisture content drops to 12-13%. During the day, these coffee beans enjoy sunlight, while at night they are stored in burlap bags, continuing to ferment under the influence of moisture. When drying is complete, these coffee beans can be taken away by buyers.

The above completes the entire wet hulling process. Compared to other processing methods, wet hulling is a race against time, with the ultimate goal of minimizing drying time under high humidity conditions.

Differences Between Golden Mandheling and Mandheling Coffee Beans

Mandheling coffee beans refer to Arabica varieties grown on Indonesia's Sumatra island, mostly of Ateng or Timtim varieties. Golden Mandheling coffee, however, is an exclusive product of Indonesia's renowned green bean company PWN (Pwani), which has also registered "Golden Mandheling" as a trademark.

PWN Company's Mandheling coffee is selected from Ateng varieties grown on Mount Gayo in the Aceh region of northern and central Sumatra. This variety is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta, thus possessing both the excellent flavor of Arabica coffee beans and the strong disease resistance of Robusta beans.

After acquiring Mandheling green beans from the Gayo region, PWN conducts three manual selections of defective beans according to strict standards, ensuring uniform color, shape, and size of Mandheling coffee beans. They guarantee that every bean is above 18 screen size and that the number of defective beans in a 300g sample is fewer than 3—meeting these strict requirements.

Therefore, PWN Company's Golden Mandheling is the only coffee bean to receive G1 grade, which is the highest grade for Indonesian green beans. As a result, PWN Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner and more transparent, with more pronounced body and sweetness.

As PWN Company's Golden Mandheling gained popularity, many "Golden Mandheling" products that are not "PWN Golden Mandheling" have appeared on the market. Therefore, when purchasing, consumers must recognize PWN Company's certificate and can ask merchants to present it when needed.

The Golden Mandheling coffee beans currently sold by FrontStreet Coffee all come from PWN Company. In FrontStreet Coffee's physical stores, you can see the certificates issued by PWN Company and the burlap bags containing green beans that feature the PWN logo.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473