Mandheling Pour Over: Flavor Differences Between Golden Mandheling, Lintong Mandheling, and Aged Mandheling Coffee Beans

Sumatra Coffee - FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling

Altitude: 750-1500 meters

Processing Method: Wet-hulled

Flavor Description: Very rich flavor, mild acidity, aromatic, bitter, and full-bodied, with a hint of sweetness and chocolate aftertaste.

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

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling, also known as "Sumatra Coffee," comes from the Tawar Lake area in the north (called Aceh coffee or Tawar Lake coffee) and the Lintong and Lake Toba regions (called Mandheling).

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling has a strong taste with rich body and vibrant, lively character. It's neither astringent nor acidic, fully expressing its body and bitterness. The appearance of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans can be said to be the ugliest, but coffee enthusiasts say that the less attractive Sumatra coffee beans look, the better, more mellow, and smoother they taste.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee is produced in Sumatra, Asian Indonesia, also known as "Sumatra Coffee." It has a very rich flavor, aromatic, bitter, and full-bodied, with a hint of sweetness. Most coffee lovers drink it as a single-origin coffee, but it's also an indispensable variety for blended coffee. Since FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans themselves have no acidic characteristics, special brewing methods typically use FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans as a base. During long保温 periods or when making iced coffee, there's no unpleasant astringent or sour taste. After roasting, the beans are quite large. Raw beans appear brown or dark green, with a special caramel-like fragrance and a rich, aromatic taste.

Sumatra Province

The best coffee in Sumatra comes from two places: the Central Aceh region near Lake Tawar in northern Sumatra and the mountainous area surrounding Lake Toba in the south. Due to many small-scale farmers and their unique semi-washed processing method combined with iron-deficient soil, coffee beans from this region have a distinctive blue color in their fresh green bean stage.

*FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling (Mandheling):

This refers to the semi-dry or dry-processed beans from the Lintong mountain area (900-1200 meters above sea level) on the southwest shore of Lake Toba in north-central Sumatra. The Batak people are the main coffee farmers in this region. It was once acclaimed as the coffee beans with the fullest particles in the world. Mandheling is a trademark used for Arabica coffee from North Sumatra, originating from the Mandailing people of the Tapanuli region in northwest Sumatra. It uniquely possesses herbal and woody incense-like flavors.

*Lintong Growing Region:

FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling, at 1200-1500 meters altitude, comes from the most famous coffee in the Lake Toba region on North Sumatra island. To correctly understand FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee, it's not that any golden-colored Mandheling is FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is produced in the Lintong region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Harvesting is limited to fully manual single-berry picking of ripe fruits to ensure initial bean selection quality. Coffee cherries are processed using the SEMI-WASHED semi-washed method, naturally sun-dried, and undergo hulling followed by another drying refinement process, two raw bean cleaning procedures, and four Hand-Pick manual selection processes. Therefore, it can be said to be a strictly selected top-grade Mandheling coffee. The "PWN" marking on Golden Mandheling is the abbreviation of Indonesia's Pawani Company, whose produced Golden Mandheling coffee has been registered in Indonesia.

The Difference Between FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling:

Some coffee friends ask, as a coffee beginner, what's the difference between FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling G1? I really can't tell the difference. For professional-level coffee connoisseurs and taste-sensitive coffee friends, drinking these two coffees simultaneously will show very obvious contrasts. The Golden Mandheling's sweetness and cleanliness, body, and wild spice flavors are slightly superior to G1, which is one reason why Golden Mandheling is much more expensive than G1.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling requires layer-by-layer screening, which I think is absolutely necessary. Its defect rate is too high, and加上 its ugly appearance, sometimes good beans look like defective beans. Every time I sort FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling, I can pick out a handful of defective beans, but then looking back at the defective beans, I feel they can't really be considered defective beans - their appearance is just so unattractive. However, roasted Mandheling is like a caterpillar breaking out of its cocoon to become a butterfly - the roasted beans are very full and quite pleasing to the eye.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has a defect rate of 2% and is very beautiful.

What kind of bean is FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Golden Mandheling?

Aged coffee actually has a long history in Indonesia. Because early shipping wasn't so developed, transporting coffee from Indonesia to other countries required a considerable amount of time. As time passed, the originally moisture-rich fresh coffee beans slowly dried, and the addition of sea breeze created a very special flavor. Due to improvements in modern shipping that greatly reduced transportation time, coffee with such special flavors has become a specially processed type of coffee bean.

Processing aged beans is a skill that requires close monitoring during the aging process of the coffee beans. The warehouse's humidity and temperature have standard requirements, and the raw coffee beans must be turned periodically to prevent differences in humidity between top and bottom or mold that would render them useless. The aging process isn't about losing flavor but creating another flavor - and a pleasant one at that.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommends AeroPress Brewing Method:

1. Water Temperature: 85°C

2. Grind Size: Fuji grinder setting 3.5

3. Roast Level: Medium-dark roast

4. Steaming Time: 2 times, first 20 seconds, second 50 seconds

Specific Technique: Prepare for AeroPress pressing. Recommended to add 20g of coffee grounds with a water-to-coffee ratio of 1:17. First pour 83°C hot water to 100g, stir 3-5 times to fully moisten the coffee grounds, let sit for 20s, add remaining hot water to reach 240g, let sit for 40s, stir for 5s, then insert the plunger and press down at 1 minute 50 seconds. Total time: 2 minutes 5 seconds.

Flavor: Rich, complex, prominent spice notes, fresh woody fragrance

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473