Flavor and Characteristics of Sumatra Coffee Beans - Are Starbucks Sumatra Coffee Beans Good?

Sumatra Mandheling has been a favorite among coffee connoisseurs since the rise of coffee culture, renowned for its rich coffee flavor. Once, a customer who came to FrontStreet Coffee for Golden Mandheling described it this way: "When this cup of Golden Mandheling enters the mouth, it feels like a Sumatran tiger crawling forward in your mouth." On FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu, we can see 5 varieties of Mandheling coffee from Sumatra, each with distinct characteristics. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce these 5 Sumatra Mandheling coffees.

The environment and soil of Sumatra produce coffee with woody tones and rich mouthfeel, subtle flavors with lively yet moderate acidity, and unique notes of herbal medicine, cedar, cocoa, and fermented fruits. Among these, Sumatra Mandheling is the most classic coffee bean variety within the Arabica species, which accounts for only 25% of Indonesia's coffee production. It offers a wonderful classic taste - heavy flavor with richness and lively, vibrant dynamics, yet neither astringent nor acidic, fully expressing its body and bitterness. When tasting Mandheling, you can feel the smoothness on your tongue, accompanied by faint herbal plant aromas, cocoa's sweetness, and fruit-like fragrance, with a long-lasting aftertaste. Typically, Sumatra Mandheling enthusiasts enjoy it as a single-origin coffee, but Sumatra Mandheling is also an indispensable variety for blending coffee.

The Legend of Mandheling

Mandheling, literally understood, has a romantic and warm feeling, but those who have tasted it don't think so. It's fragrant, rich, and sweet in bitterness, a non-acidic coffee variety considered the world's most mellow coffee. When tasting, you can feel distinct smoothness on your tongue while sensing lower acidity, with jumping micro-acidity mixed with the richest aroma, allowing you to easily experience the lively factors within gentle richness. Additionally, this plant has a faint earthy fragrance, which some describe as the aroma of herbal plants.

Sumatra Mandheling is a premium coffee bean grown at elevations of 750-1500 meters in mountainous regions, known as the "Caesar of coffees." Today, Indonesia is a major coffee-producing country, with cultivation mainly concentrated in Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. Robusta varieties account for 90%, while Sumatra Mandheling coffee is the rare Arabica variety and the most renowned Mandheling. When discussing Mandheling, we must mention the PWN company.

PWN Company and Golden Mandheling

PWN's full name is Pwani Coffee Company. In Indonesia, this is a very famous coffee acquisition company, mainly specializing in purchasing Mandheling coffee. Almost all the best producing areas have been acquired by them, so most beans from PWN are unique specialty coffees. Golden Mandheling is one of their products - after acquiring green beans, they undergo multiple manual selections to pick out plump, flawless beans. Only these carefully selected premium beans, which experience layer-by-layer screening like a talent show, can be classified as Golden Mandheling. The Golden Mandheling available at FrontStreet Coffee comes from PWN company. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the quality of Sumatra Golden Mandheling can absolutely be considered top-tier Indonesian Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee: PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans
Region: Aceh Gayo Mountain, Sumatra
Altitude: 1100-1600 meters
Variety: Ateng
Grade: G1, 3-handpicked
Processing Method: Wet-Hulled

Lintong Mandheling

In FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series, there's a Mandheling from the Lintong region. Lintong Mandheling comes from the Lintong mountainous area in north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. Lintong Mandheling is the regular version of Sumatra Mandheling. Lintong Mandheling also uses the conventional wet-hulled method, which creates its characteristics of low acidity and high body. However, using the wet-hulled method can result in semi-hard, semi-soft moist green beans being easily bruised when the parchment layer is removed. The beans crack open like sheep's hooves, commonly known as "sheep-hoof beans" - these are not defective beans but rather a significant characteristic of Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee launched the daily bean series hoping that every coffee enthusiast can enjoy the main regional flavors at the most affordable prices.

FrontStreet Coffee: Lintong Mandheling Coffee Beans
Region: Lintong, Sumatra
Altitude: 1100-1600 meters
Varieties: Typica, Caturra
Processing Method: Wet-Hulled

Tiger Mandheling

As mentioned earlier, a customer described Sumatra Mandheling entering the mouth like a tiger crawling forward. Among the Mandheling varieties available at FrontStreet Coffee, there's one named after a tiger. Tiger Mandheling is selected from regular Mandheling fruit trees, screened three times through 19-mesh screens (referring to strict filtering of beans through 19-mesh screens to ensure each bean has nearly the same diameter), ultimately selecting AA-grade Mandheling. Therefore, some people use "Sumatran Tiger" to describe the nobility and rarity of these 19-mesh selected beans.

In cupping, it表现为 high viscosity with excellent fruit aroma and sweetness, with a long-lasting sweet aftertaste. It's truly a rare fine bean, deeply loved by coffee connoisseurs. Some use "Sumatran Tiger" to describe the rarity and preciousness of this Mandheling, hence called "Sumatran Tiger Mandheling," also known as "Tiger Mandheling" or "Tiger Mandheling" in Chinese. Of course, there's another theory: there's a "Tiger Estate" in Sumatra that specializes in producing Sumatra Mandheling, and batches specially selected by them are named "Tiger Mandheling," also known as "Tiger Mandheling."

FrontStreet Coffee: Tiger Mandheling Coffee Beans
Region: Sumatra
Altitude: 1500 meters
Varieties: Caturra, Typica, Sidikalong
Processing Method: Wet-Hulled

Aged Mandheling

If you feel the Mandheling varieties mentioned above aren't rich enough, FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling will surely satisfy richness enthusiasts. Indonesia was once a Dutch colony. During the colonial period, Indonesia continuously supplied coffee beans to Europe. To ensure continuous supply, coffee beans were appropriately stored. However, due to external factors like long transportation distances and erosion by sea winds, by the time coffee beans reached Europe, they had developed another flavor - this was the origin of aged flavors. Fortunately, European colonists were amazed by this flavor at the time and quickly accepted and promoted this processing method.

Today, the aging process for Aged Mandheling has become relatively mature. Coffee beans first undergo the wet-hulled method (wet-hulling involves sun-drying with parchment for 2-3 days to 20-24% moisture content during regular washed processing, then removing the parchment to dry the green beans to 12-13% moisture content), then are sealed in warehouses. The warehouse environment must be cool and ventilated, with regular turning of beans to prevent mold and decay, stored for 2-3 years. During this period, the coffee beans' acidity gradually diminishes and converts to sugars, and the color becomes deeper, mostly yellowish-brown or dark brown, highly recognizable.

FrontStreet Coffee: Aged Mandheling Coffee Beans
Region: Sumatra
Altitude: 1500 meters
Varieties: Caturra, Typica
Processing Method: Wet-Hulled

Wet-Hulled Processing Method

All four Mandheling coffees mentioned above use the wet-hulled processing method. Due to local weather often being rainy with constant typhoons, making it impossible to achieve the good weather required for sun-drying, and because the local economy is not prosperous, making it equally impossible to use the more expensive washed method. For these various reasons, the uniquely local wet-hulled method was developed (wet-hulling involves sun-drying with parchment for 2-3 days to 20-24% moisture content during regular washed processing, then removing the parchment). The ultra-fast processing speed of wet-hulling also results in higher defect rates in Mandheling, but Golden Mandheling effectively avoids this drawback. Golden Mandheling specifications are above 19-mesh, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a darker green color and neatly shaped flat beans.

Natural Mandheling

Want to drink Mandheling but not so rich? Yes! FrontStreet Coffee recently launched a Natural Mandheling whose flavor is completely different from the typical impression of Mandheling. Traditional Mandheling has more herbal and woody incense notes with low acidity, while this Natural Mandheling retains herbal aromas while adding soft fruit acidity. The Wahana Estate was established in 2005, located near Lea Mungkur 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's region has an altitude between 1200-1500 meters, annual rainfall of 2000-3000 millimeters, and additionally enjoys a relatively cool climate with a day-night temperature difference exceeding 10°C. Based on these conditions, Wahana's red cherries have sugar content above 13%, so the coffee beans produced here are relatively sweeter.

FrontStreet Coffee: Natural Mandheling Coffee Beans
Region: Lake Toba, Sumatra
Estate: Wahana Estate
Altitude: 1000-1700 meters
Varieties: Bourbon, Typica
Processing Method: Natural

How FrontStreet Coffee Brews 5 Mandheling Coffees

FrontStreet Coffee tries to unify brewing parameters when brewing Mandheling coffee beans. Since Natural Mandheling uses medium-light roasting while the other four Mandhelings use medium-dark roasting, different brewing parameters are used for different roast levels.

Light-Medium Roast Coffee Brewing Parameters: V60 dripper, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee dose, 90°C water temperature, grind size (80% pass-through rate on 20-standard mesh screen)

Medium-Dark Roast Coffee Brewing Parameters: Kono dripper, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee dose, 88°C water temperature, grind size (70-75% pass-through rate on 20-standard mesh screen)

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, blooming with 30g of water for 30 seconds. Using small circular flow, pour water to 125g for segmentation, continue pouring to 225g when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed, then remove the dripper when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed (timing starts from bloom). V60 dripper extraction time is 2'00", while Kono dripper extraction time is slightly longer at 2'10".

Tasting Notes

Golden Mandheling: Multi-layered, rich and clean, high balance, rich nut and caramel aroma with chocolate notes, long-lasting aftertaste.

Lintong Mandheling: Herbal medicine flavor on entry, dark chocolate, caramel, sweet aftertaste.

Tiger Mandheling: Pine, spice aromas, relatively balanced mouthfeel with distinct cream, dark chocolate, and nut flavors.

Aged Mandheling: Woody, malt, and caramel aromas greet you, the mouthfeel lacks the wildness of traditional Mandheling, showing more richness and delicacy, with a mature and steady feeling. Lower acidity, with ripe pu-erh tea, caramel, herbal medicine, and chocolate flavors on entry, very sweet.

Natural Mandheling: Tropical fruits, fermented notes, moderate acidity, smooth mouthfeel, distinct sweetness.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473