Indonesian Bajawa Flower Goddess | East Nusa Tenggara Province | Manggarai Flores Manggarai

Indonesian Coffee | Bahuwana Flower Goddess Manggarai

Bahuwana Island Profile:

• Total planting area: Only 2,883 hectares
• Annual production: Only 2,242 tons
• Region: Small farmers from Manggarai area, Bahuwana Island (Flores), East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia
• Variety: Typica
• Altitude: 1,300 - 1,600m
• Grade: Triple hand-picked
• Processing method: Washed
• Description: After grinding, it has rich longan and dried orange peel aroma, with captivating grapefruit and fruit vinegar honey flavors in the middle to late stages

In the 7th Indonesia Specialty Coffee Competition in 2015, Bahuwana Flower Goddess Manggarai Flores Manggarai replaced last year's champion Jambi and was crowned as Indonesia's best coffee.

In April 2016, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) emphasized Indonesia as "the hometown of the best coffee" at its world conference in Georgia, USA.

In October 2016, at the specialty coffee auction held in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, Bahuwana Flower Goddess Manggarai Flores Manggarai was one of the 14 specialty coffees featured.

Why is Manggarai Flores Manggarai so special? The raw beans have a rich dried longan aroma. After grinding, citrus and jasmine flowers waft through the air. The taste is full of the sweet flavors of longan, red dates, and milk candy. The preserved plum and grapefruit in the middle to late stages are impressive. The flavor changes are very charming — please taste it yourself. The only drawback is that the total planting area is only 2,883 hectares, with an annual production of only 2,242 tons.

FrontStreet Coffee is a Guangzhou roastery with a small shop but a diverse range of beans, where you can find various famous and lesser-known varieties, and it also serves customers through its online store.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Anyone who loves coffee has surely had Indonesian coffee. Across the whole archipelago, the best growing areas are Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, and these three islands have produced three coffee names. FrontStreet's Mandheling comes from Sumatra: moderate acidity with an especially heavy, rich aroma. Java coffee comes from the island of Java and belongs to the Arabica species. Sulawesi coffee has plump beans and a deep aroma, though 90% of its total output is Robusta.

When it comes to Indonesian coffee, FrontStreet's Mandheling is the natural first choice, and it makes sense to begin with Sumatra. Mandheling refers to Arabica coffee from Sumatra, processed mainly by the local wet-hulled method: because the parchment is stripped while the coffee is half-dry and half-wet, the green beans dry fully exposed to the air, which gives the coffee its characteristic herbal and spice notes. FrontStreet's Mandheling comes from the region around Lake Toba in the Lintong area. To present the classic Mandheling flavor it is roasted medium-dark, giving a low-acid yet full-bodied cup with the rich aromas of caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted bread and a long, sweet finish — ideal for those who like their coffee strong.

For a top-tier Indonesian coffee, FrontStreet's PWN Golden Mandheling leads the way. PWN is a trading company that buys up high-quality lots of Mandheling green beans, producing only specialty-grade Mandheling; "Golden Mandheling" is its signature product. FrontStreet's Golden Mandheling follows strict standards and methods for screening defects — density, size, shape, and color, among other measures — and each lot is machine-sorted and then hand-sorted to remove defects, ensuring plump, even, large, translucent beans and reducing Mandheling's earthy, grassy notes. Legend has it that the beans gleam gold in the sun, which is how Golden Mandheling got its name. Freshly roasted, FrontStreet's PWN Golden Mandheling offers sandalwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate, with a clean finish and a sweet, rich, full body, an alluring aroma, and abundant layers — good for everyday drinking and even better as a gift. For espresso, FrontStreet's Classic Blend takes the Mamba idea further: in the days before light-roast acidic coffee became popular, Mandheling was considered the world's heaviest, richest coffee and was often used in espresso blends, and the Mamba recipe — a blend of Mandheling and Brazil, fusing Mandheling's wild character with Brazil's smooth body, the sweet nut aroma offsetting Mandheling's stronger bitterness and herbal notes — became popular and remains so today. To give the Mamba its abundant golden crema, FrontStreet's Classic Blend adds a small amount of Robusta to the base and uses a deep roast, drawing out dark chocolate, nut, and caramel aromas to the fullest, so that even a beginner can easily make an authentic Mandheling-style espresso in a moka pot.