What Does 3-Time Hand Sorting of Sumatra Mandheling G1 Coffee Beans Mean? How to Drink Sumatra Coffee?

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Influenced by the dark roast coffee beans from chain coffee shops, most people have the impression that coffee is bitter, and it's easy to taste a burnt bitterness, leaving many with a bad impression of dark roast coffee beans. In response, Mandheling coffee beans say: I'm so wronged!! Although most Mandheling coffee beans use dark roast, they're not as terrible as everyone imagines~

A delicious Mandheling coffee bean离不开高品质的生豆，也离不开烘焙师的功夫。A properly deep-roasted Mandheling coffee bean will display rich flavors of cedar, licorice, and dark chocolate, with a mellow, solid mouthfeel that carries a subtle woody aroma.

Although the flavor profile of Mandheling coffee beans differs from the "fruit bomb" coffee flavors that most coffee consumers love today, it remains a "classic among coffees." There are still many people who love the rich mouthfeel of Mandheling because it consistently brings stable, composed performance. Among FrontStreet Coffee's best-selling coffee beans, the Golden Mandheling coffee beans from Indonesia's PWN company have always been widely loved~

The Story of Mandheling Coffee

Legend has it that during World War II, a Japanese soldier drank an unforgettable cup of delicious coffee at a house on Indonesia's Sumatra island. When he asked what this coffee was, due to the language barrier, the homeowner thought he was asking about his ethnicity, so he answered "Mandheling."

After the war, the soldier couldn't forget that coffee, so he found a way to import Arabica coffee beans from Sumatra island to Japan, where they were warmly welcomed by the Japanese market. To make it easier for Japanese people to remember this region's coffee beans, "Mandheling" was used to name the Arabica coffee beans grown on Sumatra island, and Mandheling coffee beans became an instant success.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Growing Regions

Sumatra island is located in western Indonesia, with overall low elevation. Arabica variety coffee is grown in mountainous areas at 600-1200m altitude. Currently, premium-grade Mandheling coffee beans are mainly grown in the Lintong region and the Gayo Mountain region.

Sumatra island has abundant water resources and a perennially warm climate, but it has one drawback: the local weather is predominantly rainy with constant typhoons, making it impossible to achieve the good weather required for sun-drying. Additionally, the local economy is not prosperous, so they cannot use the more expensive washing method. This led to the development of the locally distinctive wet-hulling method.

Characteristics of Wet-Hulled Coffee Processing

Traditional washed processing requires 1-3 weeks, while wet-hulling processing is much shorter, taking only a few days to complete the entire process. The wet-hulling method first removes the skin and pulp of the coffee fruit, followed by brief fermentation and drying. When the beans are semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and drying continues until the moisture content reaches 12%, at which point they can be packaged and graded.

Although this seemingly quick and time-saving wet-hulling process, if not strictly controlled, can easily become damp and moldy in Indonesia's hot and humid environment. But besides Sumatra island, Indonesia's Sulawesi and Papua New Guinea also widely use this processing method. This is because Indonesia has a tropical rainforest climate with air humidity as high as 70-90%, making it impossible to dry coffee beans through long-term sun exposure, and the cost of washed processing is quite high. Coffee farmers had no choice but to develop this semi-washed processing method. Although the time for each step is greatly shortened, the hulled green beans still absorb moisture from the hot, humid air, resulting in Mandheling coffee with additional woody, herbal, and spicy earthy aromas.

Flavor Characteristics of Mandheling Coffee Beans

From the story above, we can see that Mandheling coffee beans specifically refer to Arabica coffee beans grown on Indonesia's Sumatra island. In this region, two main varieties are cultivated: Ateng and TimTim.

Do these two varieties seem somewhat unfamiliar? Actually, Tim Tim is Timor, an Arabica variety with Robusta heritage, while Ateng is Catimor, a hybrid of Caturra and Timor~

The characteristic of these varieties is their higher disease and pest resistance. In Indonesia's warm, humid environment, not only plants but also pests and pathogens love such conditions, so coffee plants themselves need better disease and pest resistance than those grown in other high-altitude areas.

Therefore, through hybridization with Robusta varieties, the plants themselves acquire some of Robusta's high disease and pest resistance characteristics. The remaining Arabica genetics lay the foundation for good coffee flavor.

Because both varieties contain Robusta coffee bean genes, combined with low growing elevation that cannot create strong day-night temperature differences to allow coffee beans to develop more refined flavors, and coupled with wet-hulling processing, whether TimTim or Ateng varieties, Mandheling coffee beans will have unique herbal, woody, and spicy flavors.

Do Different Mandheling Coffee Bean Varieties Really Have No Differences?

Of course they do. The Ateng variety is further hybridized with Caturra genes on the basis of the Tim Tim variety, so its flavor will be cleaner and sweeter. Besides variety, the harvesting - drying of green beans, and quality selection will also bring different degrees of difference between coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee currently sells Mandheling coffee beans from the Lintong region as well as Golden Mandheling coffee beans from the PWN company.

The difference between the two is that PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans undergo at least three purely manual selections after harvesting and drying processing, ensuring that the coffee bean specifications reach above 18. Defective beans are fewer than 3 (300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade. PWN color is darker green, and the shape is neat, flat beans.

Although the screening process for Lintong region Mandheling coffee beans is not as rigorous and delicate as PWN company's, their flavor performance is sufficient to represent the Indonesia Sumatra producing region.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee positions Lintong region Mandheling coffee beans as "entry specialty coffee beans" and "FrontStreet Coffee daily coffee beans," sold in 100g small packages at high value-for-money prices, hoping everyone can experience the regional flavors of Indonesia at the lowest cost.

How to Roast Mandheling Coffee Beans?

To allow Mandheling coffee beans to display their rich characteristics while clearly expressing their unique herbal flavors, FrontStreet Coffee roasts Mandheling coffee beans just before the second crack, thus belonging to medium-dark roast level.

The deeper the roast level, the more carbon dioxide is produced inside the coffee beans. After roasting, the abundant carbon dioxide inside the coffee beans continues to be expelled, while the oils from the coffee beans themselves also emerge to the surface along with the carbon dioxide extraction. Therefore, 3-4 days after roasting completion, the surface of deeper-roasted coffee beans will appear oily - this is a normal phenomenon~

To ensure every friend can drink freshly roasted coffee beans, we guarantee 100% that coffee beans are shipped within 5 days of roasting completion~

How to Brew Mandheling Coffee?

For brewing Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using medium-coarse grind (coarse sugar size, 70% pass-through rate with China #20 standard sieve), 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, paired with a KONO dripper.

The special feature of the KONO dripper is that its "rib" flow channels extend to the bottom of the coffee liquid outlet hole. Because the ribs are at the bottom and short, with high adherence to the filter paper, the flow rate is slower than V60, thus improving coffee extraction rate and enhancing coffee richness~

Specific brewing technique: First pour 30g of water for 30s bloom; second stage, pour small circular amounts to 125g, wait until the coffee bed water level drops to half before continuing to pour, then continue with small circular pours to 225g. After complete drip filtration, total extraction time is about 2 minutes 10 seconds.

FrontStreet Coffee - Lintong region Mandheling coffee flavor profile: Rich herbal aroma on entry, dark chocolate, caramel, sweet aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee - PWN Golden Mandheling coffee flavor profile: The coffee overall has multiple layers, rich and clean. Intense nut and caramel aromas, with chocolate notes, persistent finish, and high balance.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473