How to Drink Indonesian Sumatra Tiger Mandheling G1 Coffee Beans - Characteristics of Tiger Mandheling

The endangered Sumatran tiger has always been regarded as majestic and composed. On the island of Sumatra, there is a Mandheling coffee that possesses the majestic aroma of the Sumatran tiger and a smooth, rich taste. When FrontStreet Coffee recommends Mandheling coffee, they often say: if you want high clarity, choose PWN Gold Mandheling; if you want rich body, choose Aged Mandheling; and if you want abundant aroma, choose Tiger Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee — Tiger Mandheling Coffee Beans

Origin: Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

Variety: Typica, Caturra

Processing: Wet-Hulling

Altitude: 1500m

Sumatra·Aceh Region

Aceh Province is located at the northwestern tip of the Indonesian archipelago. Due to its location on both sides of the equator, it features a typical tropical equatorial maritime climate, with year-round heat resembling summer and an average annual temperature of around 27°C. The region experiences high temperatures and abundant rainfall. From October to March of the following year, influenced by Asian and Pacific air currents, it is Indonesia's rainy season, characterized by plentiful rainfall and cooler climate. From April to October, influenced by the Australian continental air current, there is less moisture brought by air currents, resulting in a hot and dry climate, considered the dry season. FrontStreet Coffee has cupped multiple coffee beans from the Aceh region, including Long Berry Dragon Fruit Mandheling, PWN Gold Mandheling, Aged Mandheling, and this Tiger Mandheling. Herbal notes, dark chocolate, high body, clean taste, and distinct sweetness are all characteristics of coffee from this region.

Why is it called Tiger Mandheling?

This Tiger Mandheling acquired by FrontStreet Coffee comes from the homeland of the Sumatran tiger — Sumatra Island. This Tiger Mandheling uses 19-screen coffee beans (coffee beans are strictly filtered through a sieve with 19-screen mesh, aiming to ensure that each bean has nearly the same diameter), then undergoes three rounds of manual selection of ripe coffee cherries before green bean processing. Therefore, local people use "Sumatran Tiger" to describe the nobility and rarity of these carefully selected 19-screen coffee beans. In FrontStreet Coffee's cupping, the coffee shows high viscosity, smooth mouthfeel, rich agarwood notes, high sweetness, and a long-lasting aftertaste that inevitably reminds one of a Sumatran tiger crawling forward.

Wet-Hulling Process

The wet-hulling process involves first removing the skin and pulp of the coffee cherry, followed by brief fermentation and drying, then removing the mucilage and parchment layer, continuing the final drying stage until the moisture content reaches 12%. Wet-hulled Mandheling coffee beans clearly show varying degrees of compression cracks (this phenomenon results in coffee beans shaped like horseshoes, hence also called "horse hoof beans"), with the beans appearing dark greenish-blue.

This method, with drying time shortened to just two to four days, reduces the fermentation period of the coffee beans, significantly lowering acidity while increasing body. Caramel and fruit aromas become prominent, even carrying herbal or grassy notes as well as woody scents, thus forming the unique regional flavor of Sumatra.

Coffee Bean Varieties

This Tiger Mandheling uses two coffee varieties with distinct sweetness: Typica and Caturra. Typica has bronze-colored young leaves and elliptical or slender-pointed beans, offering elegant flavors but with weaker physical constitution, poor disease resistance, and low yield. Through cupping Typica from multiple origins, FrontStreet Coffee has found that its unique subtle, clean flavor and balanced characteristics are consistently evident. Caturra is a Bourbon variety with curved bean ends, round and slender, showing better production capacity and disease resistance than Bourbon. Its overall flavor is bright with good sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster observed that the Tiger Mandheling green beans are round, green with yellow tones, with good uniformity and high moisture content. The roasting goal is medium-dark to eliminate excessive acidity while enhancing body and balance.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Record

Heat the roaster to 200°C and load the beans, with damper set at 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 160°C, keeping the damper unchanged. The temperature return point occurs at 1'45". Maintain heat, and at 5'18", the bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. Reduce heat to 140°C, adjust damper to 4.

At 7'30", dehydration is complete, reduce heat to 140°C. At 8'55", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, with the obvious transition from toast aroma to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'00", reduce heat to 110°C, fully open damper to 5 (heat adjustment must be very careful, not so small as to eliminate crackling sounds). Develop for 4'00" after first crack, then discharge at 203°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

Dry Aroma: Herbal, nuts

Wet Aroma: Herbal, caramel

Flavor: Herbal, nuts, cream, dark chocolate

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Insights

For medium to dark roasted coffee beans, to highlight the richness, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono dripper for brewing. The characteristic of the Kono dripper is its immersion function, which can use immersion to extract more coffee substances, enhancing the rich mouthfeel. The Kono dripper has few ribs located at the bottom, allowing the filter paper to fit tightly against the dripper to achieve the effect of restricting airflow, thereby slowing water flow and increasing water-powder contact time.

Dripper: Kono Meimon

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Temperature: 88°C

Grind: Medium-coarse (about 73% retention rate on 0.85mm standard sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, blooming with 30g of water for 30 seconds. Using a small water flow, pour in a circular motion to 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. Wait for the water level to drop and when it's about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time is 2'05".

Brewing Flavor: Nuts, cream, dark chocolate, caramel, Chinese herbal medicine, with distinct sweetness, relatively clean and clear flavor profile.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473