How Does Indonesian Sumatra Mandheling Coffee Taste? Delicious Mandheling Coffee Pour-Over Recipe and Parameters

Indonesian Mandheling coffee conquers the world with its rich and mellow taste, featuring flavors of caramel and dark chocolate—precisely what makes everyone find Mandheling coffee so enjoyable. This medium-dark roasted coffee bean has very low acidity with prominent bitterness, making it perfect for coffee enthusiasts who love rich, full-bodied flavors. Of course, the Japanese are particularly fond of it too! Speaking of Japan, there's actually a story connecting them to Indonesian Mandheling coffee. Let FrontStreet Coffee tell you about it!

Indonesia's Coffee Planting History

Indonesia first began planting coffee in 1696, when the Governor of Malabar gifted Arabica coffee to the Dutch Governor of Batavia (now Jakarta in Java). The first batch of coffee seedlings was destroyed by floods, but in 1699, the Governor of Malabar in India sent a second batch of seedlings, which were first harvested in 1701, ushering in a new era for Indonesian coffee.

Why Is It Called Mandheling?

Mandheling was originally an ethnic group located in the Lin Dong region of Aceh province, where rubber was abundant but coffee trees were not grown. So how did the current name Mandheling come about? Let me explain.

There was a Japanese soldier who drank a very delicious coffee during the colonial period and commissioned the rubber production department in North Sumatra (the PWN company at that time) to help him find this coffee. The PWN manager went to many producing areas to collect various high-quality coffee beans and sent them to Japan for tasting. Among them was one that captured the Japanese people's hearts. They asked what coffee it was, and the PWN company's manager wanted to say their rubber department was near Mandailing, but because the business source was inconvenient to disclose, he mentioned the name MANDHELING. This is the origin of the Mandheling name.

Indonesia is a traditional producing region with a long history of coffee cultivation, where coffee has developed a unique regional flavor. Mandheling coffee beans are the classic representative of Indonesian coffee. In FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series, FrontStreet Coffee has selected Mandheling from the Lin Dong origin as the flavor representative of Indonesian coffee.

[FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series is a collection of cost-effective regional beans. While they may not match beans from renowned estates in every aspect, this collection allows coffee newcomers to experience the main flavors of various major producing regions at an affordable price, helping them determine their preferred regions. For the same region, washed processing represents the bean's main flavor, while natural processing adds aroma on top of the washed base. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests washed for Blue Mountain and natural for aromatic beans like Geisha. FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans express the basic flavors of each region, so except for Brazilian semi-natural processing, all are washed. Since washed processing represents the most fundamental flavor of an origin, this is why all beans in the daily bean series are washed.]

Characteristics of Lin Dong Mandheling

Lin Dong Mandheling is produced in the mountainous area of Lin Dong in north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level daily bean from the Indonesian Mandheling region comes from here. Lin Dong Mandheling also uses a unique wet-hulling method, which creates its characteristics of low acidity and high body.

Indonesia has consistently high temperatures and humidity throughout the year, lacking extended periods of sunlight, with humidity levels ranging between 70-90%. Therefore, relying purely on natural sun-drying processing is clearly impractical. For the ever-changing weather of Sumatra island, even using washed processing for coffee beans makes it difficult to find a full week of sunny weather for drying. Thus, the wet-hulling processing method emerged. After following the washed processing steps, the parchment coffee beans are exposed to intense sunlight for 1-2 days until the moisture content reaches 30-50%, then the parchment is removed for sun-drying. This method accelerates the drying speed of coffee beans and significantly shortens the drying duration.

Mandheling coffee is very easy to identify both in flavor and bean appearance because the wet-hulling process removes the parchment from coffee beans while they're still in a semi-soft, semi-hard state. Under intense sun-drying, the coffee beans tend to crack, forming "sheep hoof" shapes, which is why they're also called sheep hoof beans, not because they're defective beans.

Mandheling Pour-over Method Recommendations

Mandheling coffee beans typically use dark roasting, presenting a mellow and rich taste. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests choosing a Kono dripper. This can enhance the rich body of the coffee beans. If unavailable, a V60 dripper can be used as a substitute.

For a single serving, use 15g of coffee beans. It's recommended to let the beans rest for 4-7 days (counting the roast date as day one), which will result in better flavor when brewed.

Regarding coffee grind size, Mandheling coffee should be ground slightly coarser than light roast coffee beans because Golden Mandheling uses dark roasting, which makes its structure more porous and easier to absorb water and release coffee substances. If ground to the fineness of light roast beans, it's easy to extract burnt bitterness; if ground even coarser, the coffee will become thin and tasteless, with a watery consistency. The grind size should be such that 70% passes through a #20 sieve.

For water temperature, FrontStreet Coffee recommends brewing with water at 87-88°C. Many instances of burnt bitterness come from water temperature being too high. Of course, water temperature that's too low will also make the coffee flat and tasteless.

For the coffee-to-water ratio, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 1:15. While some brewing methods might suggest 1:13 or an even smaller ratio for a richer taste, this approach of reducing the ratio is partly to avoid the bitter and unpleasant flavors in the final extraction, which correspondingly affects the aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee believes that as long as the relationship between water temperature and grind size is properly managed, using a 1:15 ratio can better represent the overall flavor profile of Mandheling.

Use the common three-stage pouring method. Dividing the pour into three stages can better express Mandheling coffee's rich body and caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first stage, 30ml for blooming, which thoroughly wets the coffee grounds for degassing, allowing for better extraction of flavor substances in subsequent stages; second stage, inject 100ml, which mainly brings out all the golden foam of Mandheling.

Finally, gently pour 95ml in the center for the last stage, which enhances the coffee's sweetness, overall presenting a thick, rich body with caramel sweetness and flavors of chocolate and nuts.

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