Flavor Comparison Between Blue Mountain and Mandheling Coffee Beans: Characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee

Often when we search for full-bodied coffee, the results are Mandheling and Blue Mountain coffee. Even if you haven't tasted these two varieties, you've surely heard of them. Friends frequently ask FrontStreet Coffee about the differences between Blue Mountain and Mandheling. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will guide you through understanding these two coffee beans from Frontsteet's collection.

Geographical Differences

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

On the map, Jamaica is an island nation located in the Caribbean region of North America, belonging to the tropical zone. To the north lies Cuba, and nearby is the Central American region. Coffee growing areas are mainly distributed around the Blue Mountain range in eastern Jamaica. When the weather is clear, direct sunlight hits the blue sea surface, and the mountain reflects blue light, hence the name "Blue Mountain."

The Blue Mountain range has the highest mountains in the region, with the highest peak approximately 2256 meters. Only areas below 1700m can cultivate coffee trees, while areas above are designated as protected forests. This location is in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, year-round rainfall, high humidity, and significant day-night temperature differences. Additionally, the soil is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, making it very suitable for coffee growth. Regular rainfall combined with the island's misty clouds keeps it away from intense sunlight. All these factors combine to create Blue Mountain coffee.

Indonesian Golden Mandheling Coffee

Indonesia is a country centered on the equator, composed of many large and small islands. Its coffee production ranks third globally, with most being Robusta varieties. Arabica is also grown in Java, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. Particularly, Mandheling coffee from Sumatra can be considered representative of Indonesian coffee, with GRADE 1 being the supreme grade with the fewest defective beans.

Speaking of "Golden Mandheling," we must start with PWN. This abbreviation is often mixed with Mandheling coffee's name, but it's actually an abbreviation for Pwani Coffee Company.

This company is a very famous coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, mainly purchasing Mandheling coffee. Almost the best growing areas in Indonesia are acquired by them, so most beans from PWN are unique specialty products. Golden Mandheling is a product produced by this company. After purchasing the green beans, they undergo multiple manual selections to pick out full, flawless beans. Only these fine beans, which seem to have undergone层层 screening like a talent show, can be classified as Golden Mandheling.

Processing Differences

Washed Method

Traditionally, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee only uses the washed method for green bean processing. After harvesting, the cherries must first undergo floating water screening to remove the skin and pulp, then ferment for 12-18 hours. The fermented beans are then placed in pools and moved back and forth, using the friction of the beans and the power of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until smooth and clean. The washed green coffee beans need to be air-dried until the moisture content reaches 12-14%. The dried green coffee beans need to be screened once more before being packed and stored in warehouses.

With the development of the specialty coffee market, starting from 2020, the Blue Mountain region also introduced small-batch natural-processed Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee.

Wet-Hulled Method

Indonesia's rainy season makes it impossible to process green beans with long sun drying like in African regions, so they developed their own processing method: the wet-hulled method.

The coffee cherries are machine-processed to remove the outer skin, washed with clean water to remove impurities, and placed in a sealed area to ferment for 3 hours. Then they are sun-dried for one to two days. At this point, the green coffee beans have a moisture content of 30-50%, and the beans are in a semi-soft, semi-hard state. Next, the mucilage layer and parchment of the green coffee beans are hulled off, and sun-drying continues. Generally, it takes 2-4 days to reach a moisture content of only 12-13%. The wet-hulled method is much shorter in drying time than both natural and washed methods. Since the wet-hulled method removes the parchment layer, the green beans appear greenish. The beans are relatively soft during processing and easily deformed by pressure, which is why we see the cloven-hoof shape.

Similarly, in recent years, some individual farms in Indonesia have also started producing natural-processed Mandheling coffee.

Green Bean Comparison

Jamaican Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain coffee belongs to the ancient Typica variety, with bronze-colored young leaves and oval-shaped beans. It has elegant flavor and poor disease resistance, resulting in lower yields.

Jamaica classifies coffee grown in the Blue Mountain range by altitude into Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica High Mountain Coffee, and Jamaica Coffee. Only Arabica Typica coffee from regions between 910-1700 meters altitude, including St. Andrew, St. Mary, St. Thomas, and Portland, can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. Coffee below 910 meters but above 460 meters is called Jamaica High Mountain Coffee, while that below 460 meters is Jamaica Prime Coffee.

Among these, Jamaica Blue Mountain is divided into four grades. The basic standard for the highest quality Blue Mountain No. 1 green beans includes beans above 17 mesh, defect rate below 2%, moisture content around 13%, appearing as uniformly sized, full, blue-green green beans. In terms of flavor, it simultaneously combines comfortable acidity, sweetness, bitterness, aroma, and full body.

FrontStreet Coffee: Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans
Region: Jamaica Blue Mountain
Altitude: 1310m
Processing: Washed
Variety: Typica
Flavor: Chocolate, Nuts, Cream, Cocoa

Golden Mandheling

The Golden Mandheling varieties are Aeng and TimTim. TimTim is a hybrid of the ancient Arabica variety—Typica—and Robusta, while the Aeng series is a hybrid of Caturra and TimTim, still carrying Robusta genes—what we often call Catimor. Both Aeng and TimTim have resistance to coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease, with high yields.

The Golden Mandheling coffee beans acquired by Frontsteet come from Lake Tawa near Mount Gayo in northwestern Sumatra, belonging to the superior batch of Mandheling. First, the Mandheling green beans purchased by PWN are batches above 18 mesh, with fewer than 3 defective beans in 300g samples—G1 grade, which is the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. Subsequently, they undergo strict manual selection of defective beans three times according to standards, ensuring uniform color, shape, and size of Mandheling coffee beans. Therefore, PWN Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner and brighter, with more obvious full body and sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee: PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans
Region: Sumatra, Indonesia
Grade: G1, Triple Hand-Sorted
Altitude: 1100m-1600m
Variety: Ateng
Processing: Wet-Hulled
Flavor: Nuts, Spices, Herbs, Caramel

Cupping Comparison

Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee

The dry aroma of Blue Mountain No. 1 is roasted peanuts, hazelnuts, melon, and chocolate; after adding water, the wet aroma is oolong tea, caramel, honey, chocolate, and almond skin. When slurping, you can taste bright and delicate acidity accompanied by floral notes. After entry, there's a slight aftertaste of cocoa and chocolate. The mouthfeel is clean and richly full-bodied, with a persistent fruity finish, overall smooth and full.

PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

The dry aroma of Golden Mandheling has toasted bread, nuts, and spices. After adding water, you can smell rich caramel and dark chocolate. When slurping, pine, herbal, and caramel flavors—rich, full-bodied, with high sweetness, clean taste, balanced and persistent.

Brewing Comparison

For these two coffees with very high body, Frontsteet uses the same brewing parameters for comparison.

Dripper: KONO
Water Temperature: 88°C
Grind Size: 70% pass-through rate with 20 standard sieve
Ratio: 1:15
Dose: 15g

First wet the KONO dripper to ensure the filter paper fits better with the coffee dripper. Pour out the water from the sharing pot while adding 15g of coffee powder. Use 30g of water to bloom for 30s, then start center spiral small flow injection until reaching 125g, then begin segmentation. When the coffee powder bed drops to half the dripper's position, start injecting the second segment with the same technique until reaching 225g. Wait for all dripping to complete before removing the dripper.

Blue Mountain No. 1 emits a very rich aroma immediately after grinding. During brewing, it carries caramel sweetness. The entry is full-bodied with nuts and chocolate, moderate acidity and sweetness, clean mouthfeel, and persistent aftertaste. Meanwhile, PWN Golden Mandheling coffee entry has prominent nut, chocolate, spice, and herbal flavors, with persistent caramel sweet aftertaste.

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

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