Introduction to the Flavor Characteristics of Indonesian Mandheling Coffee: What's the Special Story Behind the Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean's Name?

Introduction to Indonesian Coffee

When it comes to Indonesian coffee, FrontStreet Coffee first thinks of the representative Mandheling coffee, known for its rich herbal aroma and low acidity. Indonesian coffee has a strong flavor, mellow taste, and slightly syrupy notes, with potential drawbacks including uncomfortable astringency or slight moldy flavors, while others exhibit earthy characteristics.

Indonesia consists of more than 17,000 islands scattered across the equatorial volcanic belt. Indonesia straddles both sides of the equator, with a humid tropical rainforest climate and abundant rainfall, while fertile volcanic soil provides rich nutrients. The best planting areas throughout the archipelago are on Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi islands.

Mandheling Coffee Origin

Mandheling coffee beans are produced in Sumatra, Indonesia, also known as "Sumatra coffee." Mandheling is a premium coffee bean cultivated on plateau mountainous areas at elevations of 750-1500 meters, belonging to the rare Arabica variety in Indonesia. The first-grade Mandheling from Takengon and Sidikalang regions is considered the best quality. High-quality Mandheling coffee is primarily concentrated in fertile soil areas near lakes at plateau elevations between 1800 to 1900 meters.

Mandheling coffee features rich aroma, full body, and strong flavor, with its unique herbal spice characteristics serving as the signature of Mandheling coffee. These distinctive qualities led FrontStreet Coffee to choose Mandheling as one of its entry-level daily beans, offering excellent value for money that allows novice coffee enthusiasts to easily identify its unique flavors.

Mandheling Varieties at FrontStreet Coffee

In FrontStreet Coffee's bean selection, several varieties of Mandheling coffee have appeared, including Lintong Mandheling, Golden Mandheling, Tiger Mandheling, and Aged Mandheling. Among these, Mandheling and Golden Mandheling are FrontStreet Coffee's regular signature offerings. What are their differences? Mandheling and Golden Mandheling coffee beans are characterized by their hoof-like shape, resulting from their processing method. During the wet-hulling process, the semi-hard, semi-soft moist green beans are easily bruised when the mucilage and parchment layer are removed, causing the beans to crack open like sheep hooves, commonly known as "hoof beans." FrontStreet Coffee considers this a significant characteristic of Mandheling, not a defective bean.

They also come from different regions. As an entry-level Mandheling coffee bean, Lintong Mandheling comes from the Lintong mountainous area in north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. Golden Mandheling coffee beans are produced from Lake Tawa in Mount Gayo, northwestern Sumatra. Regarding Golden Mandheling, what makes it authentic Golden Mandheling starts with PWN company. This abbreviation is often mixed with Mandheling coffee names; it's actually the abbreviation for Pwani Coffee Company. This company is a very famous coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, primarily acquiring Mandheling coffee. Almost all the best producing areas in Indonesia are acquired by them, so most beans from PWN company are unique specialty coffees. Golden Mandheling is a product produced by this company. After acquiring the green beans, they undergo multiple manual selections to pick full, flawless beans. Only these premium beans, which experience layer-by-layer selection like a talent show, can be classified as Golden Mandheling.

PWN company has registered Golden Mandheling as a trademark, meaning only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN company can be considered authentic "Golden Mandheling" from now on. Many beans on the market not from PWN company but labeled as Golden Mandheling should actually be called Specialty Mandheling. Golden Mandheling is a very well-known coffee bean, synonymous with Mandheling, but the quantity is actually very small. Every bag of Golden Mandheling green beans at FrontStreet Coffee has PWN's logo marking and certificate.

Brewing Mandheling Coffee

Regarding how to brew Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee uses Golden Mandheling as an example, brewing with a Kono dripper. The Kono dripper has short, straight ribs, small holes, and slow flow rate, resulting in longer water-coffee contact time, thereby highlighting the rich body of Mandheling coffee.

Use 15 grams of coffee powder with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15 and water temperature of 88°C. First, inject 30 grams of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. Second, inject 95 grams of water, bringing the total to 125 grams. After 10 seconds, inject the remaining water, completing the injection in about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Wait for the coffee liquid to filter slowly, and finally remove the dripper at 2 minutes to end extraction. Using 88°C water temperature avoids excessive bitterness from high temperatures, while the 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio achieves balanced flavor. Three-stage water injection ensures sufficient time to extract coffee substances.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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