The Relationship and Differences Between Mandheling and Arabica Coffee Beans: Is Golden Mandheling Good Coffee?

We often see chain coffee shops promoting their "100% Arabica" slogan, and even when we ask about the bean varieties used for espresso blends in various coffee shops, we frequently hear the answer "Arabica." While these answers are correct, they lack detail. What exactly is Arabica? In fact, there are three main types of coffee commercially traded worldwide: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica.

Arabica coffee originated in Ethiopia and is the most widely consumed coffee type in the world, accounting for about 60% of global coffee production. Almost all coffees at FrontStreet Coffee are from the broad Arabica category, with only the commercial espresso blend sold on our Taobao store containing a small portion of Robusta coffee to increase crema.

Robusta coffee production ranks second only to Arabica. The Robusta variety is extremely tolerant to environmental conditions and nearly immune to diseases. Compared to Arabica, it typically has a fuller body. High-quality Robusta beans have a smooth texture, low acidity, and often exhibit chocolate flavors characteristic of their profile. In contrast, inferior Robusta coffee beans may have slight rubbery or burnt rubber notes.

Today, Liberica coffee is extremely rare to find in the world, but this variety holds a very important position in coffee history. Liberica coffee beans are larger than other coffee beans and often asymmetrical—they are the only coffee beans in the world with such irregular shapes. These beans are said to have a unique aroma composed of floral and fruit notes with an overall smoky character.

Additionally, there's another variety—Excelsa—that has recently been reclassified as a type of Liberica coffee, though the two are completely different. Excelsa grows mainly in Southeast Asia and accounts for only 7% of the world's coffee trade. It's primarily used in coffee blends to enhance flavor and complexity, and is said to have acidic and fruity characteristics.

Arabica coffee beans grow in high-altitude regions with stable rainfall and ample shade. Arabica trees are generally easy to care for because they are relatively small and easy to prune (they typically don't exceed 6 feet). Arabica coffee requires the most meticulous care among the four coffee types because it's most susceptible to environmental influences. Higher-quality Arabica coffee beans have bright flavors, satisfying acidity, and often exhibit multi-layered complexity in flavor and aroma.

Today, FrontStreet Coffee focuses on introducing Arabica coffee beans to everyone.

Popular Arabica Coffee Types Include:

Typica

The most distinctive characteristic of Typica coffee trees is their bronze-colored leaves at the top, hence they're also called "red-topped coffee." Their trunks are slender with thin branches that angle slightly upward, forming 50-70° angles with the vertical stem. The plants grow to about 5 meters tall, making manual harvesting somewhat challenging. Right outside FrontStreet Coffee's entrance, we happen to have a potted Typica plant and a potted Catimor plant—feel free to take a look while enjoying your coffee. Typica coffee beans are relatively large, elongated, and pointed at both ends, somewhat egg-shaped. Typica beans often have citrusy acidity with sweet aftertaste, and many praise them as elegant and refined coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is a Typica variety.

Due to its very poor disease resistance, Typica struggles against common diseases like leaf rust and coffee berry disease, resulting in very low yields. Coffee trees infected with leaf rust essentially suffer from an incurable condition, eventually withering and even dying. As a commercial crop, Typica's low yield and weak disease resistance make it difficult to achieve profitability, leading many growers to abandon it in favor of more disease-resistant varieties. Cultivating elegant and pure-flavored Typica coffee beans is no simple matter—every stage from natural terroir conditions, plant management, fruit harvesting, to post-processing requires careful attention for the beans to develop positive flavors and textures. This means producing high-quality Typica requires more investment in labor costs and technical expertise.

FrontStreet Coffee's representative Typica offering is Frontsteet Blue Mountain coffee, which originally descends from Typica lineage. Authentic Frontsteet Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is among the world's most expensive coffees due to its scarcity. Jamaican Blue Mountain was introduced to Jamaica in the early 1700s, coming from a small area in the Blue Mountains on the island's eastern side, growing at elevations between 2,000 to 5,500 feet. The cool mountain temperatures, volcanic soil, and abundant rainfall give Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee its unique flavor. The cultivation of this specialty coffee is closely monitored and globally protected by the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board—only coffee from this specific region can receive authentic certification and labeling.

Therefore, the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board's label has become an anti-counterfeiting mark for Blue Mountain coffee. Additionally, it's worth noting that only Jamaican coffee uses wooden barrels for green beans, so to some extent, Blue Mountain's wooden barrels can also help identify authenticity.

FrontStreet Coffee's Frontsteet Blue Mountain coffee comes from Jamaica's Clifton Estate, the only estate in Jamaica with Rainforest Alliance certification. The Blue Mountain coffee grown at this 200-year-old estate achieves almost perfect balance in flavor, body, and aroma, with an endless aftertaste.

Bourbon

Bourbon emerged from a natural mutation of Typica, with the slender, pointed bean shape becoming rounded. It was first discovered on Bourbon Island (now Réunion) off the eastern coast of Africa. In 1715, France transplanted rounded beans from Mocha, Yemen to Bourbon Island (renamed Réunion after the French Revolution), giving it the name Bourbon. The rounded Bourbon beans were introduced to Brazil for cultivation in 1727. Although yields aren't high, compared to the delicate Typica, Bourbon has better resistance to leaf rust disease. Bourbon coffee grown at high altitudes has rich, delicate flavors, intense aromas, and smooth acidity. The Bourbon cherries we typically see change from green to light yellow, orange-yellow, red, and finally to fully ripe dark red—what we refer to as Red Bourbon.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil as an example—this coffee features distinct nutty and chocolate flavors, moderate caramel sweetness, and a smooth, well-balanced overall profile.

Catimor

Catimor 7963 is a hybrid variety developed by Portugal's Tropical Research Institute (HCT) specifically for coffee leaf rust resistance, with stable characteristics. This variety features a compact, dwarf tree form with many branches and short fruit nodes. It grows vigorously with extremely strong vitality, with its most notable characteristics being amazing rust resistance and high yields. Therefore, it's widely loved by Yunnan coffee farmers, with over 90% of coffee trees in Yunnan being Catimor.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is a Catimor variety. When processed using Indonesia's unique wet-hulling method and roasted, it develops full-bodied herbal spice, dark chocolate, and nutty aromas. At this point, some regular customers of FrontStreet Coffee beans might wonder—doesn't the packaging clearly state the coffee variety is "Ateng"? Actually, "Ateng" is the local Indonesian name for this coffee variety, and Catimor belongs to the broader Arabica category, so Golden Mandheling's variety is indeed Arabica.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling offerings include more than just Frontsteet Golden Mandheling—there are four other varieties: Frontsteet Tiger Mandheling, Frontsteet Aged Mandheling, Frontsteet Lintong Mandheling, and Frontsteet Sumatra Wahana Estate Mandheling. Frontsteet Lintong Mandheling comes from the Lintong region of Sumatra, Indonesia, with main varieties being Typica and Caturra. Frontsteet Tiger Mandheling is from the Aceh region of Sumatra, primarily Typica and Caturra varieties. Frontsteet Aged Mandheling comes from the Tawarhu region of Sumatra, with Typica beans. Frontsteet Golden Mandheling comes from the Aceh region of Sumatra, Indonesia. Additionally, since the Golden Mandheling trademark is registered by PWN company, only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN is authentic Golden Mandheling.

So how can you determine the authenticity of Golden Mandheling? It's actually quite simple—look for the factory certificate and coffee bean sacks printed with the PWN company logo. FrontStreet Coffee's Frontsteet Golden Mandheling comes from PWN company and is usually called PWN Golden Mandheling coffee.

Most Mandheling coffees use the wet-hulling processing method, which gives them relatively unique flavors: earthy and herbal notes often appear, with low acidity and full body that coffee enthusiasts worldwide love. Wet-hulling is a unique coffee processing method in Indonesia's coffee regions. The process is as follows:

1. Harvest coffee cherries and remove the fruit skin.
2. Ferment the cherries overnight to break down the mucilage (the fruit layer under the skin), then wash it off.
3. Dry for several hours until moisture content reaches about 50%.
4. Sell the coffee to collectors or mills where beans are further dried to 25-35% moisture content, then the parchment layer is removed using a wet huller.
5. The processing plant air-dries the hulled beans to 12-13% moisture content.

Unlike other Mandheling coffees, Sumatra Wahana Estate Mandheling uses natural processing. FrontStreet Coffee has also adjusted its roast level—medium roasting better highlights its tropical fruit flavors. Related to the natural processing method, this coffee also has rich fermented wine-like aromas.

Heirloom

In Ethiopia, Heirloom is a collective term referring to the country's many wild or genetically undefined indigenous varieties. By dictionary definition, "Heirloom" refers to "valuable property passed down through generations," meaning coffee is an irreplaceable "treasure" for Ethiopians, while baristas translate it into the more accessible term "native variety." Many of FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian region coffee beans are labeled as "Heirloom" variety, such as the washed Frontsteet Yirgacheffe, Frontsteet Buku 8.0, and Frontsteet Natural Red Cherry.

As the birthplace of Arabica coffee, Ethiopia preserves tens of thousands of native Arabica coffee varieties. Coffee cultivation is generally divided into three main systems: smallholder farming, semi-forest cultivation, and forest cultivation. Semi-forest coffee trees are typically wild varieties growing in natural settings, where farmers manage the coffee growing areas while also cultivating other economic crops. Heirloom variety coffees are usually identified and confirmed by growers based on years of experience, because the number of varieties is so large that it's nearly impossible to conduct genetic testing and verification on a larger scale.

From the introduction above, everyone should know the answer: Frontsteet Mandheling coffee is certainly good coffee—it's just that everyone's taste preferences differ, so they like different types of coffee. For those who love prominent floral and fruit notes, Ethiopian floral and fruity coffees are also excellent choices. For enthusiasts who appreciate body and herbal flavors, Frontsteet Mandheling should be the definitive choice!

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 account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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