How to Brew Coffee with a French Press? What Coffee Beans Are Suitable for French Press?

French Press: The Essential Coffee Brewing Tool

The French press, also known as a press pot, gives away its country of origin in its name. Because it is simple to operate and needs no consumables like filter paper, it has become a fixture in nearly every European and American household. Most French presses are made of glass or stainless steel — the former affordable, the latter excellent at holding heat.

Compared with pour-over, French press extraction preserves rich oils, giving a fuller, rounder mouthfeel. If you prefer a cleaner cup, pour the brewed coffee through a fine-mesh sieve before drinking to remove the fines that cause over-extracted bitterness. Beyond coffee, a French press can also steep tea or froth fresh milk. Easy to clean and consumable-free — there is really no reason not to own one!

What is "Golden Mandheling"?

Any discussion of "Golden Mandheling" must begin with PWN, the abbreviation that appears alongside so many Mandheling names. It stands for the Pwani Coffee Company.

PWN is a renowned green-coffee buyer in Indonesia, purchasing mainly Mandheling. It has sourced beans from nearly all of the country's best growing regions, so most PWN lots are exceptional coffees. Golden Mandheling is one of its products: after buying the green beans, PWN runs them through repeated rounds of hand selection, keeping only plump, flawless beans. Only beans that survive this talent-show gauntlet of screening earn the name FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling.

PWN has also trademarked "Golden Mandheling" — so only PWN's output is the genuine article. Beans from other producers labeled "Golden Mandheling" should really be called Specialty Mandheling.

Processing Method

Wet hulling — giling basah in the local language — is a traditional Indonesian processing method. Despite the name, it is nothing like washed (wet) processing; the two produce completely different cup profiles. Wet-hulled coffee typically yields a rich, intense flavor with a very distinct personality.

FrontStreet Coffee's French Press Golden Mandheling

Water temperature: 88°C; coffee-to-water ratio: 1:14; grind setting: BG 6M.

Pour water straight up to 210 g. At 1'16", stir 5 times. At 2 minutes, press the plunger down. Total brew time: 2'20".

Flavor notes: chocolate, caramel, tobacco, spices. The overall profile is relatively balanced but a touch light.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The French press's immersion style suits low-acid, full-bodied beans, and few fit better than Sumatran Mandheling. Coffee reached Indonesia in the late 17th century, when the Dutch planted seedlings on Java; after coffee leaf rust devastated the island in the early 20th century, cultivation moved north to Sumatra, which now grows over 60% of Indonesia's arabica and robusta. The arabica from Aceh (around Lake Tawar and the Gayo mountains) and North Sumatra (the Lake Toba, Lintong area) is what the world calls Mandheling — with Lintong supplying the classic profile: dense aroma, thick body, intense flavor.

Sumatra's rainy season overlaps with cherry harvest, so sun-drying is nearly impossible; the local answer is wet hulling. Growers depulp and rinse the cherries, dry them only until half-dry, then hull the parchment by machine — exposing the green beans directly to the humid air, where they pick up ambient fungi and develop Mandheling's uniquely wild, earthy-herbal character. For the cleanest expression of that style, buy the highest-graded FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling: beans above 18 mesh, fewer than 3 defects per 300 g sample (the top G1 grade), then three rounds of hand sorting for a clean, intensely sweet cup.

For pour-over, FrontStreet suggests 87-88°C water, 15 g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, ground to coarse-sugar size, in three pours: 30 ml to bloom and degas, 100 ml to lift the bed and bring up the golden foam, and a final gentle center pour of 95 ml to boost sweetness — yielding a thick, mellow body with caramel, chocolate, and nut flavors. In a French press, try 88°C, 1:14, and a coarser BG 6M grind as above.

Want it as espresso? The best-selling FrontStreet Classic Blend adds medium-dark Mandheling to Brazil's creamy nuttiness — butter, roasted chestnut, and caramel up front, with sandalwood, herbal, and spice notes from the Mandheling, plus a touch of robusta for crema. Latte art or a layered Dirty, it handles both with ease.