Differences Between Indonesian Mandheling and Golden Mandheling Coffee Varieties - Flavor Characteristics of Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans for Pour-Over

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While fruit-flavored coffee is highly sought after for its sweet and sour taste, not all coffee enthusiasts enjoy drinking "acidic water." Instead, many prefer coffee without acidity. FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling, with its rich mouthfeel and herbal bitter fragrance, has become the perfect choice.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee comes from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, so it is also known as Sumatran coffee. Like FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Mandheling is also considered one of the world's finest varieties. Due to its distinctive caramel-like aroma, rich and mellow flavor, sweetness, low acidity, and a hint of bitterness, FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans are typically roasted to a dark roast level.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling is characterized by its very rich flavor—aromatic, bitter, and mellow, with a touch of sweetness. Most coffee enthusiasts enjoy it as a single-origin, but it's also an indispensable variety for blending coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling has a strong, intense flavor with rich body and vibrant liveliness, without astringency or acidity, fully expressing its body and bitterness. FrontStreet Coffee believes that this distinctive character of Mandheling is largely attributed to Indonesia's "unique" Wet Hulling processing method.

What is Wet Hulling?

Indonesia's biggest difference from many coffee-producing regions lies in its local humid climate. Indonesia's humidity remains between 70-90% year-round, with typhoons arriving unexpectedly and annual rainfall even reaching over 2000mm. Such harsh weather conditions make it impossible to adopt the 2-3 week sun-drying method used in Africa. The washed process is not only time-consuming but also requires more labor costs and water resources, which production-oriented Indonesia cannot afford. As a result, they developed a unique semi-washed method—Wet Hulling.

Coffee cherries with their pulp removed are poured directly into a pool for brief fermentation of several hours. At this stage, a small amount of mucilage remains on the parchment, which is removed through brushing. Next, the parchment beans are dried until they reach 30-40% moisture content, which takes about 2-3 days, after which the coffee farmers sell the raw beans to buyers. The buyers then directly use machines to hull the semi-dry parchment beans to obtain the innermost green beans.

Since the hulling machines use significant friction to tear open the parchment layer tightly attached to the green beans, white or green viscous liquid typically flows out during this stage. Due to long-term soaking in this liquid and exposure to humid environments, the green beans eventually become soft, pale, swollen, and turn grayish-green. The friction and agitation also make the green beans more susceptible to crushing or bruising, especially at the ends, forming small cracks that result in "elephant beans" (caracol). The "naked beans" without parchment dry very quickly while being directly exposed to humid environments, fostering various types of microbial growth. This gives Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbal notes—what we call "terroir." FrontStreet Coffee currently has two Mandheling coffee beans on its daily menu: FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling, both processed using the Wet Hulling method.

Mandheling coffee's fame originated when Indonesia's local Pwani Coffee Company (PWN) introduced Mandheling to the Japanese market, where it achieved great success. Unlike many raw bean suppliers in Indonesia, PWN Company is the exclusive supplier of high-grade Gold Mandheling, having contracted the best Mandheling coffee-producing regions in Indonesia, where the produced Mandheling beans are all of superior quality.

It's worth mentioning that "Gold Mandheling" has long been registered as a trademark by Indonesia's Pwani Company. This means that only Gold Mandheling coffee beans produced by PWN Company are truly FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling. Meanwhile, a Japanese raw bean merchant had to register "Gold Top Mandheling" as their trademark. PWN Company follows extremely strict standards when producing Gold Mandheling coffee beans, implementing three rounds of manual selection on top of Indonesia's highest coffee grade G1 standard, thereby ensuring appearance quality and significantly reducing defect rates. The FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling selected through this process presents uniform color and consistent bean shape. When tasted, it lacks the typical earthy impurities found in regular Mandheling, with a cleaner, brighter flavor profile and more intense sweetness.

The quality of FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling is also reflected in its price. Some merchants label their Mandheling coffee beans as "Gold Mandheling" to command higher prices without indicating whether they come from PWN Company. To make their Mandheling closely resemble PWN Gold Mandheling in appearance, some merchants select G1 grade coffee beans of 18 screen size or larger from regular Mandheling beans. They then add three rounds of manual selection to make the appearance as close as possible to PWN's Gold Mandheling.

Even when the appearance can be maximally similar, the flavor of FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling is difficult to imitate. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas have conducted blind tastings of multiple Gold Mandheling coffee beans and could always accurately identify PWN Company's Gold Mandheling. This is because the clean taste of FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling is unparalleled by other Gold Mandheling varieties.

Some friends might ask: As ordinary consumers, how can we distinguish whether the Gold Mandheling we purchased is truly from PWN Company's FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling?

Actually, PWN Gold Mandheling is packaged in gunny sacks printed with the PWN logo and comes with a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company. The FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling obtained by FrontStreet Coffee includes both of these proofs, which are displayed on the walls of FrontStreet Coffee's store.

Brewing FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling

Embracing the principle of self-sufficiency, many friends choose to purchase whole bags of coffee beans to brew at home. However, many have reported that their homemade coffee turns out either too bitter or too acidic. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the parameters used when preparing FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling.

Filter: KONO filter
Water temperature: 88°C
Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Grind: 70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve

Since FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling has a relatively dark roast level, the flavor compounds in the coffee are easily extracted during brewing. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a coarser grind and lower water temperature. Meanwhile, to achieve a rich mouthfeel, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using a filter with immersion capabilities, such as the KONO filter, which is very suitable for brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1, and other medium-dark roast coffee beans.

First, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom. Then, inject with a fine stream from the center, slowly circling to 125 grams. Wait until the water level in the filter drops to just above the coffee bed, then continue circling and pouring to 225 grams. The total extraction time should be approximately 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days, which have undergone a 4 to 7-day degassing period upon arrival. However, the first pour of hot water during brewing needs to thoroughly wet the coffee grounds for blooming. The purpose of blooming is to promote the release of carbon dioxide from the coffee grounds, improving the stability of subsequent flavor extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee also provides grinding services for friends who don't have grinding equipment at home. FrontStreet Coffee would like to remind everyone that once coffee beans are ground into powder, the contact area between coffee particles and air increases, accelerating degassing and causing flavor compounds to dissipate. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that friends with the means at home should purchase whole beans and grind fresh before brewing to experience better flavors.

After brewing, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling displays sweet herbal notes, cinnamon-like spices, and citrus peel aromas. The mouthfeel is rich and full-bodied with caramel-like sweetness, and as the temperature slightly drops, intense sweet melon notes emerge.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473