Tiger Mandheling Coffee Flavor and Brewing Guide - Tiger Mandheling Bean Characteristics & Story

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The most distinctive feature of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee is its rich herbal flavor, which some love and others dislike. FrontStreet Coffee approaches coffee with an objective perspective, focusing on whether the coffee bean's flavor accurately reflects the characteristics of its growing region—this is what FrontStreet Coffee values most.

Whenever FrontStreet Coffee introduces a new coffee bean, extensive comparative analysis of coffee growing regions is conducted behind the scenes to identify the coffee bean that best represents its regional flavor characteristics. Some might ask, aren't the unselected coffee beans just also-rans? FrontStreet Coffee doesn't see it this way. Extensive comparison of coffee growing regions doesn't necessarily mean all coffee beans must be listed; rather, it helps us form a profound understanding of regional characteristics. This is also the philosophy that FrontStreet Coffee has consistently conveyed to everyone.

Returning to Mandheling coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee currently offers five Mandheling coffees with distinct flavor profiles: FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Lindong Mandheling (representing the most classic Mandheling flavor), FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling (achieves clean cup profile through multiple manual screenings), FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling (featuring pine aroma), FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling (the richest in body), and FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Process Mandheling (distinct from traditional Mandheling with fruit acidity notes). Each FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee bean has its unique characteristics. Whether in FrontStreet Coffee's Guangzhou store or online Taobao shop, the fifty-plus coffee beans displayed all possess distinct flavor personalities. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will primarily discuss FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesia Tiger Mandheling

Country: Indonesia
Region: Sumatra
Altitude: 1,500 meters
Varieties: Caturra, Typica, Sidikalong
Processing Method: Wet Hulling

FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling grows in Indonesia, with major growing regions located on the three islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. Tiger Mandheling is produced from the Tiger Estate, hence also known as "Mandheling Tiger" or "Sumatran Tiger Mandheling." The northern part of Sumatra Island has relatively high terrain elevation, with the Aceh Province where Lake Tawar is located and North Sumatra where Lake Toba sits being the main Arabica coffee growing regions.

Lake Tawar is situated in the Gayo Highlands of northern Aceh Province, Sumatra. Indonesia, straddling both sides of the equator, has a humid tropical rainforest climate with abundant rainfall and fertile volcanic soil that provides rich nutrients for coffee. However, due to its remote location and inconvenient transportation, coffee cultivation didn't begin until 1924, mostly using traditional shade-grown, pesticide-free organic farming methods.

Because Indonesia's humidity ranges between 70-90% year-round, with annual rainfall reaching up to 2,000mm and continuous typhoons, farmers seek faster economic returns. Therefore, they use the wet hulling method: during the regular washed processing, the beans with parchment are sun-dried for 2-3 days until reaching 20-24% moisture content, then the parchment is removed. This makes the beans more susceptible to compression injuries, forming small cracks. This is what we commonly call "horse hoof" or "sheep hoof" beans, which have higher defect rates but create a rich, intense, and distinctly individual flavor profile.

Processing Method

Wet Hulling, also known as Wet Husking, is called "Giling Basah" in the local language and is the traditional Indonesian coffee processing method. Judging by name alone, Wet Hulling seems very similar to wet processing (washed method), however, these two processing methods produce completely different cupping profiles. Coffee processed using the wet hulling method typically yields a rich, intense, and distinctly individual flavor.

Wet Hulling Process Steps

① Remove skin and pulp, keeping parchment and mucilage
② Ferment in water tanks
③ Wash off mucilage
④ Sun-dry with parchment for 2-3 days until reaching 20-24% moisture content
⑤ Remove parchment
⑥ Dry green beans to 12-13% moisture content
⑦ Prepare for export

The extremely fast processing speed of wet hulling also results in higher defect rates in Mandheling coffee. At the processing plant, employees are arranged for manual defect sorting, typically including DP (Double Picked) and TP (Triple Picked). Mandheling that undergoes triple picking will have superior defect rates compared to double picking.

Coffee Varieties

The varieties of FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Tiger Mandheling are Caturra, Typica, and Sidikalong.

Caturra offers lemon or citrus acidity in flavor. In terms of sweetness, it doesn't match Typica and Bourbon, as Caturra's sweetness depends on the frequency and dosage of fertilization by growers. It has high production capacity, but maintaining productivity requires continuous fertilization and pruning, resulting in short trees with many branches. Although productivity increases, the 2-year harvest cycle and higher care costs still restrict overall yield.

Typica is the variety closest to the original species. The beans are slightly elongated, like stretched eggs, and are called Arabigo or Criollo in Central America. It has clean lemon acidity, sweet aftertaste, low resistance to leaf rust disease (making it difficult to care for), low tree yield, plus long harvest cycles (once every 2 years), resulting in limited production.

Roasting Analysis

The green beans of FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Tiger Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee acquired are plump, greenish-yellow, with good uniformity and high moisture content. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting target is medium-dark roast, aiming to eliminate excessive acidity and enhance its body and balance.

In the first batch of roasting, the dropping temperature was relatively high, with beans entering at 200°C and relatively high heat settings. During the roasting process, because these FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling beans have only medium altitude and very soft bean density, FrontStreet Coffee employed a roasting technique that extended the dehydration time with heat reduction sliding. Heat was adjusted finer when the beans reached the yellowing point, completed dehydration, and before first crack, avoiding bean surface scorching. FrontStreet Coffee chose to drop the beans 4 minutes after the end of first crack and 20 seconds before second crack, extending the caramelization reaction time to showcase its excellent cleanliness and sweetness.

Yangjia 600g Semi-Direct Flame Roaster

Heat roaster to 200°C, open damper to 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 160°C, damper unchanged. Temperature recovery point at 1'45". Maintain heat. At 5'18", bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. Reduce heat to 140°C, adjust damper to 4.

At 7'30", dehydration completed, heat reduced to 140°C. At 8'55", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'00", reduce heat to 110°C, open damper fully to 5 (heat adjustment must be very careful, not so low that crackling stops). Develop for 4'00" after first crack, drop at 203°C.

How FrontStreet Coffee Brews FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee uses the following brewing parameters: Kono dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee dose, grind size (70-75% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve).

FrontStreet Coffee considers that this FrontStreet Coffee Tiger Mandheling bean uses a relatively dark roast degree. The darker the roast, the faster the coffee compounds dissolve. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee uses lower water temperature for extraction while also using the slower-flow Kono dripper to ensure maximum extraction of coffee compounds under low-temperature conditions.

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, specifically the three-pour method. Use 30g of water for bloom, with 30s bloom time. First segment: small water flow circular pour to 125g, then stop pouring. When the liquid level drops to just about to expose the coffee bed, continue with the second segment pour, ending extraction at 225g. Total extraction time (including bloom) is 2'00".

Flavor Description

The mouthfeel is relatively balanced, with distinct cream, dark chocolate, and nut flavors.

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473