Have You Tried These Mandheling Varieties?

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Origin of the Name "Mandheling"

Legend has it that during World War II when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier drank an exceptionally fragrant and mellow coffee at a coffee shop. He asked the shop owner for the coffee's name, but the owner mistakenly thought he was asking about his origin, so he replied: "Mandailing."

After the war, the Japanese soldier recalled the "Mandheling" he had drunk in Indonesia, so he commissioned an Indonesian coffee merchant to ship 15 tons to Japan, which surprisingly became very popular. The name Mandheling thus spread, and that coffee merchant is now the renowned PWN (Pwani Coffee Company).

Classification and Characteristics of Mandheling

Traditionally, we collectively refer to Arabica coffee from Sumatra as Mandheling. In reality, the Mandheling available on the market is divided into the following types:

FrontStreet Coffee's Lindu Mandheling

Sumatra is known as the Spice Island, where mountain tribes live amidst lush green mountains and forests, coexisting with tigers, rhinos, vampire bats, cloves, cardamom, and pepper. They use a unique three-stage drying method to process coffee beans, creating the distinctive flavor of semi-sun-dried Mandheling.

From this, we can understand the drying process of Lindu Mandheling. Due to farmers' lack of equipment, a three-stage division of labor drying method is adopted by farmers, middlemen, and exporters. The unique herbal fragrance and deep woody aroma of Mandheling are all due to the high humidity and the three-stage drying of the mucilage layer. This is also a rare processing method worldwide, creating Mandheling's special low acidity, thickness, and mellow aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling

When it comes to "Gold Mandheling," we must start with the aforementioned PWN. This abbreviation is often mixed with the name Mandheling coffee, but it's actually the abbreviation for a company - Pwani Coffee Company.

This company is a very famous coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, mainly acquiring Mandheling coffee. Almost all the best producing areas in Indonesia are acquired by them, so most of the beans from PWN are unique specialty coffees.

Gold Mandheling is a product produced by this company. After acquiring the raw beans, they undergo multiple manual selections to pick out full, defect-free beans. Only these "idol practice beans" that seemingly experience layer-by-layer screening like talent shows can be classified as Gold Mandheling.

However, PWN has registered Gold Mandheling as a trademark, meaning that only Gold Mandheling produced by PWN can be considered genuine "Gold Mandheling" in the future. Many products on the market not from PWN but labeled as Gold Mandheling should actually be called Specialty Mandheling. "Gold Mandheling" is not some aged coffee bean, but simply a product named by the company.

Differences Between FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling:

The sweetness, cleanliness, thickness, and wild spice-based flavor of FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling are slightly superior to FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling G1, which is one of the reasons why Gold Mandheling is much more expensive than G1.

Mandheling requires layer-by-layer screening because the probability of defective beans is too high. Additionally, their appearance is quite unattractive, sometimes even good beans look like defective ones. Every time I sort Mandheling, I can pick out a handful of defective beans, but when I look back at the defective beans, I feel they actually can't be considered defective. However, roasted Mandheling is like a caterpillar breaking out of its cocoon to become a butterfly - the roasted beans are very full. Meanwhile, the defect rate of Gold Mandheling is only 2%, very beautiful.

Aceh Region Mandheling

Aceh region Mandheling, also known as Gold of Aceh, is cultivated with guidance from personnel from the famous La Minita estate in Costa Rica. Because La Minita's exquisite semi-washed processing technique is used, besides thickness, the flavor also has La Minita's classic fruity sweetness. It belongs to the new type of Mandheling -原来 Mandheling can also be very fruity~

Gayo Mountain Mandheling

Gayo Mountain Mandheling is over 80% Typica variety. Unlike other regions in Indonesia that mix several types of beans for sale, the raw beans appear more uniform in size. Gayo Mountain is located in the highest altitude mountainous area of Aceh Province. Although the raw beans have lower acidity than other producing areas, their unique acidity and superior balance make them the highest quality specialty coffee among Indonesian coffees.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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