Differences Between Mandheling Coffee and Sumatra Coffee - What Variety is PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean

The Origin and Identity of Mandheling Coffee

Mandheling coffee enjoys immense popularity in Asia. Its unique herbal flavors and rich, full-bodied texture are deeply cherished by coffee connoisseurs. In the eyes of many, Mandheling coffee is almost synonymous with Sumatran coffee, Indonesian coffee, or even Arabica coffee. So what exactly is the difference between Mandheling coffee and Sumatran coffee? What variety are Mandheling coffee beans? Let FrontStreet Coffee help clarify these questions for you.

Indonesian Coffee Origins

First, let's focus our attention on Indonesia. As we all know, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic country. Coffee cultivation began in Indonesia in the 18th century when Arabica coffee varieties were introduced from the Netherlands, with the first exports completed by the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century. Today, Indonesia is one of the world's major coffee-producing countries, with three main coffee-growing regions: Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. These regions all possess excellent coffee-growing conditions, and each island has developed its own unique coffee based on its climate and topography. In terms of coffee procurement, Indonesia is by far the most diverse and challenging region, as well as one of the most complex coffee-producing areas in terms of varieties.

The Story Behind Mandheling Coffee

Mandheling coffee originates from Indonesia's largest island—Sumatra. Mandheling is named after the Mandailing people of North Sumatra—this is an ethnic group, not a place name, bean variety name, or port name, which differs from most coffee naming conventions. The story begins during Japan's colonial occupation of Indonesia in World War II. Legend has it that a Japanese officer tasted an exceptionally delicious coffee locally and asked the shopkeeper what kind of coffee it was. However, the shopkeeper mistakenly thought the officer was asking about his ethnicity and replied "Mandailing." After returning to Japan, the officer couldn't forget the Indonesian coffee and entrusted a local Indonesian coffee trader to collect it for him. Unexpectedly, it became immensely popular. However, due to the officer's mispronunciation, "Mandailing" became "Mandheling." By this fortunate mistake, Mandheling became the name of this coffee. And that Indonesian coffee vendor was the founder of what is now the renowned PWN Mandheling company.

The Distinction Between Mandheling and Sumatran Coffee

At this point, everyone should understand the difference between Mandheling coffee and Sumatran coffee. Mandheling coffee is just one type of coffee bean produced in Sumatra. It's only because Mandheling coffee grows in Sumatra and has gained significant fame that people often refer to them together as Sumatran Mandheling coffee.

Mandheling Coffee Varieties

So what coffee variety is Mandheling coffee exactly? Taking FrontStreet Coffee's current Mandheling offerings as an example, FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling, Sumatra Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling, Tiger Mandheling, and Aged Mandheling are all of the Typica variety. Today, Sumatran Typica is mainly distributed around Lake Toba and the Lintong region. Traditional Mandheling refers specifically to Lintong Mandheling, which are Typica and its variant coffees grown in the area north of Lake Toba.

Regular customers who purchase FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling may have noticed that the new harvest's Golden Mandheling coffee has changed from the original Typica bean variety to the less familiar "Ateng." So what coffee variety is "Ateng"? Actually, this is the local Indonesian name for Catimor coffee. Regarding Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee wants to share some knowledge with everyone: the true "Golden Mandheling," also known as "Golden Mandheling," has been registered as a trademark by Indonesia's Paniwangi Coffee Company (PWN), making Golden Mandheling an exclusive brand under PWN. Golden Mandheling is not a grade, nor is it relatively clean beans among Mandheling green coffee beans. It's called PWN Golden Mandheling because of its irreplaceable texture and flavor.

Each batch of PWN brand's Golden Mandheling, like genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, comes with a certificate of production, with batch numbers matching those on the burlap sacks.

We mentioned PWN company's founding story earlier; now PWN Coffee Company is a famous coffee procurement institution in Indonesia and an expert in sourcing and producing high-quality Mandheling coffee globally. Almost all the best coffee beans from Sumatra Island are purchased by this company. FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is procured from PWN company.

Golden Mandheling vs. Other Mandheling Varieties

So what's the difference between Golden Mandheling and other Mandheling coffees? Compared to other types of Mandheling, Golden Mandheling coffee beans have stricter selection requirements. After one machine selection, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling undergoes three additional manual hand-sortings to ensure defect rates in the green coffee beans are minimized, with full, uniform-sized beans. It is precisely because of such strict requirements that Frontsteet's Golden Mandheling has an exceptionally rich, clean texture. Of course, it still maintains the traditional herbal flavors of Mandheling coffee, but compared to the counterfeit "Golden Mandheling" on the market, its texture is smoother with a strong sweet aftertaste. The difficult-to-remove herbal, or rather, earthy flavors are actually inseparable from Mandheling coffee's processing method.

Wet Hulling Processing Method

Wet hulling or Giling Basah is a unique coffee processing method in Indonesia. Although it sounds similar to the most common coffee processing type, wet processing, it's actually quite different. Wet hulling as a processing method has two driving factors: moisture and money. Indonesia's humid climate makes it difficult to dry coffee for extended periods. So local coffee farmers adopted the faster wet hulling method to process coffee beans. This way, coffee beans can be brought to market more quickly and also reduce water usage compared to traditional processing methods.

Wet Hulling Processing Steps:

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

Of course, besides Typica and Catimor, Mandheling coffee also has other bean varieties, such as: Jember (Indonesian-localized S795), Tim Tim (also called Tim Tim by locals), and others.

Brewing Perfect Mandheling Coffee

Good Mandheling coffee will have quality herbal aromas, stronger caramel sweetness, relatively calm and elegant fruit acidity, rich sweetness, and thick, wild spice flavors. How to enhance Mandheling's advantages? Besides roasting, FrontStreet Coffee believes attention should be paid to the brewing method. Below is FrontStreet Coffee's brewing method for Golden Mandheling:

Dripper: KONO
Water Temperature: 88°C
Grind Size: Medium-coarse
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Roast Level: Medium-dark roast

Brewing Technique: First pour 30g of water for a 30s bloom. Pour to 120g and stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g. Wait until all water has filtered through, then remove the dripper. Extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

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 on WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473