Mandheling Coffee Pour-Over Brewing Method Temperature Parameter Recommendations How to Brew Mandheling Coffee Beans for Better Taste

Many friends say that Mandheling coffee is unbearably bitter and wonder what makes it enjoyable, while another group of coffee connoisseurs are deeply devoted to the rich aroma of Mandheling coffee, believing that only Mandheling can be considered true coffee. In fact, as a representative of dark roast, Mandheling has always been known for its bitter profile. If someone claims it's not bitter, they're definitely lying. However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that good bitterness in coffee can actually be quite enjoyable, while those burnt or astringent bitter flavors might be caused by improper brewing. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee will now explain how to brew Mandheling coffee to bring out its nuanced flavors—bitter but not burnt.

The Key to Brewing a Good Cup of Coffee: Know Yourself and Your Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee believes that understanding coffee information is crucial for brewing. Mandheling doesn't refer to a specific coffee bean variety, nor is it a place name—it actually originated from a mistransliteration of the Mandheling tribe who grow coffee. Today, Mandheling coffee generally refers to Arabica coffee beans from North Sumatra, Indonesia.

On FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu, there are four types of Mandheling coffee: FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling, and FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will briefly introduce the differences between these four Mandheling coffees:

FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling: Mandheling coffee beans from the Lintong region, graded as G1 (the highest grade in Indonesian coffee classification), which can express the basic regional flavors of Indonesian Mandheling coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling: A product from Indonesia's PWN Coffee Company (the Golden Mandheling trademark is owned by PWN Company). Imported Golden Mandheling green beans come with a PWN Company certificate for authenticity verification. FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans are from Gayo Mountain in Aceh, graded G1, and undergo three rounds of manual selection to ensure large, full beans (19 mesh) with minimal defects. It presents a very clean, rich mouthfeel with high sweetness, representing high-quality Mandheling coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Tiger Mandheling: Produced around Lake Tawa in Aceh Province, Tiger Mandheling requires a flavor profile with traditional Chinese medicinal herb aromas, and beans must be above 17 mesh with a defect rate below 4%. It is also a high-quality Mandheling coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee's Aged Mandheling: Undergoes aging treatment, where normally processed Mandheling coffee beans are placed in temperature-controlled warehouses for 2-3 years of aging. After aging, the acidity becomes very gentle, caramel sweetness becomes pronounced, the mouthfeel becomes rounder and easier to drink, similar to aged Pu-erh tea.

Mandheling Characteristics: Wet Hulling Process Enhances Mouthfeel

Wet hulling is a unique coffee processing method in Indonesia, an adaptive approach suitable for Indonesia's rainy and humid climate. The wet hulling process starts with washed processing, where coffee beans with parchment are dried to a semi-dry state, then the parchment is removed before further drying. The advantage is that it significantly shortens drying time, greatly reducing the coffee's acidity while noticeably increasing body, bringing out caramel aromas with a hint of fresh herbal fragrance.

How Should Mandheling Coffee Be Brewed?

FrontStreet Coffee's approach to brewing Mandheling coffee aims to express a rich yet clean mouthfeel, highlighting caramel, chocolate, and its signature herbal aromatic flavors, while avoiding any unpleasant bitterness. FrontStreet Coffee will explain the equipment selection and important brewing parameters, using FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling for demonstration.

For the filter cup choice, FrontStreet Coffee selected the Kono Meimon filter cup. The biggest feature of the Kono filter cup is that its ribs extend from the bottom to the middle, with the upper portion having smooth filter walls. This way, when the filter paper adheres to the filter cup, water cannot "sneak" around the coffee powder, enhancing the richness of the mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee still uses 15g of coffee powder. More coffee powder isn't necessarily better, nor is less necessarily better—it depends on the filter cup specifications. FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1-2 person filter cup, where 15-20g is a reasonable brewing amount. Brewing with amounts outside this range can be somewhat difficult.

For the brew ratio, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 1:15. Although some might suggest using 1:13 or an even smaller ratio, FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in previous articles that concentration and body don't necessarily have a direct correlation. Moreover, excessive concentration can cause discomfort. Therefore, using a 1:15 ratio can also effectively express Mandheling's rich mouthfeel.

For coffee grind size, FrontStreet Coffee uses a grind where 70% passes through a #20 sieve. The grind size for brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling should be slightly coarser than for light roast beans because FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling uses dark roast, which has a more porous structure and more easily absorbs water to release coffee substances. If ground to the fineness of light roast beans, it can easily produce burnt bitterness; if ground even coarser, the coffee will become thin and tasteless, with a water-like consistency.

For water temperature selection, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 87-88°C water for brewing. Similar to the grind size principle, too high water temperature can easily produce burnt bitterness, while too low water temperature will make the coffee taste flat and may produce unpleasant sour flavors.

The brewing method uses a three-pour technique. Dividing the water into three pours can better express the rich mouthfeel of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling and its caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first pour 30ml for blooming, which completely wets the coffee powder for degassing to better extract flavor substances in subsequent pours; second pour 100ml; final pour 95ml to enhance the coffee's sweetness, overall expressing a substantial rich mouthfeel with caramel sweetness and chocolate, nut flavors.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473