An Introduction to Sumatra Coffee Origin, Is Sumatra Coffee Good, and Characteristics of Sumatra Mandheling Coffee

In the past, people mostly pursued rich, full-bodied coffee, but nowadays, many prefer the floral and fruity acidic flavors of Ethiopian coffee. However, this hasn't changed the fact that Mandheling coffee remains the world's most full-bodied coffee.

Mandheling coffee is one of FrontStreet Coffee's staple beans, with the Golden Mandheling being the most popular. Mandheling coffee gives people a sense of substance and reliability, yet it's full of character, especially the Golden Mandheling, which seems to unleash masculine charm. Sumatran Mandheling, with its rich coffee flavor, has been the favorite of coffee connoisseurs since the beginning of coffee's popularity. The coffee grown in Sumatra's environment and soil is rich in woody tones and full-bodied texture, with restrained flavors and lively yet moderate acidity, featuring unique notes of herbal medicine, cedar, cocoa, and fermented fruits. Among these, Mandheling represents the most classic coffee bean variety, accounting for only 25% of Arabica coffee species produced in Indonesia, offering a wonderful classic taste with rich flavor, body and lively, vibrant dynamics, yet without astringency or excessive acidity, fully expressing its richness and bitterness.

Sumatra Coffee Origins

Indonesia, located in Southeast Asia, has a coffee history dating back to 1696, when Dutch coffee farm owners sought broader coffee cultivation areas. After extensive exploration, they finally settled on Java Island in Indonesia. Over 30 years, Indonesia established a sufficient foundation in the coffee market.

However, today's representative of Indonesian coffee is Mandheling from Sumatra, which is actually not surprising, because much of the Java coffee originally exported to Europe came from the Sumatra region, and Mandheling originates from Sumatra. Therefore, Sumatra can be considered an important coffee production area in Indonesia.

Sumatra coffee is produced in Sumatra, Indonesia, and is also known as "Sumatra Coffee." The main production areas include Java Island, Sulawesi Island, and Sumatra Island, with 90% being Robusta varieties. Among these, the "Mandheling" from Sumatra Island is the most famous. The finest traditional Arabica coffee produced in northern Sumatra is marketed as Lintong and Mandheling. Specifically, Lintong refers to coffee grown in a small area southwest of Lake Toba in the Lintong administrative region. Coffee smallholdings are scattered across a high, undulating clay plateau covered with ferns. Lintong coffee is grown without shade, without chemicals, and is almost entirely owned by small private owners. Mandheling is a broader term that includes Lintong coffee and similar growing conditions in Diari (with Sidikalang as its capital) and the northern Lake Toba growing areas.

Sumatra's coffee is very complex and elusive. Although Sumatra Island is large, not the entire island produces coffee. Coffee trees are extensively grown only in the two northernmost of the island's eight provinces - Aceh Province and North Sumatra Province: Aceh coffee is mainly produced in the Gayo Mountain area around Lake Tawar, where farmers are mostly local Gayo indigenous people; while North Sumatra Province coffee is primarily produced in the Lake Toba area (the world's largest supercaldera) and the southern Lintong area, where local farmers are mostly composed of Batak indigenous people.

Aceh is located at the northwesternmost tip of the Indonesian archipelago. Because it lies on both sides of the equator, it has a typical tropical equatorial marine climate, hot as summer all year round, with an average annual temperature of about 27°C. It's hot and rainy, with high precipitation. From October to March of the following year, influenced by Asian and Pacific air currents, it's Indonesia's rainy season with abundant rainfall and cool climate. From April to October, influenced by the continental air currents from Australia, with less moisture brought by air currents, the climate becomes dry and hot, considered the dry season.

Lintong Mandheling

Lintong Mandheling is produced in the Lintong mountainous area of north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba, where the elevation is 1400-1800 meters, and the varieties are Jember, Garundang Typica, and Ateng. Specialty Mandheling produced in the Lintong region has larger bean particles and harder bean quality.

Indonesian coffee quality is very diverse, but the Mandheling we usually refer to is Typica or its variants grown in the mountainous areas around Lake Toba. Coffee connoisseurs from around the world have commented: "Sumatran Mandheling coffee is the world's most textured coffee." Mandheling coffee beans are larger in size and harder in quality. Because they have more defects, they require strict selection during coffee processing.

Lake Tawar is located in the Gayo mountainous area of northern Aceh Province in Sumatra Island. It is a crater lake left behind from a volcanic eruption millions of years ago, with a lake surface elevation of 1,100 meters. Due to early transportation difficulties, coffee cultivation only began in the 1930s. Coffee is grown at altitudes of 1,200-1,600 meters, mostly using traditional shade cultivation. Natural morning mist and cool clouds, midday sunshine, and frequent afternoon showers create a natural microclimate and volcanic soil that is quite suitable for coffee bean cultivation. Coffee beans produced here are large and emerald green, so they are called "Emerald Mandheling" by Taiwanese coffee connoisseurs, and internationally they are more commonly known as Lake Tawar Mandheling.

Golden Mandheling Coffee

The famous PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans in the specialty coffee world are produced from the Gayo mountains of Aceh. Unlike ordinary Mandheling coffee beans, although Golden Mandheling represents specialty Mandheling coffee beans, it is also a registered trademark of PWN (P.W.N. Indonesia), so only Golden Mandheling coffee beans produced by PWN company can be considered true Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

PWN company has strict selection standards for the Golden Mandheling coffee beans sold to the public. The company only selects Mandheling coffee beans that are 18 mesh or larger, with fewer than 3 defective beans (in a 300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a darker green color and regular flat bean shape. After processing, the green beans undergo density and color sorting, followed by manual bean selection. After a total of four careful selections, PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans present uniform color and consistent bean shape. It is said that during green bean processing, Mandheling green beans emit a golden luster under sunlight, hence the name PWN Golden Mandheling.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Varieties

As early as 1658, the Netherlands transplanted descendants of "European Typica mother plants" to Sri Lanka, unfortunately, the cultivation failed. Later in 1699, the Netherlands transplanted Malabar coffee trees from eastern India to Java. This trial cultivation was successful, and Typica grew steadily in Java. In 1718, the Netherlands transplanted the successfully trial-cultivated Typica from Java to Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. After more than a century of propagation, just as Indonesian Typica was at its peak, a leaf rust epidemic swept through most of Indonesia's Typica at the end of the 19th century. Later, more disease-resistant varieties like Robusta had to be introduced.

Mandheling coffee bean varieties are usually Timtim and Ateng, which carry Robusta genes. In fact, timtim is Timor, an Arabica variety with Robusta bloodlines, while Ateng is Catimor, a hybrid of Caturra and Catimor. Because the varieties all contain Robusta coffee bean genes, combined with low cultivation altitude that cannot create strong day-night temperature differences to allow coffee beans to develop more refined flavors, both TimTim and Ateng naturally carry unique herbal, woody incense, and spice flavors.

Mandheling's Unique Wet Hulling Process

Due to Indonesia's local weather being predominantly rainy with constant typhoons and year-round humidity and rain, it's impossible to achieve the good weather required for sun-drying. Although the local economy is also limited, making the more expensive water washing method unfeasible, the uniquely local wet hulling method was eventually developed. The wet hulling process is characterized by staged, rapid drying and hulling while the parchment is still moist. Teacher Han Huaizong described it as "this is also a rare processing method in the world, which accidentally created Mandheling's special low acidity, thickness, and mellow aroma."

Wet hulling is a rapid method for processing coffee beans. The coffee cherry's skin and pulp are removed, briefly fermented, then dried, followed by removal of mucilage and parchment layers, continuing with the final drying until moisture content reaches 12%. Wet-hulled Mandheling coffee beans clearly show varying degrees of compression and cracking, with bean color leaning toward dark green. Because this method shortens drying time to only two to four days, the fermentation period of coffee beans is shortened, acidity is significantly reduced, while thickness increases correspondingly, with obvious caramel and fruit aromas, even carrying herbal or grassy scents and woody smells, thus forming Sumatra's unique regional flavor.

Defects and Kuku Kambing (Goat Hoof Beans)

Mandheling coffee beans have another characteristic: goat hoof beans. These are not defective beans. This occurs during the wet hulling process when the coffee's moisture content is still as high as 20-24%, whereas in regular processing methods, coffee moisture content drops to 10-12% before hulling. In this "semi-dry" state, parchment tends to adhere to the surface of green beans, making hulling more difficult than with "fully dry" beans, requiring greater friction force during the hulling process. On the other hand, "semi-dry" green coffee beans are very fragile at this point, with hardness far below that of "fully dry" green beans, so beans are more easily compressed and damaged, forming small gaps. This is what we commonly call horse hoof or goat hoof beans (locally known as kuku kambing).

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Brewing Parameters:

In FrontStreet Coffee's daily brewing of medium-dark roasted Mandheling, we generally use a KONO dripper. The KONO dripper makes the coffee's mouthfeel more rounded and full-bodied, with flavor expression more direct. However, the KONO dripper has relatively poor exhaust efficiency because its ribs are straight and only one-quarter of the dripper's depth, forming a sealed state where the upper three-quarters of the dripper closely adhere to the wall.

Using KONO dripper: Water temperature: 88°C, Coffee amount: 15 grams, Water ratio: 1:15, Grind size: Medium-fine grind (75% pass rate on China standard #20 sieve)

Adopting three-stage extraction, use twice the coffee powder amount for blooming, that is, 30 grams of water for 30 seconds of blooming. The reason for the blooming process is to allow the coffee powder to release internal carbon dioxide gas, making the later extraction more stable. With small water flow, pour in circles until 125 grams, then segment and continue pouring to 225 grams before stopping. Wait for the water in the dripper to finish dripping, then remove the dripper. Start timing from the beginning of pouring, with extraction time of 2'00". Next, pick up the entire cup of coffee and shake it evenly, then pour into cups for tasting.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling flavor characteristics: Multi-layered, full-bodied and clean, high balance, rich nut and caramel aromas, with chocolate notes, and a persistent aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling flavor characteristics: Herbal medicine notes on entry, dark chocolate, caramel, sweet aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Suggestions:

Regarding coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans greatly affects coffee flavor. Therefore, coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all within 5 days of roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's precisely when the flavor is at its best.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee gently reminds: if coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide produced in the package can also make the coffee flavor more rounded, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the coffee powder. However, coffee powder needs to be brewed promptly, because coffee powder oxidizes relatively quickly after contact with air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate more quickly, and the coffee's flavor won't be as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing, so you can better taste the coffee's flavor.

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