Mandheling Coffee Bean Flavor Profile Guide: Understanding the Taste Characteristics of Mandheling Coffee

The coffee wave has unconsciously developed into its fourth wave. Since 2004, specialty coffee has conquered one café after another with its unique fruit bomb style, winning over wave after wave of coffee drinkers. Despite the arrival of the fourth wave of specialty coffee, some coffee enthusiasts still remain and indulge in the robust flavors of the second coffee wave. Among these, the FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee beans from Indonesia's Sumatra have been spreading their fragrance for more than half a century since the 1960s.

Even though FrontStreet Coffee's bean shelf displays several equally rich, aromatic, and low-acidity coffee beans such as FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Queen Estate Sun-Dried Yellow Bourbon, FrontStreet Coffee's Papua New Guinea Washed Typica, and FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, there are always coffee connoisseurs who prefer to choose Indonesia's PWN FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling.

The Unique Characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling

The characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling have always highlighted its unique sweetness through its distinctive bitterness, much like the bitterness and sweetness in life. FrontStreet Coffee has heard friends describe the experience of drinking FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling with this idiom: sweetness comes after bitterness. Of course, understanding this bitterness and sweetness requires some training to fully appreciate its charm.

The Historical Origins of Sumatra Coffee

The reason Indonesia's Sumatra can produce uniquely styled FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee beans is inseparable from a period of European colonial history. Coffee seeds were often secretly smuggled out from Africa and then transplanted to colonies. At the end of the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company transplanted Arabica coffee trees from India to Java Island. Thanks to the harmonious combination of heaven, earth, and people, coffee quickly took root in Java and spread to Sumatra and Sulawesi islands.

In the early 20th century, the outbreak of coffee leaf rust disease caused devastating damage to the coffee trees on Java Island, forcing a switch to cultivating the more disease-resistant Robusta coffee trees. Today, Indonesia has become a major coffee-producing country, with some regions growing first-class Arabica coffee beans. People commonly refer to the Arabica coffee beans produced on Sumatra Island as Mandheling coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Varieties

On FrontStreet Coffee's bean shelf, you can find two types of Mandheling coffee beans: one is PWN FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, and the other is FrontStreet Coffee Lintong Mandheling from the daily bean series. They respectively represent the traditional and new flavors of Sumatran Mandheling coffee.

The traditional Mandheling producing region is in the Lintong area south of Lake Toba in North Sumatra Province. The locally distinctive wet-hulling processing method gives FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling a heavy mouthfeel, with herbal plant notes like camphor and pine, along with chocolate and caramel aromas.

It wasn't until 1924 that the Aceh region of North Sumatra introduced Arabica coffee trees from North Sumatra Province. Subsequently, coffee production in the Aceh region gradually surpassed that of the traditional Lintong producing area. With global warming, the area suitable for coffee cultivation in the traditional Lintong region may significantly decrease or even disappear by 2050. As for the Aceh region, it may become the winner in this climate change, replacing the status of the Lintong region.

Flavor Differences and Processing Methods

Although both are called "Mandheling," they have subtle differences in flavor profiles. For instance, Mandheling from the Aceh region has a brighter flavor and mouthfeel, with less intense herbal notes. Of course, this is closely related to the methods and rules used to produce Mandheling coffee beans in both regions.

Due to Sumatra's abundant year-round rainfall, high temperatures, and humidity, using the sun-drying method could cause coffee cherries to become ruined by rain exposure or even over-fermentation. Additionally, the washed processing method requires sufficient water sources and capital investment, making it difficult to implement under limited economic conditions. Therefore, the wet-hulling processing method emerged.

After removing the pulp from selected coffee cherries, the parchment beans with their sticky mucilage are briefly washed and then placed in water tanks for a short fermentation period. The longer the fermentation time, the more pronounced the acidity. Some processing plants or estates, aiming to create FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee beans with extremely low acidity, may even skip the fermentation step entirely, directly spreading the parchment beans evenly to dry. This approach suppresses acidity while enhancing the viscosity of the mouthfeel.

The Wet-Hulling Process

When the parchment beans reach a semi-dry, semi-wet state, the outer parchment layer is removed. As an important protective layer for green coffee beans, the parchment is removed before complete drying, leaving the green coffee beans directly exposed to air, accelerating the entire drying process.

During the hulling process, significant friction occurs between green coffee beans and between beans and machinery, generating excessive heat that may cause rapid aging of the green coffee beans, resulting in special aromas like wood and earth.

PWN's Strict Quality Standards

Building on this foundation, PWN implements strict standards in producing Golden Mandheling, selecting only the highest grade G1 beans that are 18 screen size or larger with fewer than 3 defective beans (per 300g sample). Then, three rounds of manual hand-picking ensure complete removal of defective beans, resulting in a cleaner coffee taste and stronger sweetness for FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling.

From the word "Golden" in Golden Mandheling alone, one can feel that every Golden Mandheling bean is hard-won, and its production is even rarer. Therefore, the price is higher than regular Mandheling coffee beans. Some merchants have noticed this gap, using G1 grade Mandheling coffee beans and taking the same three-round manual hand-picking steps, selling them under the name "Golden Mandheling."

FrontStreet Coffee's Expert Blind Tasting

FrontStreet Coffee has obtained multiple Golden Mandheling coffee beans from the market for blind tasting. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas can accurately identify FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling among various "Golden Mandheling" options. This is because the taste of FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling is incomparable to other Golden Mandheling varieties.

Roasting Profile and Brewing Recommendations

With the development of the third wave of specialty coffee, people have come to prefer sweet and sour coffee. However, FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling, as a top coffee from the second wave, impresses with its low acidity and full body.

Of course, as people pursue lighter roasting degrees and more original regional terroir, some have applied light roasting to Mandheling coffee beans, wanting to change the public's impression of Mandheling coffee characteristics. When FrontStreet Coffee developed the roasting curve for FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, to express the classic Mandheling's herbal, dark chocolate flavors and full body, they decided to use a medium-dark roast level.

Due to the darker roast level of FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using lower water temperature and coarser grinding during brewing to avoid over-extraction, paired with a KONO dripper to enhance the fullness of the mouthfeel.

Brewing Parameters

Dripper: KONO
Water Temperature: 88°C
Coffee Amount: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: 70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve

The KONO dripper has a smooth inner wall surface with 12 short ribs at the bottom for backflow. During brewing, the wet filter paper completely adheres to the wall, reducing air flow space. The water flow is slow, prolonging the contact time between coffee grounds and hot water, adding to the full mouthfeel. Therefore, it is suitable for brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans like FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee.

First, pour 30g of hot water for a 30-second bloom. Then, starting from the center, pour with a fine stream and slowly circle to 125g. When the water level in the dripper drops to about to expose the coffee bed, continue circling and pouring to 225g. Total extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473