What are the characteristics of Sumatran coffee? A brief story of Sumatran coffee. Is Mandheling Americano black coffee?

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Mandheling coffee is a premium coffee from Indonesia and also synonymous with Indonesian coffee. At FrontStreet Coffee, Mandheling coffee is featured as the representative Indonesian coffee in the daily bean selection, serving as an introductory bean for everyone to understand Indonesian coffee. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee also offers Indonesia's premium Golden Mandheling coffee.

Indonesian coffee beans are relatively large, hard in texture, and have a rich, mellow flavor. In fact, Mandheling coffee is neither a place name, region name, nor coffee variety name, but rather a mispronunciation of the Mandheling ethnic group who originally inhabited Sumatra. Of course, the origin of this name is also a beautiful legendary misunderstanding. During Japan's occupation of Indonesia in World War II, a Japanese soldier tasted an incredibly aromatic coffee at a café. When he asked the owner for the coffee's name, due to language barriers, the owner mistakenly thought he was asking where he was from, and replied: "Mandailing." After the war, the Japanese soldier recalled the "Mandheling" he had drunk in Indonesia and entrusted an Indonesian coffee exporter to ship 15 tons to Japan, which surprisingly became extremely popular. Since then, the name Mandheling has been passed down.

History of Sumatra Mandheling Coffee Cultivation

Sumatra is currently the second largest island in Indonesia by area, with a resident population of approximately 55 million, yet it is one of the largest producing regions on the island. The coffee production from the Sumatra region accounts for approximately 74.2% of Indonesia's total, while Indonesia's second largest producing region accounts for only 12% of the national production. However, Indonesia was not originally the origin of coffee; instead, it was imported to the island by the Dutch government during the early colonial period after conquering the Portuguese. Two centuries later, during the height of World War II, to address local food security issues, large amounts of coffee crops were replaced by agricultural crops such as rice, corn, and cassava. In 1950, local coffee production was only one-eighth of pre-war levels. However, since then, coffee crops have become a pillar of the local economy.

Indonesian Sumatra Coffee Regions

Sumatra is not only Indonesia's largest island but also the world's sixth-largest island. It is located in the northwestern region of Indonesia. Extending from northwest to southeast, the equator passes through its center. The terrain is higher in the northwest, with the Barisan Mountains running through it, primarily growing Arabica varieties, making it the main production area for Mandheling. The southeast is lower, mostly flat or marshland, primarily growing Robusta varieties. The entire island has over 90 volcanoes and numerous volcanic lakes, providing fertile soil for coffee growth. Due to its geographical location, Sumatra has the country's earliest harvest season—from November to March.

Mandheling coffee is produced in Sumatra, Asia Indonesia, also known as "Sumatra coffee." The main producing areas include Java Island, Sulawesi Island, and Sumatra Island, with 90% being Robusta varieties. Among these, the "Mandheling" produced on Sumatra Island is the most famous. The finest traditional Arabica coffees grown in northern Sumatra are marketed under the names Lintong and Mandheling. More precisely, Lintong refers to coffee grown in a small area in the Lintong administrative district southwest of Lake Toba. Coffee smallholdings are scattered across a high, wavy, fern-covered clay plateau. Lintong coffee is non-shade grown, without chemical use, and almost entirely owned by small private holders. Mandheling is a broader term that includes Lintong coffee and similar conditions in Diari [capital Sidikalang] and the northern Lake Toba growing areas.

Lintong Mandheling comes from the Lintong mountainous area in north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. Lintong Mandheling is the regular version of Sumatra Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean Mandheling coffee is Lintong Mandheling coffee.

Lake Toba, located in the central part of North Sumatra Province. In 1888, Dutch colonialists moved "Java Mandheling" north to the Lake Toba region, establishing the modern Mandheling legend.

Lake Tawar, located in the central part of the Aceh Special Autonomous Region. Situated at the northern tip of Sumatra Island, its area is less than one-tenth of Lake Toba.

Currently, the highest quality beans from the entire Sumatra region come from the GAYO mountain area, mostly grown from old tree varieties. The Gayo mountains are located in the Aceh region of northern Sumatra province, with elevations between 1500-2500 meters. Most coffee farmers are local natives—the GAYO people. This region has ideal conditions for coffee growth—high altitude, fertile soil, abundant rainfall, Lake Tawar provides rich water resources, and the area widely adopts organic methods for coffee cultivation without chemical fertilizers, making it considered a world green coffee production region. Therefore, Gayo coffee is often called green coffee or Gayo organic coffee.

Golden Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's new season Golden Mandheling comes from GAYO Mountain in Aceh, North Sumatra. It is Golden Mandheling coffee beans from PWN company. Golden Mandheling has stricter quality requirements—first, it must ensure that the coffee beans are size 19, full and uniform, belonging to the highest grade G1. PWN beans are darker green in color and have a regular flat shape. Next, they undergo one machine selection and three manual hand selections to ensure that defective beans are fewer than 3 (in a 300g raw bean sample).

What Variety is Mandheling Coffee?

Mandheling variety—Typica. As early as 1658, the Dutch transplanted descendants of "European Typica mother plants" to Sri Lanka, unfortunately, the cultivation failed. Later in 1699, the Dutch transplanted Malabar coffee trees from eastern India to Java. This trial cultivation succeeded, and Typica grew steadily in Java. In 1718, the Dutch transplanted the successfully trial-grown Typica from Java to Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. After more than a century of cultivation, just as Indonesian Typica was at its peak, a leaf rust disease swept through most of Indonesia's Typica at the end of the 19th century, and later they had to introduce the more disease-resistant variety Robusta.

FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling coffee variety is listed as: Tim Tim Ateng, while Golden Mandheling coffee variety is listed as: Ateng. What variety is this? The Ateng variety is a hybrid between Arabica and Robusta, widely grown in Sumatra and other Indonesian islands. It's actually a branch of Catimor, with Ateng being the local name. What Indonesians call Tim Tim is what we call Timor. The Ateng variety is very suitable for cultivation and flavor development in the Aceh region. Due to the localized names used by Indonesian locals, we often see unfamiliar Mandheling coffee varieties—they're actually just different names for the same varieties.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Processing Method

The unique flavor of Mandheling coffee is not only related to the local climate and environment but also inseparably related to its processing method. Indonesia is located in a typical tropical rainforest climate region with frequent rainfall and short sunshine duration, making it unsuitable for sun-drying processing methods. Additionally, due to general local economic conditions, there wasn't sufficient investment in washed processing methods. Farmers thus developed this semi-washed processing method, also known as the wet-hulling method. This is a rare processing method worldwide, accidentally creating Mandheling's special low-acidity, thick, and mellow flavor characteristics.

How to Brew Mandheling Coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee has shared with everyone the relationship between coffee bean roast levels and pour-over brewing. Light roast coffee beans and dark roast coffee beans will differ in water temperature and filter cup selection. Golden Mandheling coffee is a dark roast bean, so water temperature should not be too high, and a Kono dripper should be chosen. The lower water temperature is because we don't want to extract too many undesirable flavors. When FrontStreet Coffee chooses dark roasting, many aromatic substances have already been released. If we continue to extract with light roast water temperatures, it will lead to over-extraction. FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono dripper because the V60 dripper's flow rate is too fast, and under low water temperature conditions, it's easy to under-extract. The Kono dripper has few ribs located at the bottom, and the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, which can restrict airflow, increase the contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the mellow texture.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling Brewing Parameters:

Water temperature: 88°C, Coffee amount: 15g, Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, Grind size: Medium-fine (75% pass-through rate with #20 sieve).

Using segmented extraction, bloom with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds—that is, bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. The reason for blooming is to allow the coffee grounds to release internal carbon dioxide gas, making the later extraction more stable. With a small water flow, pour in circles to 125g, then continue pouring to 225g and stop. Remove the dripper once the water has finished dripping. Start timing from the beginning of pouring—extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the entire cup of coffee and shake it evenly before pouring it into a cup for tasting.

[PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Flavor]: The coffee has multiple layers of complexity, is rich and clean, with intense nutty and caramel aromas, chocolate notes, a persistent finish, and high balance.

How to Make Mandheling Americano?

Americano coffee can be considered the simplest espresso-based drink because it consists of only two parts: espresso and water, with iced Americano adding ice cubes. However, don't take Americano lightly—the simplest parts are often the most technically challenging. Americano coffee is often the most revealing of a barista's espresso extraction skills among espresso drinks.

Compared to milk coffees like lattes, Americano, lacking the influence of milk on coffee flavor, best reveals the taste of the coffee beans themselves. Many barista friends choose Americano when visiting other cafés—first for convenience and speed, and second to know the quality level.

Getting back to the topic, we just said that making Americano is simple, with only water and espresso as components, so you just need to pour espresso into water. The espresso component needs to be extracted according to the bean's characteristics—different beans have different extraction parameters. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's stores use a "Warm Sun Blend"—60% sherry barrel coffee beans mixed with 40% natural Yirgacheffe. Daily, baristas must adjust based on the bean's condition. To highlight the sherry barrel flavor, they've chosen an extraction plan using 20g of coffee beans to extract 40g of coffee liquid in 27-28 seconds.

When making hot Americano, you need to preheat the cup with hot water, then pour in hot water, and finally pour the extracted espresso. The Americano ratio is generally between 1:6 to 1:8, and after multiple tests, FrontStreet Coffee has chosen a 1:6 ratio—that is, 40g of coffee liquid mixed with 240g of hot water.

Similarly, when making iced Americano, pre-cool the cup with ice cubes, then pour in water, and finally pour in the espresso. Because ice cubes need to be added, FrontStreet Coffee's iced Americano uses a 1:7 ratio—40g of coffee liquid mixed with 280g of ice-water mixture, with 180g of ice cubes and 100g of water.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473