Which Tastes Better: Espresso or Mandheling Coffee? Flavor and Mouthfeel Differences Between Blended Coffee Beans

When it comes to espresso coffee, it has always been famous for its rich and smooth taste. Among the nearly one hundred single-origin coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu, Indonesian Mandheling coffee beans also share this characteristic - high thickness and smooth texture. However, Mandheling coffee beans carry unique Indonesian herbal and spice flavors. So which one tastes better, Mandheling coffee or espresso coffee? FrontStreet Coffee will tell you through this article.

What is Espresso Coffee?

First, we need to understand what espresso coffee is. Literally understood, espresso coffee means Italian coffee, which must be extracted using an espresso machine. However, the extracted liquid is espresso concentrate. Although it can be consumed directly, the flavor is too rich for most people to accept. Generally, milk needs to be added to become the common espresso coffees on the market today. For example, the espresso coffees at FrontStreet Coffee include mocha, cappuccino, and latte - all of which belong to espresso coffee.

What is Espresso Concentrate?

FrontStreet Coffee believes that if we use data to explain espresso concentrate, its water-to-coffee ratio is generally around 1:2 to 1:3. For example: 20g of extremely fine coffee powder is extracted by hot water at 90.5-96°C under about 9 bar pressure for 20-30 seconds to obtain 40g of coffee (double shot portion). This resulting 40g of coffee is called Espresso. Although espresso has a strong bitterness upon entry, careful tasting can reveal the unique aroma of coffee, along with a strong sweet aftertaste. This unique oily richness is something that single-origin coffee cannot possess.

Meanwhile, fancy coffees like latte, cappuccino, mocha, and caramel macchiato are all evolved from espresso concentrate through different proportions of milk and milk foam, further enhanced by adding various flavored syrups like caramel, chocolate sauce, and vanilla.

What is Mandheling Coffee?

So what is Indonesian Mandheling coffee? In fact, Mandheling coffee refers to single-origin coffee beans, meaning coffee beans from a single producing region. The flavor characteristics of these coffee beans are rich, fragrant, bitter, and thick, with a slight sweetness. The taste is rich and solid, with a pleasant acidity. The aroma is mellow, with moderate acidity and rich sweetness that is very intriguing. It's suitable for dark roasting, emitting a strong aroma. The characteristic taste of Mandheling coffee has always expressed its most unique sweetness through its most distinctive bitterness.

What are Single-Origin Coffee Beans?

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, there are two interpretations of traditional single-origin coffee. The most widespread one is single variety or single producing region coffee, which is a concept beneficial to growers because it can distinguish regional flavors from the source. Therefore, the current common understanding is coffee made using only coffee beans from a single country or producing region, brewed through different coffee brewing tools with appropriate grinding degree, water-to-coffee ratio, water temperature, and extraction time. We call this single-origin coffee. Tasting single-origin coffee is like tasting red wine - each single-origin coffee has its own unique charm. For example, bitterness, acidity, sweetness, thickness, plus special flavors from specific regions.

FrontStreet Coffee's menu offers nearly one hundred single-origin coffee beans to choose from, and the small blackboard at FrontStreet Coffee's store only has space for a portion of them. The producing regions of these coffee beans can be said to spread throughout the entire "coffee golden growing belt," and the coffee bean varieties are also very diverse. For some classic regions, FrontStreet Coffee has launched a daily bean series to allow beginners in specialty coffee to explore the regional terroir.

Mandheling coffee beans are produced in the Sumatra region. As stated by FrontStreet Coffee, Mandheling coffee beans are single-origin coffee beans from Indonesia. So what kind of coffee beans are used for espresso coffee?

What Coffee Beans are Used for Espresso?

Coffee lovers who regularly drink espresso coffee know that most coffee shops mainly use espresso blend coffee beans to make espresso coffee. Can single-origin coffee beans be used? The answer is yes. Currently, espresso coffee made with single-origin coffee beans is defined as "Single Origin Espresso," commonly known as SOE.

But why can't single-region single-origin coffee beans be used for espresso? Because espresso machines have a characteristic of amplifying the most prominent coffee flavors of coffee beans. For example, the main flavor of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is citrus and lemon acidity, so espresso machines will amplify its acidity. Indonesian Mandheling's main flavor is herbal and earthy with bitterness, so espresso machines will amplify the bitter flavor. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee will not use single-variety coffee beans to make espresso coffee, otherwise the resulting coffee will be very unbalanced and affect the taste. This is also why espresso coffee is mainly made with blended coffee beans.

The most important purpose of coffee blending is to maintain stable flavors and balanced taste. Because coffee fruits are always an agricultural product, their flavors will be unstable each year due to climate and environmental issues - perhaps sweeter this year, not so sweet next year. Mixing several coffee beans together can solve this problem well, at least keeping the coffee flavors tasted each year consistent.

What is the Essential Difference Between Espresso Concentrate and Single-Origin Coffee?

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee compares from the three aspects above and concludes that espresso concentrate can be single-origin coffee or not - the distinction between them comes from the different coffee beans used.

So single-origin coffee can be used to make espresso concentrate. The distinction between espresso concentrate and single-origin coffee is based on the concentration of coffee liquid extracted using an espresso machine versus coffee liquid made with other brewing methods. For example, using a siphon or pour-over to brew Mandheling coffee beans cannot be called espresso concentrate, while using fully automatic or semi-automatic coffee machines to brew Mandheling coffee beans can be called espresso concentrate.

Now, FrontStreet Coffee can answer: Mandheling and espresso cannot be simply compared as to which tastes better. If using Mandheling coffee beans to make concentrate coffee, it will likely be more bitter than concentrate coffee extracted from ordinary blended beans because Mandheling itself has strong herbal flavors and high purity thickness. But if comparing Mandheling as single-origin coffee with concentrate coffee, then concentrate coffee is definitely more bitter.

Of course, with the development of the coffee market, the choices for espresso blend coffee beans and Mandheling coffee beans have also begun to diversify. Therefore, different choices will also result in different brewed coffee flavors. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will recommend some popular espresso coffee beans and single-origin Indonesian Mandheling coffee beans currently available at FrontStreet Coffee.

Espresso Coffee Bean Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sun Blend

Flavor: Obvious fruit acidity, light berry aroma, wine fragrance, rich chocolate flavor, obvious sweet aftertaste.

Formula: Honduras Sherry : Yirgacheffe Red Cherry = 7:3

FrontStreet Coffee uses a blend of Yirgacheffe sun-dried red cherry and Honduras sherry for this blend. FrontStreet Coffee's design concept for this blend bean is that it can be used for both espresso and pour-over. When used to make espresso, it emits flavors with obvious fermented wine aroma. When tasted, the acidity of citrus and berries immediately emerges, carrying whiskey fragrance, with black chocolate in the aftertaste.

However, when brewing this Warm Sun blend coffee bean using pour-over method, the flavors are not as rich as when making espresso. After brewing, there are fermented wine aromas and a bit of citrus aroma. When tasted at high temperature, there are only obvious wine fragrance and black chocolate aftertaste. After the temperature drops, the acidity of citrus and berries will be slightly reflected. Overall, it's clean and fresh, without vanilla cream texture.

FrontStreet Coffee Specialty Blend

Flavor: Soft and slightly acidic, lightly sweet, nutty aftertaste, overall feeling is not too stimulating, peaceful, oil is moderate.

Formula: Colombia : Brazil = 3:7

FrontStreet Coffee uses Brazil and Colombia for this blend. It tastes like light roasted grass fragrance, fragrant and slightly bitter, sweet and smooth, with a refreshing aftertaste. This is because coffee beans from Colombia's Huila region have pleasant acidity, mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and rich sweetness that is very intriguing. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have comfortable bittersweet taste and are extremely smooth when entering the mouth. So the combination is simply wonderful.

FrontStreet Coffee Commercial Blend

Flavor: Caramel sweetness, nut and cocoa, black chocolate flavors, balanced sweet and sour, slightly bitter, persistent aftertaste.

Formula: Colombia : Brazil : Robusta = 3:6:1

FrontStreet Coffee uses Brazilian and Colombian coffee beans and 10% Robusta coffee beans for this blend. The taste is classic. FrontStreet Coffee thinks this blend tastes rich in oil and texture with caramel sweetness, also carrying nut and cocoa, black chocolate flavors, balanced sweet and sour, slightly bitter, with persistent aftertaste. This commercial blend, like FrontStreet Coffee's Specialty Blend, uses Colombian and Brazilian coffee beans in proportion, but the addition of Robusta provides rich oil, making the coffee texture more mellow.

FrontStreet Coffee Basic Blend

Flavor: With soft fruit acidity, caramel sweetness, nut, black chocolate flavors, smooth and thick, but taste is relatively light.

Formula: Yunnan : Brazil = 3:7

FrontStreet Coffee uses Brazil and Yunnan for this blend. FrontStreet Coffee thinks it tastes with soft fruit acidity and caramel sweetness, as well as nut, black chocolate flavors, smooth and thick, but the taste is relatively light. This is because Yunnan's natural conditions are very similar to Colombia's - high altitude, large day-night temperature difference, mellow flavor type, moderate acidity, rich and mellow taste, uniform particles, high oil content, and with fruit aroma. Its quality and texture are similar to Colombian coffee. But still slightly lighter in taste than Colombia's, while coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have comfortable bittersweet taste and are extremely smooth when entering the mouth. Therefore, the flavor of mixing these two coffee beans is also good, and this basic blend coffee bean has very high cost performance, suitable for espresso beginners and small coffee shops.

Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian Gold Mandheling Coffee Beans

Country: Indonesia

Region: Sumatra, Aceh, Gayo Mountain

Altitude: 1100-1600m

Variety: Ateng

Processing: Wet-hulled

Flavor: Toasted bread, nuts, pine, caramel, herbal

FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling comes from Indonesia's PWN company, produced from Gayo Mountain in Aceh, Sumatra. According to FrontStreet Coffee's cupping and brewing of this latest Gold Mandheling coffee, it was found that this PWN Gold Mandheling has more obvious toasted bread flavor and is slightly thicker in texture.

PWN has very strict specification standards when producing Gold Mandheling - above 18 mesh, fewer than 3 defective beans (300g raw bean sample), belonging to the highest grade G1 level, color leaning towards dark green, shape is neat flat beans. PWN's specifications for Gold Mandheling are even more strict - on the above basis, they conduct 3 additional manual selections to ensure complete removal of defective beans, thus guaranteeing PWN Gold Mandheling's extremely clean taste and obvious sweetness. After strict screening, FrontStreet Coffee found that not only does it not have the common earthy miscellaneous taste of ordinary Mandheling, but it tastes cleaner and brighter.

FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian Lintong Mandheling Coffee Beans

Country: Indonesia

Region: Sumatra (Lintong)

Altitude: 1100-1600m

Variety: Typica, Caturra

Processing: Wet-hulled

Flavor: Toasted bread, nuts, caramel, pine, herbal

Lintong Mandheling is produced from the Lintong mountain area in north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level daily bean from the Indonesian Mandheling region comes from here. Lintong Mandheling also uses the unique wet-hulled method, creating its characteristics of low acidity and high body.

The above is FrontStreet Coffee's compilation of content related to the comparison of taste characteristics between Mandheling coffee and espresso coffee. At the same time, FrontStreet Coffee hopes this article can help coffee lovers who want to understand relevant knowledge, so they can choose coffee beans suitable for their own taste in the future. FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that some friends will ask FrontStreet Coffee's baristas about brewing parameters when purchasing coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee will also set brewing parameters for each bean.

Generally speaking, coffee beans with thick texture have deeper roasting degrees. When FrontStreet Coffee brews such coffee beans using pour-over, the grinding degree will be chosen to have a 70% to 75% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve. For making espresso concentrate, flour-like grinding will be used, and the specific grinding degree needs to be adjusted according to different machines and other factors.

In this era of emphasizing fresh roasting, many friends most enjoy seeing the puffed "bloom hamburger" when brewing coffee. The coffee beans FrontStreet Coffee sends to friends are also freshly roasted within 5 days. When received, they have just passed the 4 to 7-day bean resting period, and the flavors have stabilized. Some friends who don't have grinding equipment at home will note the grinding service, and FrontStreet Coffee will also provide this service. However, friends need to note that when coffee beans are ground into powder, degassing activity is more active, and flavor substances will dissipate faster, greatly shortening the tasting period. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to taste the best flavors.

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