What are the brewing techniques for Mandheling coffee beans? How to taste and share the flavor of dark roast Mandheling pour-over coffee

The cultural evolution of coffee has undergone three waves: instant coffee, espresso coffee, and specialty coffee, with light roast coffee gradually becoming mainstream in the market. Light roast coffee beans have gained popularity because their shorter roasting time preserves more of the coffee's acidic aromatic compounds, resulting in a relatively clean profile that showcases rich coffee flavors.

During the years when light roast coffee beans dominated, the definition of "regional localization" in specialty coffee was completely articulated, and with advancements in processing methods, the layers and complexity of coffee were continuously elevated to another stage. However, not all coffee beans are suitable for light roasting—there are still many coffee beans that are better suited for dark roasting.

Is Dark Roast Coffee Really Just Bitter?

Not necessarily. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the charm of dark roast coffee using Mandheling coffee, the most representative among dark roasts.

What is Mandheling Coffee?

Mandheling is neither a region name, nor a port name, nor even a coffee variety name—it evolved from a story of misunderstanding. In 1942, during World War II when Japan occupied Indonesia, Japanese forces attacked Sumatra, and the Dutch surrendered a month later, followed by Japan's occupation of Indonesia. However, Indonesia had been colonized by the British and Dutch successively, so the Indonesian people did not have particularly strong reactions to the arrival of Japanese forces. Until one day, a Japanese soldier drank an incredibly fragrant and mellow coffee at a local Sumatran coffee shop, so he asked the owner the name of this coffee. The owner mistakenly thought the soldier was asking about his ethnicity, so he replied "Mandheling people."

Later, after returning to Japan, this soldier couldn't forget that cup of coffee, so he commissioned someone to find that shop's owner in Sumatra and have him export a batch of the same coffee beans to Japan. As expected, it was very well-received by Japanese consumers. To help consumers better remember this coffee bean, it was named "Mandheling." And so, Mandheling coffee was born. Therefore, what we generally recognize as Mandheling coffee is actually "Sumatran coffee."

Characteristics of Mandheling Coffee Beans

The most representative characteristic of Mandheling lies in its processing method: wet hulling. Common methods such as washed, natural, and honey processing retain the parchment until the bean body becomes dehydrated and hard, with moisture content dropping to 12%, or after being stored for 1-3 months before removal. However, wet hulling removes the parchment when the bean body is still moist and soft, with moisture content as high as 30-35%, exposing the green bean surface directly, then continuing to dry.

Because the drying time is shortened, the fermentation period of the coffee beans is reduced. Additionally, although the coffee bean varieties used for Mandheling coffee are Arabica, they inherently contain a small amount of Robusta genes, resulting in naturally low acidity. The rapid drying process further reduces the acidity.

Due to its low acidity, it's not suitable to use light roasting to forcibly preserve immature acidic flavors. Instead, deep roasting is needed to increase body, bringing out expressions of caramel, herbal, and cocoa flavors in Mandheling coffee, which also represents the unique "regional flavor" of Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee currently sells two types of Mandheling coffee beans: "Lintong Mandheling Coffee Beans" and "PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans," with Golden Mandheling becoming one of the signature dark roast coffees in Frontsteet's bean selection due to its extremely high quality.

What Grade is Golden Mandheling?

"Golden Mandheling" is an exclusive brand of Indonesia's Pwani Coffee Company (PWN). There are many different types of Mandheling products on the market. Since PWN Company has registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as their trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN Company is truly Golden Mandheling in the authentic sense. Everyone can identify genuine Golden Mandheling by the green bean sacks with PWN logos and a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company, which Frontsteet displays in its Dongshankou store.

After the Japanese took a fancy to Sumatran coffee and purchased it long-term, they gradually discovered that the quality of local beans was often inconsistent. So they became more attentive to Mandheling production, beginning to establish strict standards and methods for screening defects, starting with values such as bean density, size, shape, and color. The produced Mandheling required machine plus manual removal of defects, ensuring that the output Mandheling beans were complete, uniform, large, and translucent, also reducing the earthy and grassy smells of Mandheling. It is said that it glistened golden in the sun, hence the name "Golden Mandheling."

Indonesian green bean grading is primarily based on the number of defective beans, with size as a secondary factor. General quality requirements include no live insects, no moldy or rotten beans, maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and impurity rate less than 0.5%. According to defect rate, they are divided into six grades, with the highest grade G1 requiring that in a 300g sample, total defective beans must be fewer than 11. The Lintong Mandheling coffee in Frontsteet's daily bean series is G1, using wet hulling processing, which is the conventional version of Indonesian Mandheling flavor.

PWN Company, which takes screening to the extreme, purchases Mandheling green beans of 18 mesh or above, with G1 grade where the number of defective beans in a 300g sample is fewer than 3—this is the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. Subsequently, they strictly follow standards for one machine selection plus three manual selections of defective beans, ensuring the shape and size of Mandheling coffee beans are uniform. Additionally, before packaging, PWN Company places the green beans in machines for density and color sorting, making Golden Mandheling evenly colored and translucent.

To ensure that both Mandheling coffees have rich, mellow flavors without unpleasant bitterness, FrontStreet Coffee roasts them to a medium-dark level, just before the second crack begins.

The Charm of Dark Roast Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee believes that although the definition of specialty coffee is to express regional flavors, regional flavors don't necessarily mean showing 100% of the coffee fruit's sweetness and acidity. On the contrary, the herbal, caramel, creamy, and cocoa notes brought out by dark roast can better present the characteristics of Mandheling coffee.

In other words, light roast is like exquisite Japanese cuisine—while refined, you'll get tired of it quickly if you eat it every day; dark roast coffee is like our home cooking—though simple, it's part of our three daily meals. Dark roast coffee gives people a down-to-earth, steady feeling, making them never feel tired no matter how much they drink.

How to Brew Dark Roast Mandheling Coffee?

The longer the roasting time, the more porous the coffee bean structure becomes, and the faster the release of coffee substances. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests brewing Mandheling coffee with a coarser grind setting and avoiding water that's too hot, reducing the extraction in the later stages to minimize bitterness.

For FrontStreet Coffee's store-brewed coffee, the following drip extraction parameters are used: Dripper: KONO, Dose: 15g, Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15, Grind size: Chinese standard #20 sieve with 70% pass-through, Water temperature: 88°C.

Specific brewing technique: First pour 30g of water for a 30s bloom; second stage, pour in small circles to 125g, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway before adding more water, then continue pouring in small circles to 225g, and after complete dripping, the total extraction time is about 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Brewing Flavors:

Frontsteet Lintong region Mandheling coffee brewing flavors: Rich herbal aroma on entry, with dark chocolate and caramel, and a sweet aftertaste.

Frontsteet-PWN Golden Mandheling coffee brewing flavors: The coffee overall has varied layers, rich body and clean finish. Intense nutty and caramel aromas, with chocolate notes, persistent finish, and high balance.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473