Recommended Indonesian Coffee Brands and the Truth About Golden Mandheling Coffee

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FrontStreet Coffee's Introduction to Golden Mandheling Coffee

Mandheling coffee is produced in Sumatra, Indonesia, in Asia, also known as "Sumatran 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.

History

In the 17th century, the Dutch introduced Arabica seedlings to Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka) and Indonesia. In 1877, a large-scale disaster struck the Indonesian islands. Coffee rust disease destroyed almost all coffee trees, forcing people to abandon the Arabica they had cultivated for years and introduce Robusta coffee trees from Africa, which have strong disease resistance. Today, Indonesia is a major coffee-producing country. Coffee production is mainly concentrated in Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, with Robusta varieties accounting for 90% of total production. Sumatran Mandheling, however, is the rare Arabica variety. These trees are planted on mountain slopes at altitudes between 750 and 1,500 meters. The mysterious and unique Sumatra has endowed Mandheling coffee with rich aroma, full-bodied texture, and strong flavor, giving it a unique character with subtle hints of chocolate and syrup.

The Origin of Golden Mandheling

To understand the past and present of Golden Mandheling, we must start with Mandheling itself. Due to the climate conditions and coffee cultivation levels in the Lindong region of Sumatra Island, Indonesia, and because local water resources are precious, the initial processing method was sun-drying. However, the quality was inconsistent, so it was changed to a method similar to Brazil's semi-dry processing. But Indonesia's humid climate prevents outdoor drying of the sticky coffee pods for 2-3 days as in Brazil; doing so in Indonesia would cause the pods to mold. Therefore, after drying for several hours to a day, when the moisture content reaches 20-30%, the pectin has not yet solidified, and the beans are purchased by bean merchants, who take them to simple processing plants to remove the pectin by machine to prevent excessive fermentation and sour odors.

In other words, Lindong Mandheling has its pectin layer scraped off before the pods are dry, which is the main reason for its lower fruit acidity and higher body. After slight further drying, when the moisture content of the coffee inside the pods is about 18%, the wet pods are finally purchased by exporters from Medan. They are placed in large drying fields or machine-dried until the moisture content reaches 12%, at which point they can be stored. From this, we can see that the drying process of Lindong Mandheling, due to the inadequate equipment of farmers, adopts a three-stage division of labor among farmers, bean merchants, and exporters.

The unique herbal fragrance and woody flavor of Mandheling originate from the high humidity and the three-stage drying of the pectin layer. This is also a rare processing method worldwide, accidentally creating Mandheling's low-acidity, thick, and mellow flavor characteristics. However, due to the many variables in the three-stage drying method and rough processing techniques, Mandheling can be considered the most inconsistent specialty coffee. Broken beans, moldy beans, black beans, and unripe beans abound, giving roasters headaches. Before roasting, considerable time must be spent sorting out defective beans, but this does not diminish people's preference for the rich Mandheling. To address the problem of high defect rates in Mandheling beans, Japanese adopted stricter quality control over a decade ago. After the dried raw beans undergo density and color sorting, they go through four rounds of manual bean selection to eliminate defects, producing the uniformly dark green Golden Mandheling with consistent bean appearance.

Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner than Lindong Mandheling. The original herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is more intense, and the fruit acidity is brighter and more elegant. Generally, Lindong Mandheling is roasted until the second crack before being removed from the roaster to reduce off-flavors, but Golden Mandheling can be removed either before or after the second crack, both yielding good clarity and sweetness, allowing for broader interpretation in roasting.

Flavor Profile

Mandheling: Rich and solid mouthfeel with pleasant acidity. Aromatic flavor with moderate acidity and rich sweetness that is intriguing. Suitable for dark roasting, it emits a strong fragrance.

Additional Knowledge

"Mandheling" is neither a place name, producing area name, port name, nor a variety name. Instead, it is a mispronunciation of the Mandailing ethnic group residing on Sumatra Island.

In Summary

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