World-Renowned Coffee Beans - Introduction to Indonesia Aceh Gayo Mandheling Crown Series: Black Crown

FrontStreet Coffee - Gayo Mandheling Crown Series: Black Crown

Aceh Province, Sumatra

Aceh lies at the northwesternmost tip of the Indonesian archipelago. Straddling the equator, it has a typical tropical equatorial maritime climate. It stays hot year-round, with an average annual temperature of around 27°C. Between October and March each year, influenced by Asian and Pacific air currents, it is Indonesia's rainy season; from April to October, affected by continental air currents from Australia, less moisture is carried in and the climate turns hot and dry - the local dry season. Because of these distinct wet and dry seasons, coffee harvesting always falls during the rainy season, from October to March, and the coffee is then sun-dried during the dry season after harvesting and processing.

The Crown Series

In Gayo, Bener Meriah Regency is known as the heartland and soul of Sumatran coffee, and the Crown Mandheling series is produced through collaboration between local cooperatives and farmers. On varieties, Bourbon and Super Adenica are used, with Super Adenica scoring the highest - 88.84 - in the COE pilot program competition organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE).

The three Crown Series coffees use natural and honey processing. Notably, in Indonesian Mandheling the more common practice is wet-hulled processing; natural processing is not commonly used or seen in Sumatra, especially in the perpetually humid Gayo highlands, where there are only a few hours of sunlight a day and sun-drying is far more challenging. Honey processing, which leaves the mucilage on for sun-drying, is even more labor-intensive and expensive than other methods, requiring a longer time on raised beds.

To overcome this, cooperatives and farmers ran many trials before finding a suitable sun-drying method: building raised beds and covering them with transparent thin paper. This accelerates drying and better protects the quality of the green beans during processing. Thanks to the farmers and cooperatives, this unique, exquisite Gayo natural coffee is available to us.

Gayo Mandheling Crown Series: Black Crown

• Grade: Grade-1, 'Triple Hand-Sorted'
• Varieties: Bourbon, Super Adenica
• Region: Aceh Province, Sumatra
• Altitude: 1,750m
• Processing Method: Natural Processing
• Flavor Notes: Tropical fruits, black dates, raspberries, molasses

Knowledge Point: Mandheling is produced in the mountainous areas surrounding Lake Toba, a high-altitude freshwater lake north of Medan, the capital of Sumatra island.

In summary: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house that enjoys sharing knowledge about coffee with everyone. Our unconditional sharing is aimed at helping more friends fall in love with coffee. We also hold three coffee discount events each month because FrontStreet Coffee wants to offer the best coffee at the lowest price to more friends - this has been our mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Gayo's wet-hulled Mandheling is the region's classic expression, and the benchmark for it is FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling. Produced by Indonesia's PWN company to an extremely strict standard, it is selected from beans of 18 screen and above, with fewer than 3 defects in every 300g green sample to meet the top G1 grade, then passed through three rounds of hand sorting to remove every defect. The result is unmistakably clean and intensely sweet, with notes of sandalwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel and dark chocolate - a rich, lingering cup for lovers of bold coffee.

For the traditional Lake Toba style, FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling offers the full, wild character of Sumatra. Its wet-hulled processing brings out heavy body and earthy, herbal notes, and a medium-dark roast keeps acidity low while layering in clove, woody aromatics and a long, thick sweetness with a minty, spice-driven edge.