Which Coffee Beans Are Suitable for Pour-Over? Introduction to Sumatra Aceh Mandheling Specialty Coffee

Flavor Characteristics and Story of Sumatra Coffee Beans

Mandheling has always been famous for its rich body and herbal notes. FrontStreet Coffee guesses that when you mention Mandheling, you probably think of Golden Mandheling, but Mandheling coffee beans are not limited to just this variety. Among the coffee beans sourced by FrontStreet Coffee, the Mandheling series includes three other varieties besides Golden Mandheling: Lintong Mandheling, Tiger Mandheling, and Aged Mandheling. Lintong Mandheling represents the main flavor profile of Mandheling as FrontStreet Coffee's house blend. Tiger Mandheling is more niche, but compared to Golden Mandheling, Tiger Mandheling has a richer aroma. Aged Mandheling, through proper storage over time, develops an even richer flavor.

Indonesia, located in Southeast Asia, is an archipelagic nation composed of over ten thousand islands distributed along the equator from Malaysia to Papua New Guinea. Indonesia has always been a major coffee-producing country. According to World Coffee Organization data, in 2015 Indonesia produced 12.317 million bags of green beans, making it the second-largest producing country in Asia (after Vietnam), with 70-80% being Robusta variety. Robusta has strong disease resistance but inferior flavor compared to Arabica, yet it remains the mainstay of Indonesian coffee, accounting for up to 90% of coffee production, distributed in low-altitude areas of Java and Bali. 90% of Indonesian coffee comes from independent small farms, and because coffee has high value, farmers often plant it in their backyards. 11 million people in Indonesia depend on coffee for their livelihood.

Sumatra coffee has been sold at Starbucks since 1972. Its intense earthy aroma and heavy body are characteristic flavors unique to Sumatra. However, due to dark roasting, herbal notes and bitter sensations persist in the mouth for a long time. FrontStreet Coffee recently sourced Sumatra coffee beans for tasting and evaluation. In fact, coffee tasting has always been a practice at FrontStreet Coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's original intention was not just to sell beans, but to taste coffee beans from around the world. In this process, FrontStreet Coffee aims to understand every coffee-producing region, different coffee varieties within the same region, different processing methods for the same variety, and establish corresponding databases, as well as comparisons between different coffee regions. FrontStreet Coffee hopes to enable more coffee enthusiasts to understand the world of coffee.

The "Two Lakes, Two Mandhs" of Mandheling

When mentioning Mandheling, people generally refer to the "two lakes, two Mandhs": The Lake Toba region in northern Sumatra (Lake Toba, Lintong) started coffee cultivation earlier and is known as the "Old Mandheling"; while the Lake Tawar region in Aceh Province (Lake Tawar, Mount Gayo) started coffee cultivation later and is known as the "Young Mandheling."

Development of Sumatra Coffee

Indonesia, located in southeastern Asia, has its coffee history dating back to 1696, when Dutch coffee farm owners sought broader coffee planting areas. After extensive exploration, they finally settled on Java Island in Indonesia. After 30 years, Indonesia had established a sufficient foundation in the coffee market. However, today, Indonesia's coffee representative is Mandheling, which is actually not surprising, because most of the Java coffee originally exported to Europe came from the Sumatra region, and Mandheling comes from Sumatra. Therefore, Sumatra can be said to be an important coffee-producing area in Indonesia.

The Story Behind Mandheling Coffee Beans

Mandheling originally referred to an Indonesian tribal name. After Japanese soldiers colonized Indonesia and returned to Japan, they couldn't forget the delicious local coffee. With the help of trading friends, they asked locals to help collect high-quality coffee beans, including this Mandheling variety. The Japanese loved these coffee beans very much. Since the commercial source couldn't be easily disclosed, the locals casually mentioned "Mandheling," and thus Mandheling accidentally became the name of a coffee bean variety. This local person was actually the owner of the Indonesian PWN company (Pwani Coffee Company) mentioned below. This company was the first to export Golden Mandheling coffee beans to Japan. FrontStreet Coffee has been using PWN Golden Mandheling for many years. PWN also changed from 60kg bags to 30kg bags, and the production area was changed from Lintong to Mount Gayo.

Sumatra Coffee's "Special" Processing Method: Wet-Hulling

Most Mandheling uses the unique processing method of Sumatra coffee beans: Wet-hulling. Due to the local weather being predominantly rainy with constant typhoons, it's difficult to achieve the good weather required for sun-drying. Moreover, the local economy is not good, making it impossible to use the more expensive washed method. This led to the development of the locally distinctive wet-hulling method. Now, Indonesian coffee development is no longer the impoverished scene it once was. There are many estates and companies with sufficient conditions to use the washed method, but why hasn't wet-hulling been abandoned? FrontStreet Coffee believes that wet-hulling is a factor that made Mandheling coffee famous worldwide. When mentioning Mandheling coffee, people think of wet-hulling, so they have a mutually reinforcing relationship.

The specific steps of wet-hulling can be divided into the following two stages:

First stage: Using a wooden peeler to remove the skin and pulp, fermenting for 3 hours, then drying to reduce moisture content to 30-50% (semi-dry, semi-wet).

Second stage: Removing the mucilage and parchment layer, continuing with the final drying process, which takes 2-4 days, reducing moisture content to 12-13%.

In addition to conventional wet-hulling, there is also aged wet-hulling. Coffee beans are first processed through ordinary wet-hulling, then sealed in warehouses for 2-3 years. The warehouse environment must be cool and ventilated, with regular turning of the beans to prevent mold and spoilage. During this period, the acidity of the coffee beans gradually diminishes and converts to sugars, and the color becomes deeper, mostly yellowish-brown or dark brown. The Mandheling coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu that use this processing method are called Aged Mandheling coffee beans, also known as Aged Sumatra coffee beans.

Wet-hulling creates the special flavor of Mandheling. It can be said that Mandheling and wet-hulling have a bound relationship. Whenever we mention Mandheling coffee, the processing method is mostly labeled as wet-hulled. At Frontsteet, over the years, we have collected four different types of wet-hulled Mandheling, and currently still retain 2 varieties for sale: Frontsteet Lintong Mandheling and Frontsteet PWN Golden Mandheling.

Lintong Mandheling

Lintong Mandheling is produced in the Lintong mountainous area of north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. Lintong Mandheling is the regular version of Mandheling. Lintong Mandheling also uses conventional wet-hulling, creating its characteristics of low acidity and high body. However, a situation that occurs with wet-hulling is that when semi-hard, semi-soft wet green beans are being hulled of mucilage and parchment, they are easily crushed, and the beans crack open like sheep's hooves, commonly known as "goat hoof beans." FrontStreet Coffee considers this to be a very distinctive characteristic of Mandheling, not considered defective beans.

Lintong Mandheling doesn't focus much on screening. FrontStreet Coffee finds that there are goat hoof beans in the green beans, but this doesn't diminish people's love for its rich flavor.

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 registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as the company's trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN company is truly Golden Mandheling in the literal sense. Everyone can identify authentic Golden Mandheling by the green bean sacks with PWN logo and a certificate of origin signed by PWN company. Frontsteet displays these two identifiers in its Dongshankou store.

At that time, the Japanese took a fancy to Sumatra coffee and purchased it long-term, gradually discovering that the quality of local beans was often inconsistent. Therefore, they became more attentive to Mandheling production and began to establish strict standards and methods for screening defects, starting with values such as bean density, specifications, shape, and color. The produced Mandheling required machine and manual removal of defects to ensure the output Mandheling grains were complete, uniform, large and translucent, also reducing the earthy and grassy flavors of Mandheling. Legend has it that it shone golden in the sun, hence the name "Golden Mandheling."

Frontsteet's Golden Mandheling specification is above 18 mesh, with fewer than 3 defective beans (300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a darker green color and regular flat bean shape. After strict screening, Frontsteet found that not only was the characteristic earthy miscellaneous taste of regular Mandheling gone, but it tasted cleaner and more translucent, with stronger sweetness.

To Experience the Unique Aroma of Indonesian Sumatra Coffee, Try Frontsteet Golden Mandheling Pour-Over

To bring out the rich aroma of Golden Mandheling, Frontsteet believes that freshly roasted coffee beans are the primary condition. The aroma of coffee beans changes according to the storage environment and time. Once past the optimal tasting period, the coffee's aroma will dissipate rapidly. Frontsteet understands how important freshness is for coffee, so all shipped coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days, so when we receive them, they are just right for opening and brewing.

Since Mandheling coffee presents nutty and chocolate flavor notes, Frontsteet's roaster chooses medium-dark roast. The darker the roast, the more porous the coffee bean texture, making it easier to extract during brewing. Therefore, Frontsteet uses lower water temperature to avoid over-extraction producing negative bitterness.

Brewing Parameters:

Dripper: KONO dripper

Water Temperature: 87°C

Dose: 15 grams

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Medium-coarse grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve 70% pass rate)

Wet the KONO dripper to make the filter paper fit better with the coffee dripper. Pour out the water from the sharing pot and add 15g of ground coffee. Use 30g of water to bloom for 30s, then start pouring in small circular motions from the center until reaching 125g, then start the second stage. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, then pour the second stage using the same technique until reaching 225g. Wait for all dripping to complete, then remove the dripper.

The ground Golden Mandheling coffee powder has aromas of nuts and toasted bread. During brewing, you can smell the sweet fragrance of caramel. The brewed Mandheling coffee has notes of spice and dark chocolate, with a rich yet clean mouthfeel, obvious sweet aftertaste, and persistent finish.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473