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Is the New Season's Golden Mandheling Coffee Variety a Robusta Coffee?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Tracing the Mandheling Coffee Variety. Indonesian Mandheling Coffee TP: Triple-Picked. This indicates triple selection, belonging to the green bean grading system, commonly seen in Sumatran green beans from Indonesia. It means that on the basis of Grade 1, the green beans undergo repeated selection to remove defects

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

Many people ask FrontStreet Coffee: what are the differences between coffee harvested in different seasons but from the same year and same region? Today, FrontStreet Coffee will compare the early 2020 season Golden Mandheling with the October season Golden Mandheling, and discuss why Golden Mandheling from these two seasons differ.

What is Golden Mandheling Coffee?

Back in the day, when Japanese people asked local Indonesians what their coffee was called, the locals thought they were asking about their ethnic group and answered "Mandheling." Since then, Indonesian coffee has also been known as Mandheling coffee, and the local who answered "Mandheling" was the founder of PWN company. The "Golden Mandheling" label is owned and registered by the local Indonesian green bean company - PWN Company (Pwani Coffee Company), making Golden Mandheling exclusive to PWN.

Why is it Called Golden Mandheling?

Golden Mandheling is called so because it's said that when processing green beans, the Mandheling beans emit a golden luster under sunlight, hence the name Golden Mandheling. Unlike other Mandheling coffee beans, Golden Mandheling has established strict screening standards. After processing, the green beans undergo density-based color sorting, followed by four rounds of manual bean selection. The specifications are above 18 mesh, with fewer than 3 defective beans (in 300g green bean samples), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a dark green color and flat, uniform shape. After strict screening, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the coffee beans have uniform size and heat more evenly during brewing. Therefore, when brewing Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee found that not only does it lack the characteristic earthy impurities of regular Mandheling, but it tastes cleaner, more transparent, and has stronger sweetness and aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee comes from PWN Company. Golden Mandheling evolved from Mandheling, and Golden Mandheling can be understood as premium selected Mandheling, which is also why FrontStreet Coffee chose to stock it. FrontStreet Coffee cup-tests 300-500 batches of beans annually, selecting one-fifth with the most regionally representative flavors, and Golden Mandheling is a masterpiece under this selection. We believe it excellently represents the Sumatran style.

Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean Varieties

The coffee variety of the new season Golden Mandheling is "Ateng." This seems to be a very unfamiliar coffee variety. In fact, local Indonesian names for coffee varieties are quite different. For example, what Indonesians call Tim Tim is what we call Timor. Ateng is the Indonesian local name for Catimor. The Ateng variety is very suitable for cultivation and flavor development in the Aceh region. The original Catimor is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta species. So if you ask about the relationship between Indonesian Golden Mandheling varieties and Robusta varieties, Ateng would be the "grandchild" of Robusta.

Wet Hulling Process for Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Due to local weather patterns with frequent rain and continuous typhoons, it's difficult to achieve the good weather required for sun-drying. Additionally, the local economy isn't strong enough to support the more expensive washed processing method. For these reasons, the locally distinctive wet hulling method was developed (wet hulling involves sun-drying the beans with parchment for 2-3 days during the regular washed processing, until moisture content reaches 20-24%, then removing the parchment). The specific steps of wet hulling can be divided into two phases: Phase one involves using a wooden peeler to remove the skin and pulp, fermenting for 3 hours, then air-drying until moisture content drops to semi-dry and semi-wet at 30-50%. Phase two involves removing the mucilage and parchment layers, continuing with the final drying process, which takes 2-4 days, bringing moisture content down to 12-13%.

What are the Differences Between Early Season and October Season Golden Mandheling?

FrontStreet Coffee compared the early season Golden Mandheling with October season Golden Mandheling and found that the May season Golden Mandheling has lower moisture content in green beans than the October season. During shipping, storage, trade, and the roaster's storage processes, the moisture content of coffee green beans can change significantly. Beans from the early season, when roasted in late November, will experience moisture content reduction due to various storage environment changes. The new October season beans only arrive in China in late November, with shorter transportation and storage time, naturally resulting in higher moisture content.

How Does Moisture Content Affect Roasting?

Golden Mandheling belongs to green beans with relatively high moisture content, with higher deviation values compared to sun-dried beans in terms of moisture, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. For high-moisture green beans, after introducing the beans, you can immediately close the damper, steam for 30 seconds, then open to level 3, until the beans turn light green or white, then open the damper to level 4, and after first crack, open to level 5 (maximum). Golden Mandheling coffee beans naturally have high moisture content. When the October new season has even higher moisture content, how does FrontStreet Coffee's roaster ensure both beans are roasted using the same roasting profile? The answer is that with the same development time and exit temperature, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster extends the dehydration time for the October season beans, extending the yellowing point time to 6 minutes and 30 seconds.

How Does Moisture Content Affect Roasted Bean Color?

After FrontStreet Coffee's roaster roasted both Golden Mandheling coffee beans using the same roasting profile, it was found that the early season beans appeared slightly darker in color than the October season. This is because lower moisture content means faster dehydration speed, leading to faster caramelization reaction (which can be understood as color development). Higher moisture content means slower dehydration speed, resulting in slower caramelization of coffee beans. Therefore, even when exiting at the same temperature and time, there will be slight differences in bean color.

How Does Caramelization Affect Brewed Coffee Flavor?

This brewing aims to highlight the characteristics of Golden Mandheling: rich body, clean taste, and aromatic flavor. A KONO dripper is used for brewing (this dripper was invented to mimic flannel-filtered thick coffee). For medium-dark roast coffee, choose medium-coarse grind (57% passes through standard #20 sieve). For the powder-to-water ratio, use 1:13, with 20g coffee powder, reducing the ratio to make the coffee taste richer. Water temperature is 87°C.

FrontStreet Coffee brewing process: slowly pour over the coffee grounds, trying to keep them as level as possible during pouring, avoiding shaking the dripper (because shaking reduces the space between coffee grounds, which is not conducive to bloom exhaust). First stage: pour 40g in small circles around the center for 30 seconds bloom, and the coffee powder layer will slowly expand into a "hamburger" shape. Second stage: pour 120g in circles from center outward, keeping the pouring height as close to the powder layer as possible, with slow movements to avoid over-stirring. Final stage: pour 100g, wait until all coffee liquid from the dripper flows into the lower pot to finish extraction. Extraction time: 2 minutes.

Brewing Flavor Profiles

Early season Golden Mandheling coffee bean brewing flavor: nuts, spices, herbal plants, licorice, chocolate, caramel, with clean and smooth flavor.

October season Golden Mandheling coffee bean brewing flavor: acidity is more pronounced than the May season coffee, with black chocolate-like subtle acidity, nutty and herbal notes, and caramel-like sweetness in the aftertaste. Overall cleaner than the May season.

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing comparison also proves that the longer the caramelization of coffee beans, the richer the coffee flavor will be~

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