Which Brand of Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Beans is Best Recommended

When it comes to Mandheling coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee's top recommendation is undoubtedly PWN Company's exclusive "Golden Sign" - Golden Mandheling coffee beans. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee discusses the advantages of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee compared to regular Mandheling.

PWN Golden Mandheling: Premium Coffee Beans from Quality Growing Regions

PWN is a well-known raw coffee bean purchaser in Indonesia, and their Golden Mandheling is their selected premium coffee. There are many different types of Mandheling products on the market. Since PWN Company has registered the English term "Golden Mandheling" as their trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN Company can be considered the true FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling. You can identify authentic Golden Mandheling by the raw bean gunny sacks with the PWN logo and a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company. FrontStreet Coffee displays these two identifying marks at their Dongshankou store.

This FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee acquired comes from the Gayo Mountains area in Aceh Province, the northernmost part of Sumatra Island, using the Ateng variety. Aceh Gayo is located at the northernmost tip of Sumatra Island, where coffee cultivation mainly surrounds the Takegon town and the slopes of Lake Tawar. The altitude in the production area averages between 1100-1600 meters, and the coffee quality has always been excellent. However, due to political instability in the past, coffee from this region was difficult to export. In recent years, with improved stability, coffee cultivation in Aceh has developed, and its quality surpasses that of the Lintong region.

Ateng is what we call the Catimor variety, a hybrid descendant of the Bourbon variety Caturra and Timor. Due to its robust vitality that can maintain high coffee yields, it is favored by many local coffee farmers. In many countries, Catimor is often criticized by industry professionals for its flavor defects. However, when grown in the mysterious flavor environment of Sumatra and processed using the unique local Wet-Hulled method, Catimor actually performs better in cupping, rich in woody notes and a mellow口感.

Flavors Brought by the Wet-Hulled Method

Indonesia's Wet-Hulled method is a processing method that farmers had to adopt to adapt to the local island tropical rainforest climate. The islands are perennially humid and hot, and typhoons are "common occurrences." In such unstable environments, coffee farmers can only shorten drying time to prevent coffee beans from molding and deteriorating in the humid air. The Wet-Hulled processing method involves first removing the skin and pulp of the coffee fruit, followed by brief fermentation and sun-drying. When the beans are semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and the final drying continues until the moisture content reaches 12%.

Since each step is completed in a 70-90% humidity environment, and the parchment layer has been removed before the final drying step, the "exposed" raw beans easily absorb moisture from the air. Therefore, the resulting coffee has more woody, herbal, and spicy mellow aromas. FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling coffee also uses the Wet-Hulled method. After roasting, the acidity decreases while the body increases, still retaining herbal and spicy notes, with the characteristic flavor profile of Indonesian Mandheling coffee. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee has also added it to their high value-for-money daily bean series, launched in 100-gram small packages, allowing everyone to taste the flavor of Southeast Asian coffee.

PWN Golden Mandheling: Multiple Manual Selections

FrontStreet Coffee observed that on the FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling raw bean gunny sacks, you can see the words "Triple pick" and "GRADE 1," meaning it belongs to the highest grade of Indonesian raw beans and has undergone three manual selections during production.

Indonesian raw coffee 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 the defect rate, they are divided into six grades, with the highest grade G1 requiring that in a 300g sample, the total number of defective beans must be less than 11. The FrontStreet Coffee Lintong Mandheling coffee in FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series is G1, using the Wet-Hulled processing method, presenting the classic Indonesian Mandheling flavor.

PWN Company, which has taken screening to the extreme, subjects G1 grade Mandheling to multiple strict selections, minimizing the coffee's defect rate. Additionally, before packaging, PWN Company places the raw beans in machines for density and color sorting, making the Golden Mandheling coffee uniform and translucent.

What is the Flavor of PWN Golden Mandheling?

To present the classic mellow flavor of Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster chooses a medium-dark roast, allowing the aromas of dark chocolate and caramel to be more explosive. Mandheling coffee beans have the most abundant aroma when they enter their optimal tasting period. FrontStreet Coffee believes that using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing is crucial. The aromatic substances in coffee beans accelerate their loss over time, which affects the final flavor presentation of the coffee. FrontStreet Coffee hopes every customer can drink fresh, good coffee, so they only ship freshly roasted coffee beans within 5 days of roasting. Adding logistics time, they are ready to enjoy upon arrival.

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing parameters are based on the characteristics of the coffee beans, degree of roast, and flavor profile. Whenever introducing a new coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee will taste it through cupping. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling coffee presents flavors of nuts, dark chocolate, spices, pine, and caramel in cupping, with weak acidity and high body.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas will choose a KONO dripper to brew this type of mellow coffee. Compared to V60, the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface with weaker exhaust effects, and its straight ribs only cover one-quarter of the dripper, allowing the coffee grounds and hot water to form an immersion extraction, resulting in a more rounded and mellow coffee taste. The KONO dripper is also suitable for coffees like FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Manor coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee.

Brewing Parameters

Brewing water temperature: 87-88°C
Coffee grounds: 15 grams
Ground-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-coarse grind (70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)

The brewing method uses a three-stage water injection approach. Dividing the water injection into three stages can better express the mellow mouthfeel and caramel sweetness of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee.

First stage bloom: inject 30ml of water. This injection completely wets the coffee grounds for degassing, to better extract the flavor substances in subsequent brewing.

Second stage: inject 100ml. This stage mainly brings out the golden foam of Mandheling and raises the coffee bed.

Final stage: gentle center injection of 95ml. This can enhance the sweetness of the coffee.

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

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473