What is Mandailing Tiger Coffee? Introduction to the Flavor Profile of Indonesian Tiger Mandailing Coffee Beans

Indonesia Tiger Mandheling

Country: Indonesia
Region: Sumatra
Altitude: 1500 meters
Varieties: Caturra, Typica, Sidikalong
Processing Method: Wet-Hulled
Roast Level: Medium-Dark

It presents pine and spice aromas, with a relatively balanced mouthfeel, featuring distinct cream, dark chocolate, and nutty flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends following SCA guidelines for pour-over coffee: 15g of coffee grounds with 225ml of water at 86-88°C, maintaining a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio.

Tiger Mandheling grows in Indonesia, with main production areas located on the three islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. Tiger Mandheling is produced at Tiger Estate, hence it is also called "Mandheling Tiger" or "Sumatra Tiger Mandheling." The northern part of Sumatra Island has relatively high altitude terrain, with Lake Toba in North Sumatra and the Aceh Province where Lake Tawa is located being the main Arabica coffee producing regions.

Lake Tawa is located in the Gayo Highlands of northern Aceh Province, Sumatra. Indonesia, which straddles both sides of the equator, has a humid tropical rainforest climate with abundant rainfall and fertile volcanic soil that provides rich nutrients for coffee. However, due to its remote location and inconvenient transportation, coffee cultivation only began in 1924, mostly adopting traditional shade-grown, pesticide-free organic cultivation methods.

Because Indonesia's humidity remains between 70-90% year-round, with annual rainfall reaching up to 2,000mm and continuous typhoons, farmers seek faster economic returns by using the wet-hulled method. In this process, which is a variation of the standard washed processing, coffee beans are dried with parchment for 2-3 days until reaching 20-24% moisture content, then the parchment is removed. This makes the beans more susceptible to compression damage, forming small cracks. This is what we commonly call "horsehoof" or "goat hoof" beans, which have higher defect rates but create a rich, strong, and highly distinctive flavor profile.

Coffee Varieties

The varieties of Indonesian Tiger Mandheling are Caturra, Typica, and Sidikalong.

Caturra has lemon or citrus acidity in its mouthfeel. In terms of sweetness, it doesn't compare to Typica and Bourbon, as Caturra's sweetness depends on the frequency and dosage of fertilization by growers. It has high yield capacity, but to maintain this capacity, continuous fertilization and pruning are required, resulting in short trees with many branches. Although yield is increased, because the harvest period takes 2 years and care costs are high, production is still somewhat limited.

Typica is the variety closest to the original species. The beans are slightly elongated, like stretched eggs, and are called Arabigo or Criollo in Central America. It has clean lemon acidity with a sweet aftertaste. Its low resistance to leaf rust makes it difficult to care for, the tree produces low yields, and combined with the long harvest period (once every 2 years), production is not high.

The Name Mandheling

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. Through trade friends, they asked locals to help collect high-quality coffee beans, including this Mandheling variety. The Japanese were very fond of these coffee beans and asked the shopkeeper about them. The shopkeeper thought they were asking about his ethnicity and casually replied "Mandailing." However, due to Japanese pronunciation errors, "Mandailing" became the current "Mandheling." 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 also 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 changed from Lintong to GAYO Mountain.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473