Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Bean Varieties, Grades, and Golden Mandheling Origin Flavor Characteristics

What is Mandheling Coffee?

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The rich coffee taste of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling with its unique herbal and cocoa flavors leaves many newcomers to single-origin coffee puzzled. Compared to coffee beans from regions like Yirgacheffe or varieties like Geisha, which have vibrant acidity and rich, prominent floral and fruit aromas, FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling presents such bitterness that it doesn't align with the flavor preferences preferred by today's younger generation.

However, a delicious cup of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling is not just soulless bitterness. After years of cupping and comparing Mandheling coffee beans from different production seasons and regions, FrontStreet Coffee believes that compared to many coffees with bright acidity, although FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling presents rich and intense flavors, it is not without soul. Instead, it's a lively micro-acidity mixed with rich herbal and dark chocolate flavors - a coffee that one never tires of drinking.

Where Does FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Come From?

Unlike many coffee beans named after their region/estate/processing plant, the "Mandheling" in FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans is not a place name, but rather the name of an ethnic group from the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Only Arabica varieties grown on the island of Sumatra can be called Mandheling coffee.

The best coffee from Sumatra comes from two places: the area near Lake Tawar in the north of Sumatra's Aceh region, and the mountainous area surrounding Lake Toba further south. Due to many small tenant farmers using their unique semi-washed processing method and the lack of iron in the soil, coffee beans from this region display a distinctive bluish color in their fresh green bean stage.

Lake Toba, located in the central part of North Sumatra Province. In 1888, Dutch colonists moved "Java Mandheling" north to the Lake Toba region. The area around Lake Toba and Lintong in South Sumatra can be called Mandheling, with the Lintong area being the true Mandheling-producing region. Mandheling is produced in the mountainous areas surrounding Lake Toba.

Lake Tawar, located in the central part of the Aceh Special Administrative Region. Situated at the northern tip of Sumatra Island, most coffee produced in North Sumatra is Gayo, predominantly of the Ateng variety. Coffee from Lake Tawar at the northern tip can be called Aceh coffee or Lake Tawar coffee. Its area is less than one-tenth of Lake Toba. However, in recent years, coffee quality and production from this region have surpassed that of Lake Toba.

FrontStreet Coffee's bean list features two Mandheling coffees: one is FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling from the Lintong region, part of their daily bean series, while the other is FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling from PWN Company, from the Gayo region.

What's the Difference Between FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling?

Golden Mandheling is a registered trademark of Indonesia's PWN (Perusahaan Winnerson) company. Only after harvesting and drying does this company perform at least three rounds of pure manual selection, ensuring the coffee beans reach a size of 18 or above. With fewer than 3 defective beans (in a 300g raw bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a dark green color and uniform flat shape, can they be called "FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling" coffee beans.

As the reputation of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has grown, many beans on the market not from PWN company are labeled as Golden Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that many merchants selling Golden Mandheling coffee beans, in order to sell them at higher prices, select raw beans above 18 mesh from G1 grade Mandheling coffee beans and perform three rounds of manual selection to make their appearance closely resemble PWN Golden Mandheling.

However, these can only be called specialty Mandheling. The FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee sources is certified by PWN's certificate, and both the certification certificate issued by PWN and the Golden Mandheling coffee raw bean bags with PWN logos can be seen at FrontStreet Coffee stores.

After cupping and comparing the coffee flavors at FrontStreet Coffee, PWN FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee has a cleaner flavor with stronger sweet aftertaste, but its body is slightly weaker. If you prefer a richer body, you can choose FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling; if you prefer a cleaner taste, you can choose FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Coffee Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong region Mandheling coffee beans are of the Timtim variety, also known as the Timor variety - an Arabica variety with Robusta heritage. FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans use the Ateng variety, also known as the Catimor variety, which is a hybrid of Caturra and Timor.

Both varieties are characterized by higher disease and pest resistance. In Indonesia's warm and humid climate, not only plants but also pests and pathogens thrive in such environments, so coffee plants themselves need better disease and pest resistance than those grown in other high-altitude regions.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Coffee Processing Method

Indonesia's perennial humid and rainy weather, combined with its island-type humid climate, necessitates short-time drying methods. Therefore, local coffee farmers first perform washed fermentation after harvesting coffee cherries, and immediately after fermentation, pour the coffee cherries into a depulper to remove the fruit flesh and husk.

At this point, the moisture content is about 30-40%. Then through sun drying or artificial drying, the moisture content of the coffee cherries is reduced to about 13%. This method can save at least 30% of processing time, allowing coffee beans to be converted to cash quickly, reducing costs.

Coffees processed using the wet-hulling method are typically thick and intense, with very distinct personalities, and this processing method is used only in the Indonesia region.

Flavor Characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling features rich, aromatic, purely bitter, and full-bodied flavors with a hint of sweetness. After roasting, the coffee beans are relatively large with a caramel-like special aroma, offering a fragrant and rich taste. Most coffee enthusiasts prefer to drink it as a single-origin, but it's also an indispensable variety for blending mixed coffee - a bean suitable for both pour-over and espresso blending.

Delicious coffee cannot be separated from fresh roasting, so every coffee bean sold by FrontStreet Coffee is shipped within 5 days after roasting.

How to Brew FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling for Best Taste?

Since FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans themselves don't have much acidity, they won't develop unpleasant sour or astringent tastes even after prolonged heat preservation or when brewed into iced coffee. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends hot brewing for FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee.

Dripper: KONO
Coffee amount: 15 grams
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve
Water temperature: 88°C

Bloom with 30g of water for 30s, then slowly pour in small streams to 125g in sections, then slightly increase the water flow and pour slowly to 225g. Total extraction time: 2 minutes.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473