The Ultimate Guide to Iced Pour-Over Coffee: How to Brew Golden Mandheling for Sweet Aftertaste

On a sunny afternoon, stepping away from the air conditioning meant facing 40°C of surround-style立体高温"焖烤" (braising heat). The glaring light slowed everyone's work efficiency, and FrontStreet Coffee, while typing away, found themselves sinking into that post-meal drowsiness. It seemed time to brew an iced FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling to refresh the senses.

Initially, FrontStreet Coffee held a "prejudice" against iced versions of dark roast coffee. Because we felt that heavily roasted beans contain more caramelized substances than light roasts, and under the iced brew extraction formula (iced pour-over = coffee grounds (fine grind) + 10x hot water + 5x ice), the coffee lacks the tail section, making it difficult to highlight the sweet aftertaste.

Secondly, concentrated coffee liquid rapidly cools and dilutes with ice, significantly weakening aromas such as caramel, roasted nuts, toast, and toffee. Therefore, a cup of iced dark roast coffee made by conventional methods often leaves a bad impression of being "both bitter and watery."

Until a loyal fan of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling told FrontStreet Coffee that he had made adjustments to the previous iced brew formula, and the resulting black coffee not only had a pleasant cool taste but also retained the unique profound aroma of Yellow Mandheling, completely non-bitter, and exceptionally mellow even after dilution—simply too delicious.

Now, FrontStreet Coffee will teach everyone the method passed down by this "Mandheling fan," and you'll understand the details once you brew a pot.

Choosing Quality Beans

As they say, a delicious dish cannot be made without quality ingredients. If you want to brew delicious coffee, the first step is naturally selecting a good bag of beans. Here, FrontStreet Coffee still chooses our "veteran actor"—FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling. As the darkest roasted bean on FrontStreet Coffee's menu, FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling has the advantages of large, plump, and uniform beans. The ground particle size maintains consistency more easily, making brewing事半功倍 (twice the result with half the effort).

The Challenge of Iced Brewing

With fresh, quality ingredients in place, the next step is how to cook them into a delicious dish. Experienced friends all know that the target water injection for iced brewing is much less than for hot pour-over. For example, with 15 grams of coffee grounds for a single cup, hot drinks would inject 225ml (coffee-to-water ratio 1:15), while iced drinks only need 150ml (coffee-to-water ratio 1:10). With reduced water volume, extraction time also shortens accordingly, typically ending in less than a minute and a half.

Therefore, to compensate for flavor compounds that don't have time to be released, many people think of increasing water temperature, but the result is counterproductive. In reality, for dark roast beans like FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling, the internal structure is already in a very loose state. Once hot water above 90°C is used for brewing, large molecular substances inside will be extracted in large quantities in advance, causing the coffee to have smoky, woody, and bitter astringent flavors.

Therefore, when brewing dark roast coffee, FrontStreet Coffee doesn't recommend using too extreme parameters to intervene in extraction rate. Because once over-extraction occurs, the bitterness released by the coffee will completely mask the original aroma, ultimately turning it into a名副其实的 "ice bitter water."

To be conservative, FrontStreet Coffee's iced brew recipe for FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling still uses a slow-flow dripper (KONO, cake cup, Kalita) + coarse sugar grind + low water temperature, combined with gentle small circular motions and a 1:10:5 coffee-to-water-to-ice ratio for brewing.

The Recipe

As for the problem of thin coffee texture caused by too short brewing time, FrontStreet Coffee extends the extraction time by increasing分段 (segments) + flow control. Considering that 15 grams of grounds corresponds to less water injection, making it difficult to divide into more segments, FrontStreet Coffee tried using 20 grams of grounds for brewing this time, then injecting in 5 segments of 40ml each (if brewing a single serving of 15 grams, apply the formula to a total water volume of 150ml, which can be divided into 5 segments of 30ml each).

Coffee Beans: FrontStreet Coffee Indonesia · PWN Gold Mandheling
Coffee Dose: 20 grams
Ice: 100 grams
Water Volume: 200ml
Water Temperature: 86-87°C
Dripper: Ceramic Cake Cup
Grind Size: Sugar Grind (10.5 setting on Ek43s)

Water Distribution: 40ml + 40ml + 40ml + 40ml + 40ml

Brewing Process

Before pouring water, first place 100 grams of ice in the lower pot. For the first segment, pour 40ml of hot water in a circular motion to form a bulging "hamburger" shape with the coffee grounds. After blooming for 30 seconds, begin pouring the second segment.

For the second segment, maintain a small water flow and pour in small circles from the center (slightly larger than a one-yuan coin) with 40ml. Note that the pouring point should not be too high to avoid creating overly turbulent flow in the coffee grounds. When the center part of the liquid surface shows a concave shape, you can use the same technique to pour the third 40ml segment. Then wait until the coffee is almost fully permeated before pouring the next segment, repeating this process until all five segments of hot water are poured.

After all the coffee liquid has finished dripping, you can remove the dripper. The final extraction time will fall between 1 minute 55 seconds to 2 minutes 10 seconds. Through a shaking motion, thoroughly mix the ice and coffee liquid, while feeling its temperature with your hand. When it's sufficiently cold, you can begin enjoying it.

The Final Taste

This brewed FrontStreet Coffee's Gold Mandheling iced coffee has no bitterness at first sip. Enhanced by the low temperature, besides roasted aromas of chocolate, maple syrup, and nuts, it also carries a creamy smooth texture. As the crushed ice slowly melts in the pot, the concentration gradually decreases, making the coffee mild and refreshing, yet still rich in aroma. After swallowing, you can still feel the remaining caramel and cedar fragrance in your mouth.

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FrontStreet Coffee
10号 Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473