Mandheling Coffee: Drip Pot or Siphon - Which is Better?

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Indonesian coffee has long been cherished by coffee connoisseurs for its rich aroma, low acidity, and excellent body. When FrontStreet Coffee mentions Indonesian coffee, Mandheling coffee immediately comes to mind. With five varieties of Mandheling coffee available at FrontStreet Coffee, particularly the Golden Mandheling from PWN company that most people know by name, it's questionable whether many truly understand what Golden Mandheling coffee actually is.

Sumatran Mandheling Coffee Beans

Indonesia, located in Southeast Asia, has a coffee history dating back to 1696 when Dutch coffee plantation owners sought more extensive coffee-growing areas. After extensive exploration, they finally settled on Java Island in Indonesia. Within 30 years, Indonesia had established a sufficient foundation in the coffee market. However, today's Indonesian coffee representative is Mandheling from Sumatra, which is actually not surprising, as much of the Java coffee originally exported to Europe came from the Sumatra region, and Mandheling originates from Sumatra. Therefore, Sumatra can be considered an important coffee-producing region in Indonesia.

Sumatra is the main production area for Indonesian specialty coffee beans, with a very complex coffee system. To simplify, we can categorize it into 4 types:

1. The well-known Mandheling refers to semi-dried or natural processed beans from the Lindong mountain area at 900-1200m altitude on the southwestern shore around Lake Toba in north-central Sumatra, which are the most famous.

2. Golden Mandheling: Undergoes 4 rounds of manual selection, making it superior to regular Mandheling.

3. Lake Tawar Coffee: Washed, semi-washed, or natural processed beans from the Gayo Mountain area at 800-1600m altitude near Lake Tawar in the northernmost Aceh region of Sumatra.

4. Aged Mandheling & Old Brown Java.

FrontStreet Coffee offers 5 varieties of Mandheling coffee: Golden Mandheling, Lindong Mandheling, Tiger Mandheling, Aged Mandheling, and Natural Mandheling.

Mandheling was originally the name of an Indonesian tribe, and it became the name of a coffee bean through a series of coincidences. When Japanese soldiers returned to Japan after colonizing Indonesia, they couldn't forget the delicious local coffee. Through trade connections, they asked locals to help collect premium coffee beans, including this Mandheling variety. The Japanese loved this coffee bean and asked for its name. Since the business source couldn't be disclosed, the locals casually said "Mandheling," and thus Mandheling accidentally became the name of this coffee bean. The locals mentioned earlier were actually the owners of the Indonesian PWN company (Pawani Coffee Company) that will be discussed below.

Golden Mandheling

Golden Mandheling is produced in the Lindong region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The harvesting is limited to manual picking of individual fully ripe fruits to ensure initial bean quality. The coffee cherries are processed using the SEMI-WASHED method, naturally sun-dried, and then undergo another drying refinement process after hulling, along with two rounds of green bean cleaning and four rounds of Hand-Pick manual selection. This detail is largely the reason for Golden Mandheling's fame.

Most people know about Mandheling coffee, and those who have been drinking coffee longer know the specific name Golden Mandheling. If they interact more deeply with baristas, they'll learn that Golden Mandheling marked as such comes from Indonesia's Pawani company, and only Mandheling produced by this company can be called Golden Mandheling. However, when closely examining whether a cup of Mandheling coffee is actually PWN Golden Mandheling, many people, including baristas, are actually confused, and often gloss over it with "I know there's Golden Mandheling, and I know only PWN's version is Golden Mandheling, but I don't know if I'm drinking PWN Golden Mandheling." To a large extent, they treat large-sized (18/19 screen) Mandheling as Golden Mandheling. The reason is that trademarks need to be registered separately in different countries, but China was not previously an important coffee market, and Pawani didn't expect Golden Mandheling to be so successful. Pawani hadn't registered the Golden Mandheling trademark in China before it became a common synonym for premium Mandheling, and even Pawani couldn't register this name afterward. This is why large-sized Mandheling beans on the market are all labeled as Golden Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling

Region: Gayo Mountain, Aceh, Sumatra

Altitude: 1100-1600 meters

Variety: Ateng

Grade: G1, 3 times hand-selected

Processing: Wet-hulled method

Flavor: Spices, herbal notes, caramel, pine, nuts, chocolate

In the past, when everyone mainly pursued rich, mellow coffee flavors and textures, the vast majority used medium-dark roasted coffee beans with siphon brewers. The extracted siphon coffee had both rich, mellow aroma and presented a rounded, balanced taste. If you're also pursuing this flavor profile and want to brew delicious coffee, FrontStreet Coffee believes choosing freshly roasted coffee beans is particularly crucial. Here we choose FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans, paired with siphon equipment, to demonstrate how to extract a delicious cup of black coffee.

Water temperature: 88°C

Grind size: 90% pass-through through #20 sieve

Dose: 18 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:10

1. Pour 180ml of warm water into the lower pot and wipe the outside of the pot dry with a dry cloth (to prevent pot explosion during heating). Light the alcohol lamp and place it under the lower pot for heating.

2. Take out the upper pot of the siphon, fix the filter cloth on the upper pot and hook the fixing hook on the glass tube wall at the bottom of the upper cup, then insert it diagonally into the lower pot.

3. Observe the lower pot. When continuous small bubbles appear in the lower pot, you can straighten the upper pot, letting it insert vertically into the lower pot, ensuring a seamless connection between the upper and lower pots.

4. When the water from the lower pot rises to the upper pot, pour in the ground coffee powder. Use a stirring rod to stir clockwise from outside to center for 10 seconds to ensure all coffee powder is immersed in water.

5. Start timing. After 40 seconds, use the stirring rod again to stir the coffee liquid clockwise for 5 seconds; then quickly remove the alcohol lamp and extinguish the flame, and the coffee liquid will start flowing back from the upper pot to the lower pot. During the coffee liquid回流 process, you can wipe the lower pot of the siphon with a wet cloth to speed up the coffee liquid回流 rate. The total extraction time is approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds.

6. Gently remove the upper pot and pour the coffee liquid from the lower pot into a cup, and it's ready to enjoy. The siphon coffee made this way is very aromatic and rich. Although it's not as clear and clean as pour-over coffee, the oils floating on its surface add considerable richness to the mouthfeel.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473