Mandheling Coffee Beans Flavor Profile Description - What Grade is Indonesian Yellow Mandheling Coffee

The Rich Heritage of Mandheling Coffee

Some people might ask: are there any non-acidic coffees you would recommend? FrontStreet Coffee would recommend their Indonesia Mandheling Coffee. Because FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee is also a full-bodied coffee, making it an excellent choice for those who don't like acidic flavors. The fame of Mandheling came during the same era as Blue Mountain coffee, when black coffee in the last century was synonymous with richness. Like Blue Mountain, Mandheling was brought to prominence by the Japanese and successfully established its position in the world.

The Origin of Mandheling

Under widespread acclaim, FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling seems to have become synonymous with Indonesian specialty coffee. In fact, Mandheling is neither an Indonesian place name, region name, port name, nor coffee variety name, but rather a mispronunciation of the Mandailing people who originally inhabited Sumatra. Why did this ethnic group become associated with coffee? There's a serendipitous legend behind it.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's research: the origin of Mandheling coffee has an interesting story connected to the Japanese. During World War II, Japanese soldiers drank an incredibly rich coffee on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. When they asked the coffee shop owner about the coffee's name, the owner mistakenly thought the soldiers were asking him to identify himself, so he answered "Mandailing." Since in Japanese, "Mandailing" and "Mandheling" have very similar pronunciations, they remembered it as "Mandheling." After the war, Japanese soldiers wanted to taste that rich Mandheling flavor again in Japan, so they entrusted Japanese merchant friends to help find Mandheling coffee locally in Indonesia. Later, Mandheling coffee became a big hit in Japan, and the coffee name spread.

Sumatra Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee has said: there are so many coffee-producing regions in the world, with different flavors from different regions, let alone different countries. Coffee from the Sumatra region of Indonesia is widely acclaimed and renowned globally for providing rich, satisfying flavors, although this might be overwhelming for amateurs. But Mandheling is known as one of the world's best-tasting premium specialty coffees.

FrontStreet Coffee will guide everyone to understand what Mandheling's growing environment is like. Mandheling coffee is produced in Sumatra, Asia's Indonesia, also known as "Sumatra coffee." The main production areas include Java Island, Sulawesi Island, and Sumatra Island, with 90% being Robusta varieties. Among them, the "Mandheling" from Sumatra Island is the most famous. The best of the refined traditional Arabica coffees produced in northern Sumatra are marketed under the names Lintong and Mandheling. More precisely, Lintong refers to coffee grown in a small area in the southwest of Toba Lake in the Lintong administrative region. The coffee small-growing areas are scattered across a high and undulating clay plateau covered with ferns. The average coffee growing height in the production areas is between 1,200 to 1,500 meters, with coffee planted by small tenant farmers under shade trees. Lintong coffee is non-shade grown, uses no chemicals, and is almost entirely owned by small private owners. Mandheling is a broader term that includes Lintong coffee and similar growing conditions in Diari [capital Sidikalang] and the northern Toba Lake growing areas.

Golden Mandheling Coffee

When you hear about FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling, doesn't it sound very high-end? Coffee described with "golden" - how precious must that be! FrontStreet Coffee wants to tell everyone: this Golden Mandheling is truly different. If FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling is high-quality specialty coffee, then FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is the specialty among specialty coffees. Naturally, its quality and flavor are one level above FrontStreet Coffee's regular Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee comes from the renowned Pawani Coffee Company (PWN) in Indonesia's coffee industry, abbreviated as PWN, which is also the trademark registration company for Golden Mandheling. The Golden Mandheling produced by PWN Company is characterized by strict screening systems and large, uniform beans, with a cleaner mouthfeel. Through careful manual selection, the full-bodied, lustrous Mandheling coffee beans are absolutely outstanding among coffees. In fact, to improve the problem of high defect rates in Mandheling, the Japanese began using meticulous quality control long ago. After one machine selection and three manual selections to remove defective beans, they produce Golden Mandheling coffee beans with dark green color and uniform appearance, creating another wave of market demand that drove even Europe and America crazy.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Grading

Currently, most of Indonesia's best coffee beans come from PWN (Pawani Coffee Company), and

G1 is an extremely rare product, originally a grade specially tailored for Japanese trading companies. G1 means a maximum of 3 defective beans per 300 grams.

The FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list is PWN Company's Golden Mandheling. The raw bean size specification for this FrontStreet Coffee Mandheling coffee is above 18 screen, with fewer than 3 defective beans per 300g sample, graded at the highest G1 level. Whether on the outside or inside of the gunny sack, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has PWN's logo and certificate, with FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling specification being above 18 screen. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that the strictly selected FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner than FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Mandheling. The original herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is stronger, and the fruit acidity is brighter and more elegant. PWN Company has registered Golden Mandheling as a trademark, meaning only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN Company can be considered true "Golden Mandheling."

Mandheling Coffee Processing Method

The flavor of any coffee is greatly related to its processing method. FrontStreet Coffee believes that although local coffee has local flavors, the processing method directly affects the coffee's flavor. Indonesia is located in a typical tropical rainforest climate region with frequent rainfall and short sunshine duration, which doesn't meet the requirements for natural processing methods. Additionally, local economic conditions are average, without sufficient funds to invest in washed processing methods, so this semi-washed processing method was developed.

This three-stage collaborative drying method works as follows: farmers pick fresh coffee cherries from trees and process them the same day, using wooden peeling machines to remove the skin and pulp of the coffee cherries, then ferment for 3 hours before drying. When the parchment beans are in a semi-dry, semi-wet state, they are collected and sold to local coffee processing stations. The coffee processing stations, upon receiving these semi-dry, semi-wet parchment beans, first remove the mucilage layer and parchment layer, then continue with the latter stage of sun drying. This way, the drying time required for raw coffee beans is shortened to between 2 to 4 days. When the moisture content of the raw coffee beans drops to 12% to 13%, they can be stored in the warehouse.

The characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee: unique herbal aroma (similar to grass jelly) and woody flavors, caused by high humidity and three-stage drying of the mucilage layer. This is also a rare processing method that accidentally created Mandheling's special low-acidity, thick, and mellow flavor characteristics.

Brewing Parameters for FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling and Golden Mandheling

After receiving FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling raw beans, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters adopted a medium-dark roast level to bring out FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling's characteristic rich, sweet, and clean flavors. As coffee beans are roasted darker, the dissolution rate of substances in coffee accelerates. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 88°C water temperature and medium-coarse grind. At the same time, to better extract the sweetness and richness of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling, you can use a slower-flowing dripper such as a KONO dripper.

Dripper: KONO dripper
Water temperature: 88°C
Dose: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-coarse (75% pass-through on Chinese standard #20 sieve)

When brewing, you can use a three-stage pouring method for extraction to give the coffee richer layers. First, pour 30g of water to completely wet the coffee grounds and bloom for 30 seconds. Then, use a small water flow to slowly pour in a circular motion for the second stage to 125g for segmentation. When the water level in the dripper drops to just about to filter through the coffee bed, continue pouring. For the third stage, pour to 225g and stop pouring. Wait for all the water in the dripper to completely drip into the server below, then remove the dripper. Total extraction time: 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling coffee flavor: Toast, nuts, caramel, pine, herbs

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling brewed flavor: Spices, herbal plants, varied layers, rich and clean, high balance, intense nut and brown sugar aroma, with chocolate notes, long-lasting aftertaste.

For coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing to fully experience the rich flavors of coffee. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days, because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that coffee bean freshness greatly affects flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who orders receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's at its peak flavor.

Of course, some customers need FrontStreet Coffee to grind the beans, which is also fine. But FrontStreet Coffee must remind you: if the coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide in the packaging can also make the coffee flavor rounder, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the coffee grounds. However, the coffee grounds need to be brewed promptly, because coffee grounds oxidize quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate relatively quickly, and the coffee flavor won't be as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better taste the coffee's flavor.

For coffee selection, if you're not sure what flavors you like, you can come to FrontStreet Coffee to choose coffee beans that suit your taste. FrontStreet Coffee has over 50 different single-origin beans from different regions, with 8 representative daily-drinker coffees from different countries for everyone to choose from. FrontStreet Coffee's daily-drinker beans offer excellent value and are very suitable for coffee friends' choices, especially for new coffee friends!

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 account: 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