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Is Golden Mandheling Always Acid-Free?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, When you think of Golden Mandheling, is your first impression rich and mellow, with strong bitterness but minimal fruit acidity? This is likely most people's initial perception of Golden Mandheling. In reality, this is largely due to the medium-dark roasting commonly used for most Golden Mandheling beans on the market today, including those available at our store.

Is FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling Always Acid-Free?

When you think of Golden Mandheling, is your first impression of rich, full-bodied flavor with prominent bitterness but extremely weak fruit acidity? I believe this is most people's initial impression of Golden Mandheling. Actually, this is related to the fact that most Golden Mandheling currently on the market adopts medium-dark roasting, including our FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling, which defaults to medium-dark roasting. But in reality, speaking from the Golden Mandheling coffee beans themselves, this is a coffee bean with extremely high acidity. Its acidity transformation characteristic is that at medium-light, medium, and medium-dark levels, the fruit acidity will show a quite obvious change from strong acidity, to acidity, to weak acidity.

If you let a friend who has been drinking medium-dark roasted FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling taste a cup of medium-light roasted FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling, they would definitely say that this is 100% absolutely without doubt not FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling.

Testing Different Roast Levels

These past two days, I've been conducting such experiments. The day before yesterday, I tested medium-dark roasted FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling, yesterday it was medium roast, and today I just tested medium-light roasted FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling. The testing method I used was exclusively pour-over brewing, double serving, with slight adjustments in grind size and water temperature due to different roasting levels.

Test Conclusions

After testing, my conclusions are as follows:

1. Conventional Medium-Dark Roast (Full City):

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is rich and full-bodied with relatively obvious bitterness. Chocolate notes and subtle sweetness are more prominent, licorice aroma is distinct, fruit acidity is weak, smoothness is average, aroma is strong but lacks complexity.

2. Medium Roast (City):

The balance is excellent. At this roast level, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling can be said to have less of that MAN-like character, but gained some gentleness. The mouthfeel is purer than medium-dark roast, but the full-bodied richness is still good. Smoothness is noticeably better than medium-dark roast. Bitterness is still in a relatively prominent range, but obviously weaker than medium-dark roast. Fruit acidity has significantly improved. If you are a friend who cannot accept relatively obvious fruit acidity in coffee, then FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling at this roast level probably is not your cup of tea.

3. Medium-Light Roast (City):

This roast level of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling left me most conflicted - truly neither loving nor hating it. If medium-dark roasted FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling is characterized by prominent bitterness, then medium-light roasted FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has fruit acidity reaching the peak of what I can tolerate. But... but it's really, really smooth! The fruit acidity is obvious but very comfortable on the palate, with a mouth-watering sensation on both sides of the mouth. Moreover, the MAN-like character impression of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling has completely vanished, becoming fresh and light!

Final Recommendations

So, my conclusion is: if you are a friend who likes rich, full-bodied, low-acidity coffee, then毫不犹豫地 choose medium-dark roast.

But if you are a friend who can accept different levels of fruit acidity, then perhaps you can try medium and medium-light roast levels of Golden Mandheling.

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