Indonesian Specialty Coffee Bean Origin Flavor Profile: PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean Brand Quality and Characteristics

Golden Mandheling: The Crown Jewel of Indonesian Premium Coffee

As the exclusive brand of PWN green bean company, the unique Mandheling coffee has become a renowned representative of Indonesian premium coffee with the addition of "Golden." FrontStreet Coffee's article explains what makes PWN Golden Mandheling coffee so distinctive.

Authentic Golden Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean menu offers two types of Indonesian Mandheling coffee for selection, with the most popular being the "PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee," which undergoes multiple hand-sorting processes. It not only carries Mandheling's classic herbal spice aromas and rich, mellow mouthfeel but the reduced defect rate minimizes the off-flavors commonly found in regular Indonesian coffee beans, elevating the cleanliness to another level.

"Golden Mandheling" is the exclusive brand of Pwani Coffee Company (PWN). While there are many different types of Mandheling products on the market, since PWN has registered "Golden Mandheling" as the company's trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN can be considered truly authentic Golden Mandheling. You can identify authentic Golden Mandheling by the gunny sacks with PWN markings and a certificate of origin signed by PWN. FrontStreet Coffee displays both of these identification marks in its Dongshankou store.

Observing the Golden Mandheling gunny sacks, we can see "Triple pick" and "GRADE 1" markings, indicating it belongs to the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. During production, PWN conducted three rounds of hand-sorting on top of the acquired GRADE 1 green beans.

Indonesian coffee green bean grading is primarily based on the number of defective beans, with size as a secondary factor. General quality requirements include no live insects, no moldy or rotten beans, maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and impurity rate below 0.5%. According to defect rate, they are classified into six grades, with the highest grade G1 requiring fewer than 11 defective beans in a 300g sample. The Lindong Mandheling coffee from FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series is G1, produced in the Lindong region of Sumatra using the wet-hulled processing method, presenting classic Indonesian Mandheling flavors: dark chocolate, nuts, herbal spices, and caramel.

PWN Company, which takes sorting to the extreme, conducts multiple strict selections on GRADE 1 Mandheling, minimizing the coffee's defect rate, removing earthy off-flavors, and enhancing Mandheling's sweetness and cleanliness. Additionally, before packaging, PWN places the green beans in machines for density-based color sorting, ensuring the produced Golden Mandheling green beans are large, uniform, and bright in color.

Mandheling: Also Known as Sumatran Coffee

Like various vegetables and fruits, coffee is also an agricultural product. Its flavor is always closely related to factors such as variety, climate, altitude, soil, and management. It is a natural and authentic expression of the variety and local terroir. Post-processing methods and roasting should maximize the preservation, restoration, and presentation of their most authentic flavors. The unique flavor formation of Mandheling is inseparable from the mysterious island of Sumatra.

The entire Sumatra is divided into eight provinces, with only the high-altitude Aceh and North Sumatra provinces cultivating Arabica coffee on a large scale. As Sumatra belongs to the tropical rainforest region, clouds and rain often linger in the mountains, casting a mysterious veil over Sumatra. Locals plant coffee trees around two major volcanic lakes: Lake Tawar and Lake Toba. The Gayo Mountains around Lake Tawar have ideal coffee growing conditions, widely adopting organic farming practices, and coupled with a long history of cultivation, the coffee produced here has higher quality and yield. Therefore, many green bean merchants also place greater importance on this area, including the renowned local Pwani Coffee Company (PWN).

Semi-Washed Method: Wet-Hulled Processing

Friends who often drink Mandheling coffee are certainly familiar with wet-hulled processing. The processing time for wet-hulled method is much shorter than washed processing. Traditional washed processing requires 1-3 weeks, while wet-hulled processing can complete the entire process in just a few days. The wet-hulled processing first removes the skin and pulp of coffee cherries, followed by brief fermentation and drying. When the beans are semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and the beans continue through the final drying stage until reaching 12% moisture content, at which point they can be packaged for sorting and grading.

This seemingly time-saving wet-hulled processing, if not strictly controlled, is highly susceptible to moisture and mold in Indonesia's hot and humid environment. However, besides Sumatra, Sulawesi and Papua New Guinea also widely use this processing method. This is because Indonesia has a tropical rainforest climate with air humidity reaching 70-90%, making it impossible to dry coffee beans through prolonged sun exposure, and washed processing costs are quite high, forcing coffee farmers to develop this semi-washed processing method. Although the time for each step is significantly reduced, the de-parchmented green beans still absorb moisture from the hot and humid air, giving the produced Mandheling coffee additional woody, herbal, and spicy mellow aromas.

To present classic Mandheling flavors, FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-dark roasting to eliminate excessive acidity from Mandheling while enhancing its body and balance. During cupping, FrontStreet Coffee experienced Golden Mandheling carrying aromas of spices, herbal plants, and pine, along with rich, bitter-sweet flavors of caramel, nuts, and pure dark chocolate, with a refreshing sweet aftertaste of melons and fruits. It offers diverse layers, rich cleanliness, and high balance.

Flavor Characteristics of Medium-Dark Roasted Golden Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's flavor descriptions for each coffee are based on freshly roasted beans. If coffee beans have been stored for over a month, some aroma may have been lost, making it difficult to restore during brewing. FrontStreet Coffee is well aware of the importance of freshness, so it ensures only coffee beans roasted within 5 days are shipped, allowing everyone to enjoy the complete flavor window upon receipt.

When brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses different brewing parameters than for light-roasted beans to present richer chocolate notes. The caramelization reaction is greater than in light-roasted beans, making it easier to extract bitter-tasting large molecular substances. To avoid extracting excessive off-flavors, FrontStreet Coffee slightly reduces the water temperature. For light-roasted coffee, the brewing water temperature is 91-93℃, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88℃.

The grind size will also be adjusted slightly coarser, paired with Kono dripper for segmented extraction. The Kono dripper has few ribs located at the bottom, and the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, which can restrict airflow and increase contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the rich mouthfeel.

Brewing Parameters:

Dripper: Kono dripper
Water temperature: 88℃
Coffee dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 70-75% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, starting with 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. When small stream circular pouring reaches 125g, segmentation occurs. Continue pouring to 225g when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed. Remove the dripper when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed (timing starts from bloom). Total extraction time is 2'00".

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473