Pawani Golden Mandheling Coffee Flavor Profile and Characteristics | Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Bean Origin and Variety Introduction

The Legend of Golden Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee is a devoted fan of Mandheling coffee, and among FrontStreet Coffee's daily supply beans, Mandheling coffee is one of the best-selling varieties. However, when first encountering Mandheling coffee, one might be intimidated by its herbal and rich flavors, with the initial impression being: how can it be so bitter? Perhaps we're not accustomed to it, but FrontStreet Coffee has noticed an interesting pattern: most friends who enjoy Mandheling coffee are predominantly male, especially Golden Mandheling coffee, which is particularly popular, while women tend to prefer the fresh and bright flavors of Ethiopian coffee.

Mandheling is an Asian coffee bean, naturally featuring rich and herbal flavors, representing the finest of Indonesian coffee. Mandheling coffee is produced on Sumatra Island in Indonesia. Due to the natural, pollution-free land and special varieties, Mandheling coffee possesses a round, full-bodied texture that becomes exceptionally divine when paired with milk. With its rich texture, heavy mouthfeel, excellent consistency, syrup-like smoothness, and extremely low acidity, it has long been one of the most popular single-origin coffees in Asia. After dark roasting, it reveals intense woody aromas and cheese-like fragrances, with prominent bitterness complemented by mild acidity, and an aftertaste as rich and astringent as Bordeaux red wine.

If regular Mandheling coffee offers such distinctive flavors, what about Golden Mandheling coffee? Golden Mandheling coffee represents the pinnacle of Indonesian specialty coffee, surpassing regular Mandheling in both quality and flavor profile. Naturally, its price is also considerably higher.

So how can we distinguish Golden Mandheling coffee? And how can we identify it?

Golden Mandheling is produced in the Lintong region of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The harvesting process is limited to manual single-berry picking of fully ripe fruits, ensuring preliminary bean selection quality. The coffee cherries are processed using the SEMI-WASHED method, naturally sun-dried, then undergo hulling followed by another drying refinement process, two rounds of raw bean cleaning, and four Hand-Pick manual selection procedures.

PWN company follows extremely strict standards when producing Golden Mandheling coffee beans. Under Indonesia's highest coffee grade G1 standards, they apply three additional manual selections, thereby ensuring appearance quality and significantly reducing defect rates. The PWN Golden Mandheling selected through this process ultimately presents uniform color and consistent bean shape. When tasted, it not only lacks the earthy impurities typical of regular Mandheling but also offers a cleaner, brighter flavor with intensified sweetness.

The quality of PWN Golden Mandheling is also reflected in its price. Some merchants label their Mandheling coffee beans as "Golden Mandheling" to command higher prices without indicating whether they come from PWN company. To make their products closely resemble PWN Golden Mandheling in appearance, some merchants select G1 grade coffee beans of 18 mesh or larger from regular Mandheling coffee beans, then apply three additional manual selections to match the appearance of PWN's Golden Mandheling as closely as possible. Even if the appearance can be maximally similar, the flavor of PWN Golden Mandheling remains difficult to imitate.

FrontStreet Coffee's baristas have conducted blind tastings of multiple Golden Mandheling coffee beans and were able to accurately identify PWN company's Golden Mandheling. This is because the clean flavor profile of PWN's Golden Mandheling is unparalleled by other Golden Mandheling varieties.

PWN's full name is Pawani, a renowned Indonesian raw bean acquisition company that primarily targets Mandheling coffee varieties for acquisition. They have completely acquired the finest coffee-growing regions in Indonesia, with high-quality Mandheling coffee all coming from Pawani. The company was established in 1957, initially dealing in rubber business. Due to frequent business dealings with Japanese merchants, Japanese companies requested them to source their beloved Mandheling, leading them to collect fine Arabica raw bean sources in the GAYO region of Aceh province. After many trials of sending samples, they finally found Mandheling that met their requirements.

This means that only PWN company's Golden Mandheling is truly Golden Mandheling in the authentic sense.

Golden Mandheling Coffee Varieties

Indonesia has a very long history of coffee cultivation. Previously, Arabica was grown, but due to leaf rust disease, currently 90% of Indonesia's exported coffee beans are Robusta, with only 10% being Arabica. FrontStreet Coffee's new season Golden Mandheling comes from Mount Gayo in North Sumatra's Aceh region. The variety is Ateng, which is a hybrid between Arabica and Robusta, widely cultivated in Sumatra and other Indonesian islands. Ateng is actually the local name for Catimor coffee.

Mount Gayo in Aceh is located at the northernmost tip of Sumatra Island. Coffee cultivation in the Gayo Mountains primarily surrounds the town of Takegon and the hillside areas near Lake Tawar. The elevation in production areas averages between 1100-1600 meters, and the coffee quality has always been excellent. However, due to previous political instability, coffee from this region was difficult to export. In recent years, with improved stability, Aceh's coffee cultivation has developed, and its quality has surpassed that of the Lintong region.

Golden Mandheling Coffee Processing Method

FrontStreet Coffee believes that any coffee's flavor is inextricably linked to its processing method—it directly influences the coffee's flavor profile. Indonesia's perennially hot and humid climate coupled with water scarcity led Indonesian coffee farmers to develop a method that could better strip and dry coffee beans while conserving water: the Wet Hulling method, also known as wet dehulling. This has become the standard processing method for Mandheling coffee beans.

The wet hulling processing method is characterized by staged, rapid drying and removal of parchment during drying. Teacher Han Huaizong describes this as a rare processing method worldwide that accidentally created Mandheling's distinctive low-acidity, thick, and mellow aromatic flavors. Golden Mandheling coffee adopts this locally common wet hulling processing method.

Why Most Mandheling Coffee is Medium-Dark Roasted

FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that in the past, Mandheling coffee on the market uniformly adopted medium-dark roasting, presenting a classic rich black coffee flavor profile. With the development of specialty coffee culture in recent years, people have begun pursuing more unique coffee flavors, and many merchants now offer medium-roasted or even medium-light roasted Mandheling coffee. The lighter the roast, the more acidity the coffee beans retain, with flavors dominated by fruit, herbal, and tea notes, while body is lower. Some customers have also asked FrontStreet Coffee: since medium-light roasted Mandheling is so refreshing, why not roast it lighter?

Those who regularly drink Mandheling coffee should be familiar with Sumatra's wet hulling method. In wet hulling, before the final drying stage, beans are poured into a huller using significant friction to tear off the semi-dry parchment layer tightly attached to the raw beans. Through the friction stirring, the raw beans are easily crushed or bruised. The "naked beans" without parchment dry very quickly but are also directly exposed to humid environments, fostering various bacterial growths.

Although wet hulling indeed creates Mandheling's unique herbal and woody aromas, it also results in higher defect rates in raw beans. Dark roasting can perfectly mask this defect. Additionally, Mandheling's fame originated from early Japanese discovery, and according to their flavor preferences, nothing beats the Japanese-style dark roast. This is why most Mandheling coffee is roasted so dark. FrontStreet Coffee wants everyone to experience the classic Mandheling flavor, so FrontStreet Coffee's two regularly sold Mandheling varieties both use medium-dark roasting, including Lintong region Mandheling daily supply beans and PWN Golden Mandheling coffee from the Aceh region.

How to Brew Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

So how should we hand-brew these Golden Mandheling coffee beans?

Coffee beans have light and dark roast distinctions, and brewing techniques differ accordingly. Golden Mandheling coffee beans belong to the dark roast category, so water temperature should not be too high, and a Kono dripper should be used. Lower water temperature is chosen to avoid extracting excessive unwanted flavors. Because dark roast coffee itself releases abundant aromatic compounds the moment water hits it, continuing to use light roast water temperatures for extraction would lead to over-extraction, making the coffee likely taste sour, bitter, and astringent. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee reduces the water temperature slightly. For light roast coffee, the brewing water temperature is 91-93°C, while for medium-dark roast coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88°C.

FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono dripper because V60 drippers have too fast flow rates, which can lead to under-extraction at low water temperatures. The Kono dripper has fewer ribs located at the bottom, causing the filter paper to fit tightly against the dripper, restricting airflow and increasing contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing for full extraction and enhancing the rich mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling Brewing Parameters:

Water Temperature: 88°C, Bean Amount: 15g, Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15, Grind Size: Medium-fine (70% pass-through rate on #20 sieve).

Use segmented extraction, blooming with twice the coffee weight in water, i.e., 30g of water for 30 seconds. The blooming process is necessary to allow the coffee grounds to release internal carbon dioxide, ensuring more stable subsequent extraction. Using a small stream, pour water in a circular motion to 125g, then continue pouring to 225g and stop. Once the water has finished dripping from the dripper, remove it. Timing from the start of pouring, the extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the entire pot of coffee and shake it gently, then pour into cups for tasting.

PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean Flavor Profile:

The coffee exhibits multi-layered complexity, rich yet clean, with intense nut and caramel aromas, chocolate notes, a persistent aftertaste, and excellent balance.

FrontStreet Coffee offers over fifty different single-origin coffee beans from various regions, fully satisfying coffee enthusiasts' needs! Different regions, different flavors—welcome to FrontStreet Coffee to explore and experience!

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