Introduction to Mandheling Premium Coffee Beans: Expressing the Unique Flavor and Rich Body of Mandheling Coffee

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Many people, influenced by pour-over flavors, believe that medium-dark roasted Mandheling is not suitable for pour-over, and only medium-light roast is appropriate. This is a misconception. Although pour-over coffee was not born in Japan, it developed into a relatively complete system there. The time and place where pour-over coffee became popular coincided with the Japanese deep roast style. The ability to form a large "hamburger" during pour-over blooming is perfectly demonstrated by medium-dark roasted Mandheling.

Origin and History

Mandheling coffee is produced in Sumatra, Indonesia, and is also known as "Sumatra coffee." Mandheling is a premium Mandheling coffee bean grown on plateau mountains at altitudes of 750-1500 meters. It belongs to the rare Arabica variety in Indonesia, with the first-grade Mandheling from Takengon and Sidikalang being of the best quality. Its flavor is very rich, fragrant, bitter, and mellow, with a slight sweetness. Most coffee enthusiasts drink it as a single origin, but it is also an indispensable variety for blended coffee.

In the 17th century, the Dutch first introduced Arabica seedlings to Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka) and Indonesia. In 1877, a large-scale disaster struck the Indonesian islands. Coffee leaf rust disease destroyed almost all coffee trees, forcing people to abandon the Arabica they had cultivated for many years and introduce Robusta coffee trees from Africa, which had strong disease resistance. Today, Indonesia is a major coffee-producing country, with coffee mainly produced in Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. Robusta varieties account for 90% of total production. Sumatra Mandheling, however, is the rare Arabica variety.

The name Mandheling is quite different from other coffee beans. It is not a production area, place name, port name, or even a coffee variety name. The name is merely a phonetic error of the Indonesian Mandheling ethnic group.

Why is this ethnic group associated with coffee? There's actually a story of a fortunate mistake. Researching historical materials reveals that during World War II, Japan occupied Indonesia. One Japanese soldier drank an incredibly delicious coffee at a local coffee shop and immediately asked the owner for the name of this coffee. However, due to the language barrier, the owner mistakenly thought he was asking, "Where are you from?" and replied, "Mandheling tribe." After World War II ended, this Japanese soldier recalled the "Mandheling" he had drunk in Indonesia and asked an Indonesian broker to ship fifteen tons of Mandheling coffee beans to Japan. The result was very popular in the Japanese coffee market, and thus the name Mandheling has been passed down to this day.

Varieties

Sumatra Typica

This is the longest-cultivated variety in Indonesia. As early as the late 17th century, the Dutch introduced it from India to Java for cultivation. Following Java's successful cultivation and widespread promotion, it was planted on the larger northern island of Sumatra. The Typica planted in Indonesia at that time was coffee with excellent flavor expression. After long-term adaptation to the local growing environment, it developed Indonesian characteristics of low acidity, high sweetness, and herbal aromatic flavors.

When leaf rust swept through Indonesia in 1877, most Typica throughout Indonesia became diseased and withered. The Indonesian government could only introduce disease-resistant varieties for replacement. Today, Sumatra Typica is mainly distributed around Lake Toba and the Lindong area. The Lindong Mandheling regional beans stocked by FrontStreet Coffee contain this excellent Typica variety.

You generally won't hear the term "Sumatra Typica" in Indonesia. They use names like Bergendal, Sidikalang, and Rambung to represent Sumatra Typica. It is also the finest coffee bean variety among Indonesian Mandheling.

Catimor

In 1959, the Portuguese moved the Bourbon mutation variety Caturra from Brazil to East Timor and crossbred it with Timor, which has Robusta bloodline. It possesses extremely high disease resistance and is three times more productive than Typica. During the leaf rust crisis, the Indonesian government not only introduced Robusta (whose flavor differs greatly from Arabica) but also introduced Timor from East Timbo with the intention of replacing Typica. According to later expert investigations, a batch of Timor seeds introduced by the Indonesian government in 1980 was mixed with some Catimor seeds. These seeds were planted in Aceh, northern Sumatra. Catimor was first noticed in the central Aceh region, so locals also call Catimor "Ateng," taken from Aceh Tengah (Central Aceh).

Because Ateng's disease resistance and productivity are superior to Typica, and after years of local adaptation, the wild flavor of Catimor in Ateng has been tamed and is loved by coffee farmers, spreading from Aceh to Lake Toba. The Ateng from Aceh also caught the attention of PWN (Pawani), Indonesia's largest green coffee bean supplier. Currently, the 2020 latest harvest Golden Mandheling coffee variety stocked by FrontStreet Coffee comes from Ateng in Gayo Mountain, Aceh.

Processing Method

Mandheling coffee mostly uses Sumatra's unique wet-hulled processing method. Due to water scarcity, Mandheling was initially mainly natural processed, with the disadvantage of inconsistent quality. Later, Brazilian semi-natural processing was tried, but the local weather is often rainy with constant typhoons and perennial humidity, making it impossible to achieve the good weather required for natural processing.

The local economy was also limited, unable to use the more expensive washed processing method. Finally, the unique local wet-hulled processing method was developed. The characteristics of wet-hulled processing are phased, rapid drying and hulling the parchment while still moist. Teacher Han Huaizong described it as "This is also a world-rare processing method that accidentally created Mandheling's special low acidity, thick body, and mellow aroma." Today, Indonesian coffee has developed beyond the originally poor景象, and there are many estates and companies with conditions to use washed processing. However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the wet-hulled method is one of the factors that made Mandheling coffee known to the world.

Speaking of Mandheling coffee, FrontStreet Coffee loves its rich aroma, full body, and strong flavor, while the unique herbal spice flavor is also a hallmark of Mandheling coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's two Mandheling coffees are very representative: Lindong Mandheling and Golden Mandheling.

Lindong Mandheling

Lindong Mandheling is produced in the Lindong mountainous area of north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level daily drinking bean from Indonesia's Mandheling region comes from here. Lindong Mandheling also uses the unique wet-hulled method, creating its characteristics of low acidity and high body.

It's worth noting that when using the wet-hulled method, because the semi-hard, semi-soft moist green beans are easily bruised when the mucilage parchment layer is removed, the beans crack open like sheep's hooves, commonly known as "sheep hoof beans." FrontStreet Coffee believes this is a very distinctive characteristic of Mandheling and not considered a defect bean.

Golden Mandheling

Golden Mandheling coffee beans are produced from Lake Tawa in Mount Gayo, northwestern Sumatra. The specification standard for Golden Mandheling is 18 screen or larger, with fewer than 3 defect beans (300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest grade G1 level, with a dark green color and uniform flat bean shape. After strict screening, FrontStreet Coffee found that Golden Mandheling not only lacks the typical earthy impurity flavor of regular Mandheling but also tastes cleaner and more transparent.

Why did the concept of Golden Mandheling emerge? As we just learned, the wet-hulled method produces situations similar to sheep hoof beans during processing. To improve the problem of many defect beans, Japanese people began cooperating with local green bean suppliers to establish strict screening systems. After processing, the green beans undergo density and color sorting, followed by four rounds of manual bean selection, finally presenting Mandheling with uniform color and consistent bean shape. It is said that when processing green beans, Mandheling emits a golden luster under sunlight, hence the name Golden Mandheling.

However, it wasn't a Japanese company that registered Golden Mandheling as a trademark, but the local Indonesian company that cooperated with Japanese companies to export Mandheling green beans—PWN Company (Pawani Coffee Company). Japanese companies could only register "Gold Top Mandheling," which is Ding Shang Golden Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee believes there isn't much difference in flavor expression between the two. But since Golden Mandheling was registered as a trademark by PWN Company, the five characters "Golden Mandheling" became PWN's exclusive property. Some time ago, FrontStreet Coffee also purchased the new harvest PWN Golden Mandheling, produced from GAYO Mountain in North Sumatra's Aceh, with the variety Ateng. (Ateng is a hybrid variety between Arabica and Robusta, widely planted in Sumatra and other Indonesian islands.)

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Brewing

When brewing deep roast coffee beans like Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee suggests choosing the Kono dripper. This can enhance the coffee's rich body. If unavailable, a V60 dripper can also be used.

For coffee grind size, the grind for brewing Mandheling coffee should be slightly coarser than for light roast coffee beans. Because Mandheling uses deep roasting, its structure is more porous and more easily absorbs water to release coffee substances. If ground to the fineness of light roast beans, it's easy to brew out burnt bitter flavors; if ground even coarser, the coffee becomes thin and tasteless, with a watery body. The coarseness level should be 70% pass-through through a #20 sieve.

For water temperature, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using 87-88°C water for brewing. Many cases of burnt bitter flavors come from water temperature being too high. Of course, too low water temperature will also make the coffee flat and tasteless.

For the coffee-to-water ratio in brewing, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 1:15. Although some brewing methods suggest 1:13 or smaller ratios for a richer taste, this approach of reducing the ratio is partly to avoid the bitter impurity flavors in the tail section, which correspondingly affects the aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee believes that as long as you master the relationship between water temperature and grind size, using a 1:15 ratio can better express the overall flavor perception of Golden Mandheling.

The brewing method uses the common three-stage pouring method. Dividing the pour into three stages can better express Mandheling coffee's rich body and caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first stage bloom with 30ml water, fully wetting the coffee grounds for degassing to better extract coffee flavor substances in subsequent stages; second stage pour 100ml, mainly to bring out all the golden foam of Mandheling.

The final stage gently pours 95ml in the center, which can enhance the coffee's sweetness, overall expressing a thick, rich body with caramel sweetness and chocolate, nut flavors.

Important Notice :

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