Identifying Authentic Golden Coffee Beans - Introduction to Indonesia GAYO Mandheling Coffee Origin

The Unique Appeal of Mandheling Coffee

As the saying goes: "Different strokes for different folks," and everyone's preferred flavor profile varies. Asian coffees typically have a fuller body compared to those from Central and South America and Africa, but with less elegant acidity. They carry notes of wood, woody aromas, herbs, essential oils, spices, and earthy flavors, with deep, mellow aromatic notes predominating over bright fruity acidity. However, these flavor characteristics aren't universally appealing—some people fall in love at first sip, while others may never dare to try it again.

Mandheling coffee indeed offers a particularly rich and full-bodied experience. At FrontStreet Coffee, Mandheling coffee is quite popular! The name "Mandheling" isn't a place name. In fact, the origin of the Mandheling coffee name is a beautiful misunderstanding! FrontStreet Coffee learned that "Mandheling" is the phonetic translation of the Mandheling ethnic group from Indonesia's Mandailing region. During World War II when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier tasted incredibly fragrant and mellow coffee at a café. When he asked the owner for the coffee's name, the owner mistakenly thought he was asking about his nationality and replied: "Mandheling." After the war, the soldier recalled the "Mandheling" he had drunk in Indonesia and commissioned an Indonesian coffee exporter to ship 15 tons to Japan, where it became surprisingly popular, and the Mandheling name spread from there.

Indonesian Coffee Growing Regions

Every coffee-growing region has its unique flavor characteristics. Mandheling is primarily produced on Sumatra Island in Indonesia, the country's largest island located near the equator. It features a typical tropical rainforest climate with high temperatures, humidity, and abundant rainfall, making it ideal for growing high-quality Arabica coffee beans. However, Indonesia's growing regions have limited altitude, restricting the space available for cultivating premium Arabica coffee beans. Consequently, only 25% of coffee beans produced in Indonesia belong to the Arabica species, as Arabica can only develop optimal flavors when grown at high altitudes. The remaining 75% consists of Robusta coffee trees, which can be cultivated at lower elevations, and Sumatra hosts Indonesia's highest altitude areas.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee lists the variety for their Lindong Mandheling coffee as "Tim Tim Ateng," while the Golden Mandheling coffee variety is listed as "Ateng." What are these varieties? Golden Mandheling coffee beans are produced in the GAYO mountains of 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. It's essentially a branch of Catimor, with "Ateng" being the local name. What Indonesians call "Tim Tim" is what we refer to as "Timor." The Ateng variety is particularly well-suited for cultivation and flavor development in the Aceh region.

Initially, the Dutch brought Typica to Sumatra Island. Typica is the authentic Arabica coffee species. Later, due to the leaf rust epidemic that swept through Indonesia in 1877, the local government had to introduce more disease-resistant coffee varieties. The Indonesian government made extensive efforts, successively introducing Robusta, Timor from Timor Island, Catimor, Kent from India, and S795. From a biological perspective, except for Robusta, all introduced varieties belong to the Arabica species. Today, Robusta is generally distributed in the low-altitude southern regions of Sumatra Island, while Mandheling coffee is found in the high-altitude northern regions. The famous Mandheling-producing area "Two Lakes, Two Mandhs" refers to Lake Tawa and Lake Toba. Lake Tawa is located in northern Aceh, near the now-renowned Gayo Mountain, while Lake Toba is situated in the Lindong region.

Indonesia's Unique Processing Method: Wet Hulling

Mandheling coffee's distinctive herbal and woody deep aromas are inextricably linked to the local processing method. Indonesia is located in a typical tropical rainforest climate region with frequent rainfall and limited sunshine duration, making it unsuitable for natural processing methods. Additionally, local economic conditions are modest, lacking sufficient funds to invest in fully washed processing methods. This led to the development of this semi-washed processing method. It's one of the world's rare processing methods that accidentally created Mandheling's special low-acidity, thick, and mellow flavor profile.

The local specialty "wet hulling" method involves processing when the beans are still moist and soft, with moisture content as high as 30%-50%. This means farmers process freshly picked coffee cherries from trees on the same day, using wooden pulpers to remove the coffee cherry's skin and pulp, followed by 3 hours of fermentation before drying. When the parchment beans reach a semi-dry, semi-wet state, they are collected and sold to local coffee processing stations.

Upon receiving these semi-dry, semi-wet parchment beans, coffee processing stations first remove the mucilage layer and parchment, then continue with the final sun-drying stage. This approach shortens the required drying time for green coffee beans to between 2-4 days, until the moisture content drops to 12%-13% for warehouse storage. Generally, many coffee post-processing methods don't remove the parchment layer until moisture content drops below 13%, but wet hulling is an exception. Coffee processed through wet hulling shows significantly reduced fermentation time and acidity, but increased thickness, with prominent caramel and fruit notes, and slight woody and herbal flavors—this is the classic "terroir taste" of Sumatran coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Selection

FrontStreet Coffee offers three types of Mandheling coffee: Lindong Mandheling, Golden Mandheling, and Tiger Mandheling.

Golden Mandheling

As mentioned earlier, the addition of "Golden" to the name—does this mean it's particularly precious? Actually, Golden Mandheling is not a grade but a trademark registered by Indonesian coffee company P.W.N. (N.V. Pawani Medan), established in 1957. The company exports Indonesian products including coffee, rubber, cinnamon, cloves, and patchouli oil. It was Indonesia's first company to export coffee from North Sumatra Island and the first to make "Mandheling Coffee" famous in Japan. Since 1977, the company has focused on exporting premium Sumatran Arabica coffee Mandheling Grade 1 and Robusta coffee AP-I Grade 2, primarily to Japan, Taiwan, and the United States, with Japan and Taiwan accounting for over 95% of exports. In Japan and Taiwan, "PWN" has become synonymous with "quality assurance." P.W.N. holds the "Golden Mandheling" trademark, so Japanese companies had to register the separate "Gold Top Mandheling" trademark.

Due to the exceptional quality of Golden Mandheling, its selling price is significantly higher than regular Mandheling, which is why the market is flooded with counterfeit Golden Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that authentic Golden Mandheling must be a product from Indonesia's PWN coffee company (the Golden Mandheling trademark is owned by PWN). Imported Golden Mandheling green beans always come with a PWN company certificate for authentication. If sellers cannot provide information about the Golden Mandheling green bean source (certificate or burlap bags), caution should be exercised in verification.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling on their bean menu is from PWN company. FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans have a green bean size specification above 18 screen, with fewer than 3 defective beans per 300g sample, graded at the highest G1 level. Additionally, PWN company performed three manual sorting processes for this batch, removing defective beans as completely as possible to ensure cleaner taste, more pronounced sweetness, and stronger aroma.

Tiger Mandheling

Tiger Mandheling coffee can only be called such when it meets the criteria of being above 17 screen with a defect rate below 4%. Its green beans are plump, greenish-yellow, with good uniformity and higher moisture content. Since Tiger Mandheling's main varieties are Caturra and Typica, Caturra brings citrus and lemon acidity in flavor, while Typica provides persistent sweet aftertaste, making Tiger Mandheling relatively balanced with high clarity. The roasting target is medium-dark, reducing excessive acidity while enhancing body and balance.

Tiger Mandheling grows in Indonesia, with main producing regions located on the three islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. Tiger Mandheling is produced at Tiger Estate, hence also called "Mandheling Tiger" or "Sumatran Tiger Mandheling." The northern part of Sumatra Island has relatively high terrain and altitude. The Aceh province where Lake Tawa is located and North Sumatra where Lake Toba sits are the main Arabica coffee producing regions. Lake Tawa is located in the Gayo mountain area of northern Aceh province. Indonesia, straddling both sides of the equator, has a humid tropical rainforest climate with abundant rainfall and fertile volcanic soil that provides rich nutrients for coffee. However, due to remote locations and inconvenient transportation, coffee cultivation only began in 1924, mostly using traditional shade-grown, pesticide-free organic farming methods.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Brewing Recommendations

Mandheling coffee uses dark roasting, and FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a Kono dripper, water temperature around 88°C, water-to-coffee ratio of 1:15, 15g coffee dose, and grinding at EK43s grinder setting 11 (75% pass-through on China standard #20 sieve).

Use分段式萃取 (segmented extraction), bloom with twice the coffee weight in water—that is, 30g water for 30 seconds. Starting from 31 seconds, continue pouring in small circular motions to 125g, then continue pouring to 225g and stop. Remove the dripper once all water has dripped through. Time from the start of pouring: extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the entire coffee and shake well, then pour into cups for tasting.

Lindong Mandheling: Rich nutty notes with a hint of melon aroma in the finish. As temperature drops, herbal plant flavors emerge, with full body and rich layering.

PWN Golden Mandheling: Intense nutty flavors. As temperature slightly decreases, melon, herbal, and spice notes begin to emerge, with black chocolate aftertaste and prominent caramel sweetness. Clean and smooth mouthfeel.

Tiger Mandheling: Relatively balanced flavor with high clarity, featuring distinct cream, black chocolate, and nut notes.

For coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans to maximize the experience of coffee's rich flavors. All coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are 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 every customer receives the freshest coffee upon delivery. The coffee degassing period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at peak flavor.

Of course, some customers need FrontStreet Coffee to grind their beans, which is fine, but FrontStreet Coffee must remind that pre-ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly. Once ground into coffee powder, there's no need for degassing because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide buildup in the packaging also helps round out the coffee flavors, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the ground coffee.

However, coffee powder oxidizes quickly when exposed to air, meaning coffee flavors dissipate relatively quickly, diminishing the overall quality. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better appreciate coffee's flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee offers over 50 different single-origin coffees from various regions with different flavor profiles, perfectly satisfying everyone's curiosity and exploration of coffee!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473