Introduction to the origin of Mandheling specialty coffee: Where does Mandheling coffee come from? Where is Mandheling produced?

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One of the world's most expensive coffees, Kopi Luwak, comes from Indonesia, while the most representative coffee is FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling. Mandheling coffee has moderate acidity, an extremely rich aroma, a rather bitter taste, and rich body with a thick, full texture. Its flavor combines aroma, richness, smoothness, and bitterness all in one. Of course, for friends who don't like this taste, Mandheling coffee is like a cup of traditional Chinese medicine that's difficult to drink.

Indonesian Coffee History

Indonesia is a major coffee producer in Asia and ranks among the top coffee-producing countries globally. Although Indonesia has the largest coffee cultivation area in the world, its low coffee production efficiency means that Indonesian coffee production ranks third in the world, after Brazil and Vietnam.

In 1699, when Indonesia was still under Dutch colonial rule, the VOC (Vereeniging Oost-Indische Compagnie) introduced Arabica coffee plants to break the Arab global monopoly on coffee trade. The Dutch colonial government initially planted coffee around Batavia (now Jakarta).

More coffee plantations were established in East Java, Central Java, West Java, as well as parts of Sumatra and Sulawesi. Indonesia was the first place outside Arabia and Ethiopia to widely grow coffee. The VOC monopolized the coffee trade between 1725 and 1780.

By the mid-17th century, the VOC expanded Arabica coffee cultivation areas in Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi, and Timor. On Sulawesi Island, coffee was first planted in 1750. In the North Sumatra highlands, coffee was first planted near Lake Toba in 1888, followed by planting in the Gayo Highlands (Aceh) near Lake Laut Tawar in 1924. In the late 18th century, Dutch colonists established large coffee plantations on the Ijen Plateau in eastern Java.

In the 1920s, small farmers across Indonesia began growing coffee as a cash crop. However, disaster struck in 1876 when coffee leaf rust swept through Indonesia, eliminating most of the Typica variety. Robusta coffee (C. canephora var. robusta) was introduced as a replacement in East Java in 1900, especially in low-altitude areas where the rust was particularly severe.

The plantations on Java Island were nationalized at independence and revitalized with new Arabica varieties in the 1950s. These varieties were also adopted by small farmers through government and various development programs. Today, more than 90% of Indonesia's coffee is grown by small farmers on farms averaging one hectare or less.

Mandheling Coffee Growing Environment and Varieties

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic country, known as the "country of a thousand islands." The islands are relatively scattered, with rugged mountains and hills within each island, and only narrow coastal plains with shallow seas and coral reefs surrounding them. Indonesia has a typical tropical rainforest climate with average annual temperatures of 25-27°C and no distinct seasons. The northern part is affected by the Northern Hemisphere monsoon, with abundant rainfall from July to September, while the southern part is affected by the Southern Hemisphere monsoon, with abundant rainfall in December, January, and February, with annual precipitation of 1600-2200 mm. Indonesia's higher altitudes, volcanic ash soil, and climate characteristics are all excellent conditions suitable for Arabica coffee tree growth.

At the end of the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company transplanted Arabica coffee trees from India to Jakarta on Java Island. Due to the suitable climate and soil conditions, Arabica quickly spread to Sumatra and Sulawesi, another large island to the northeast. However, in 1880, a serious leaf rust outbreak occurred in Java, killing almost all Arabica trees. The Dutch switched to planting more disease-resistant Robusta coffee varieties to stabilize Indonesia's coffee industry. To this day, Robusta remains the mainstay of Indonesian coffee, with Indonesian Robusta accounting for approximately 85% of national production, distributed in low-altitude areas of Java and Bali. Arabica production accounts for 15%, distributed in higher altitude areas of northern Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Java.

FrontStreet Coffee's Lin Dong Mandheling coffee variety is TimTim Ateng, while FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee variety is listed as: Ateng. In fact, TimTim is actually Timor, an Arabica variety with Robusta bloodlines, while Ateng is Catimor, a hybrid of Caturra and Catimor. These variety names are just local terminology.

Indonesian Coffee Growing Regions

Sumatra

Sumatra is a large island in western Indonesia, located on the equator, covering an area of 473,000 square kilometers, making it the sixth largest island in the world. It is separated from the Malay Peninsula by the Strait of Malacca to the northeast, bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west, and divided by the equator. It has a tropical rainforest climate, perfectly situated on the "coffee belt." The broadly defined "Mandheling" coffee all comes from this island. Sumatra is not only the largest island in Indonesia but also the sixth largest island in the world. It is located in the northwestern region of Indonesia. Due to its geographical location, Sumatra has the country's earliest harvest season from November to March.

FrontStreet Coffee's Lin Dong Mandheling comes from the Lin Dong mountainous area in north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. FrontStreet Coffee's Lin Dong Mandheling is the regular version of Sumatran Mandheling.

Lake Toba, located in the central part of North Sumatra Province, where Dutch colonists moved "Java Mandheling" north to the Lake Toba region in 1888, creating the modern Mandheling legend.

Lake Tawar, located in the central part of the Aceh Special Autonomous Region. It is situated at the northern end of Sumatra Island, with an area less than one-tenth of Lake Toba.

Currently, the highest quality beans from the entire Sumatra region come from the GAYO mountainous area, mostly planted with old varieties. The Gayo mountains are located in the Aceh producing area of North Sumatra Province, with altitudes between 1500-2500 meters. Most coffee farmers are local indigenous people - the GAYO people. This region has ideal growing conditions for coffee - high altitude, fertile soil, and abundant rainfall. Lake Tawar provides rich water resources, and the area widely uses organic methods for coffee cultivation without chemical fertilizers, making it considered a world green coffee production region. Therefore, Gayo coffee is often called green coffee or Gayo organic coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee currently offers two Indonesian coffee beans, both from the origin of specialty Mandheling coffee. "FrontStreet Coffee - Staple Series Lin Dong Mandheling Coffee Beans" exhibits flavors of toasted bread, nuts, caramel, pine, and herbs. "FrontStreet Coffee - PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans" exhibits flavors of spices, nuts, pine, caramel, herbs, and dark chocolate.

Bali

Bali is famous for its beautiful beaches, coral reefs, and yoga and meditation retreats. This tropical paradise offers some of the best coffee that Indonesia and indeed the world have to offer. Most coffee grows in the Kintamani highlands located between the Batukaru and Agung volcanoes.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Grading System

Indonesia is located near the equator and has a tropical rainforest climate. Mass-produced coffee beans mostly undergo rough wet hulling processing. Wet hulling greatly accelerates the entire processing process. However, removing the parchment layer while the beans are still semi-dry requires significant friction, so the raw beans are easily crushed and squeezed, especially at both ends, forming small cracks. Therefore, the defect rate of Indonesian coffee beans processed by wet hulling is generally high, so raw bean merchants arrange manual hand-picking before export to remove incomplete beans with defects.

Indonesian coffee grading is mainly based on the number of defective beans, supplemented by size grading. Indonesia's general quality requirements are no live insects, no moldy rotten beans, maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and impurity rate less than 0.5%. Grading by defect rate (based on 300g), Grade standards are mainly divided into 6 levels, namely G1-G6.

Usually, the coarse gunny sacks containing raw Indonesian coffee beans will be labeled with: Country + Grade Name + Raw Bean Merchant. For example, both FrontStreet Coffee's Lin Dong Mandheling and FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list are G1 grade. The raw bean sack of FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling is printed with "PWN GOLDEN MANDHELING TRIPLE PICKED Grade 1 PROD OF INDONESIA 30KGS NET".

Golden Mandheling

Indonesia's PWN company, based on G1 grade, underwent one machine selection plus three manual selections, producing Mandheling raw beans with uniform color and regular, neat sizes, belonging to extremely high-quality Indonesian coffee beans. PWN is a famous raw bean purchasing company in Indonesia. They use one machine selection plus three manual hand selections for wet-hulled Mandheling raw beans to ensure that the produced batches reach Indonesia's highest G1 grade. The purpose of machine selection is to first screen beans that must be above 18 mesh size, with fewer than 3 defective beans (in a 300g raw bean sample), belonging to the highest G1 grade, with a darker green color and neat, flat bean shapes. The subsequent multiple manual selections are to remove irregular defective beans. The reduction in defect rate greatly improves the quality of Mandheling coffee. To distinguish it from regional Mandheling coffee, PWN registered "Golden Mandheling" as a trademark.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans all come from PWN company. In FrontStreet Coffee's offline stores, you can see PWN company's Golden Mandheling coffee bean certification certificates and coffee sacks printed with the company logo. Golden Mandheling is actually produced from Mandheling purchased locally in Indonesia by a company Pawani Coffee Company, which then registered the name Golden Mandheling, so in fact, the Mandheling produced by this company is the authentic Golden Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee found that not only does it lack the earthy impurities of regular Mandheling, but it's also cleaner and clearer to drink, with stronger sweetness.

Mandheling Coffee Bean Processing Method - Wet Hulling

Mandheling's unique wet hulling method, also known as Wet Hulling, is called Giling Basah in the local language and is a traditional Indonesian coffee processing method. Judging by the name alone, wet hulling seems very similar to wet processing (washed processing), however, these two processing methods produce completely different cupping flavors. Coffee processed by wet hulling is typically thick and strong, with a very distinct personality.

Because the local weather is often rainy with constant typhoons, lacking long periods of sunlight, with year-round high temperature and humidity, and humidity levels as high as 70-90% throughout the year, it's impossible to rely solely on sun-drying processing. The local economy is also limited, unable to afford the more expensive washed processing method, ultimately leading to the development of the distinctive local wet hulling method. After following the washed processing steps in the beginning, the parchment coffee beans are placed under strong sunlight for 1-2 days until the coffee beans reach a moisture content of 30-50%, then the parchment is removed for sun-drying, which can speed up the drying process of coffee beans and greatly shorten the drying time.

The characteristics of wet hulling processing are phased, rapid drying and hull removal of parchment for drying. Teacher Han Huaizong described it as "This is also a rare processing method in the world, which accidentally created Mandheling's special low acidity, thickness, and mellow aroma."

Mandheling Coffee Bean's Goat Hoof Shape

Careful friends might notice the characteristic "goat hoof shape" of FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee has also observed their common appearance feature - the "goat hoof shape." This is because when semi-hard, semi-soft moist raw beans have their mucilage and parchment layers removed by machine, they are easily crushed. The beans crack open like goat hooves when injured, commonly known as "goat hoof beans." The "goat hoof shape" is a very significant characteristic of Mandheling coffee beans, so it's not considered a defective bean.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameters for Mandheling Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's baristas choose to use a KONO dripper for brewing this type of full-bodied coffee. Compared to V60, the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface with weaker exhaust effects. The straight ribs only cover one-quarter of the dripper, allowing coffee layers to form immersion extraction with hot water, resulting in a more rounded and full-bodied coffee flavor. The KONO dripper is also suitable for coffee beans with rich flavors like FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate Coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee.

Dark roasting makes the internal structure of coffee beans loose. We can easily crush them with a gentle squeeze, which indicates strong water absorption after grinding into powder. To avoid the coffee powder releasing too many bitter substances after absorbing water, FrontStreet Coffee will adjust the grind to be coarser and use water at a lower temperature for pour-over. FrontStreet Coffee uses the common 1:15 powder-to-water ratio. If you want a richer taste, you can use 1:13, adjusting according to your own taste.

KONO dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 powder-to-water ratio, 15g coffee powder, grind size (75% pass-through rate for #20 standard sieve), three-stage extraction.

Using segmented extraction, bloom with twice the amount of water as the coffee powder, that is, bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. The reason for needing the blooming process is to allow the coffee powder to release internal carbon dioxide gas, thereby making the later extraction more stable. With a small water flow, pour in circles until reaching 125g, then continue pouring until reaching 225g and stop. Wait until all the water has dripped through the filter cup, then remove the filter cup. Start timing from the beginning of pouring, with an extraction time of 2'00". Next, pick up the entire cup of coffee, shake it well, and then pour it into a cup for tasting.

[FrontStreet Coffee's Lin Dong Mandheling Coffee] Herbs, chocolate, caramel, overall quite balanced.

[FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling Coffee] Nuts, spices, herbal plants, licorice, chocolate, caramel.

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