The Taste Profile of Mandheling Coffee: An Introduction to Sumatra Aceh Golden Mandheling Coffee Bean Varieties, Grades, and Flavors

FrontStreet Coffee's medium-dark roasted Mandheling coffee exudes a rich "coffee aroma" with complex notes reminiscent of nuts, dark chocolate, roasted chestnuts, and spices like cinnamon. It drinks as smoothly as caramel and cream, with a full-bodied richness that completely fills the palate, offering a substantial mouthfeel and a sweet aftertaste. It is one of the top single-origin choices for friends who love strong, bitter black coffee.

Why is FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling mostly medium-dark roasted?

FrontStreet Coffee noticed that in the past, Mandheling coffee on the market was uniformly medium-dark roasted, presenting the classic rich black coffee flavor profile. With the development of specialty coffee culture in recent years, people have begun to pursue more unique coffee flavors, and many merchants have launched medium-roasted or even medium-light roasted Mandheling coffee. The lighter the roast, the more acidity the coffee beans retain, with flavors dominated by fruits, herbal plants, and tea-like notes, while having lower body. We might wonder, since medium-light roasted Mandheling is so refreshing, why not roast it lighter?

Friends who often drink Mandheling probably know about Sumatra's wet hulling method. In wet hulling, before the final drying stage, the beans are poured into a huller that uses significant friction to tear open the semi-dry parchment layer tightly attached to the green beans. Through the stirring action of friction, the green beans are easily crushed or bruised. The "naked beans" without their parchment layer dry very quickly but are also directly exposed to humid environments, leading to the growth of various microorganisms.

Although wet hulling does create distinctive herbal and woody aromas for Mandheling, it also results in a higher defect rate in green beans. Dark roasting can perfectly mask this flaw. Additionally, Mandheling's fame originated from early Japanese discovery, and according to their taste preferences, nothing beats the Japanese deep roast method. This is why most Mandheling coffees are roasted so dark. FrontStreet Coffee wants everyone to experience the classic Mandheling flavor, so FrontStreet Coffee's two daily offerings—FrontStreet Coffee's Lindong Mandheling from the Lindong region and FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling from the Aceh region—are both medium-dark roasted.

What grade is FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling?

"Golden Mandheling" is the exclusive brand of Indonesia's Pwani Coffee Company (PWN). There are many different types of Mandheling products on the market. Since PWN Company has registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as their trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN Company is truly FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling. You can identify authentic PWN Golden Mandheling by the green bean sacks with PWN logos and a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company, both of which FrontStreet Coffee displays in its Dongshankou store.

After the Japanese took a liking to Sumatran coffee, they purchased it long-term and gradually noticed that the local bean quality was often inconsistent. They became more dedicated to Mandheling production and began establishing strict standards and methods for screening defects, including parameters like bean density, size, shape, and color. The resulting Mandheling required both machine and manual defect removal to ensure the produced Mandheling beans were whole, uniform, large, and translucent, while also reducing the earthy and grassy flavors of Mandheling. Legend says it was named "Golden Mandheling" because it gleamed golden in the sun.

Indonesian green bean grading is primarily based on the quantity 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 less than 0.5%. According to defect rate, they are divided into six grades, with the highest grade G1 requiring fewer than 11 defective beans in a 300g sample. FrontStreet Coffee's Lindong Mandheling Coffee from FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series is G1, using the wet hulling process, which represents the regular version of Indonesian Mandheling flavor.

PWN Company, which goes to extremes in selection, purchases Mandheling green beans of 18 mesh or above, with fewer than 3 defective beans in a 300g sample—G1 grade, which is the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. Subsequently, they strictly follow standards with one machine selection plus three manual defect removals to ensure the shape and size of Mandheling coffee beans are uniform. Additionally, before packaging, PWN Company places the green beans in machines for density and color sorting, making Golden Mandheling evenly colored and translucent.

Does pour-over FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling only have a bitter, burnt taste? Maybe you didn't brew it well!

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing parameters are based on coffee bean characteristics, roast degree, and flavor profile. Mandheling belongs to the category of dark-roasted, bitter-tasting coffees. FrontStreet Coffee's barista chooses the KONO dripper for brewing beans with such rich mouthfeel. Compared to V60, the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface with weaker exhaust effects, and its straight ribs cover only one-quarter of the dripper, allowing the coffee and hot water to form an immersion extraction, resulting in a more rounded and full-bodied coffee flavor. The KONO dripper is also suitable for FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate Coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee—these medium-dark roasted coffees.

Dark roasting makes the internal structure of coffee beans loose, and we can easily crush them with a gentle pinch, indicating strong water absorption after grinding. To prevent the coffee powder from releasing too many bitter substances after absorbing water, FrontStreet Coffee adjusts the grind to be coarser and uses lower temperature water for pour-over.

Grind degree is one of the key factors affecting coffee taste. After coffee beans are ground into powder and contact with hot water, they release a large amount of water-soluble flavor substances. FrontStreet Coffee adjusts the grind degree using a tool—China's No. 20 0.85mm standard sieve. For medium-light roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee consistently uses a 75-80% pass rate, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses 70-75%. Compared to light-roasted coffee, the internal structure of medium-dark roasted Mandheling beans is looser, thus having better water absorption and easily releasing large-molecule bitter substances. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a grind size with a 70% pass rate through the No. 20 standard sieve.

Water temperature plays a similar role to grind degree. The higher the water temperature, the higher the coffee extraction efficiency, making it easier to release various substance components, resulting in higher concentration. If using near-boiling hot water for brewing, it's easy to extract unpleasant bitter and astringent substances. Therefore, when brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses different brewing parameters than for light-roasted beans. The caramelization reaction will be greater than in light-roasted beans, making it easier to release large-molecule bitter substances. To avoid extracting too many off-flavors, FrontStreet Coffee lowers the water temperature slightly. The brewing water temperature for light-roasted coffee is 91-93°C, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88°C.

Brewing Recommendations:

Recommended brewing water temperature: 87-88°C
Coffee powder: 15 grams
Powder-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind degree: Medium-coarse grind (70% pass rate through China No. 20 sieve)

The brewing method uses a three-stage water pouring technique, which can better express the full-bodied texture and caramel sweetness of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee.

The first bloom stage pours 30ml of water, completely wetting the coffee powder for degassing, allowing for better extraction of coffee flavor substances in subsequent stages. The second stage injects 100ml, mainly to bring out all the golden foam of FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling and raise the powder bed.

The final stage gently pours 95ml of water at the center, which can enhance the coffee's sweetness. The brewed FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling overall exhibits a rich, full-bodied texture with caramel sweetness and flavors of chocolate and nuts.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account, ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473