Arabica Coffee Beans Starbucks Price Characteristics Mantenin Coffee Beans Taste Origin Variety Estate Introduction

You may have noticed that the coffee beans sold at Starbucks all have "Arabica" listed as their ingredient. What is Arabica? These coffee beans clearly come from different regions and have different flavors, so why do they all list only Arabica as their ingredient? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will help you understand Arabica~

What are Arabica beans?

In fact, many of the coffee beans we see on the market today are sub-varieties of the Arabica species. They are also among the three major categories of coffee beans (Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica) and possess excellent flavor characteristics, making them one of the primary choices in the coffee industry, accounting for 30% of global coffee production. (The remaining 70% is Robusta, mainly used for instant coffee production)

Arabica coffee beans are the most important commercial and specialty coffee variety in the world~ The main origins of Arabica coffee beans include South America (except for parts of Argentina and Brazil), Central American countries, Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, and other regions, mainly East Africa), Asia (including parts of Yemen, India, and Papua New Guinea), as well as Yunnan and Taiwan in China.

The origin of Arabica coffee beans is the highland regions of southern Ethiopia. They typically grow at altitudes between 1,000-2,000 meters and require high altitude along with suitable climate and soil conditions.

Among all coffee beans worldwide, Arabica varieties account for approximately 65%-80%. Their excellent flavor and aroma make them the only coffee among these native species that can be consumed directly and individually. However, they have relatively low resistance to drought, frost, pests, and diseases—especially to coffee's greatest enemy, leaf rust disease. Consequently, coffee-producing countries are dedicated to improving and developing new varieties.

Therefore, Arabica varieties have numerous sub-varieties, with more than 100 documented varieties. Each sub-variety has its own characteristics—some may offer excellent flavor, some may have strong disease and pest resistance, and some may have high yields.

Although Starbucks coffee beans come from different countries and regions, what remains unchanged is that they are all members of the Arabica family. Due to different climates, terroirs, and varieties in growing regions, they exhibit different coffee flavor profiles.

Where do Starbucks Indonesia Sumatra coffee beans come from?

Sumatra coffee beans are actually Mandheling coffee beans~ Sumatra is the largest island in Indonesia and 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.

Mandheling coffee beans grow as Arabica coffee beans on the island of Sumatra. Sumatra coffee is characterized by low acidity and complex flavor profiles, which many coffee enthusiasts consider representative of spicy and herbal flavors.

We can see that the Sumatra coffee bean packaging features a tiger mark—the Sumatran tiger, which is also a critically endangered protected species. The Sumatran tiger is depicted一方面 to draw attention to environmental and biodiversity protection, and另一方面 to describe the steady, mellow taste and flavor of Mandheling coffee beans through the image of a crouching tiger.

Why is it called Tiger Mandheling?

Tiger Mandheling

This Tiger Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee previously acquired comes from the homeland of the Sumatran tiger—Sumatra Island. This Tiger Mandheling uses 19-screen coffee fruits (coffee fruits are strictly filtered through a 19-mesh screen to ensure that each bean has nearly the same diameter), then undergoes three rounds of manual selection of ripe coffee fruits before processing into green beans. Therefore, local people use "Sumatran tiger" to describe the nobility and rarity of these 19-screen selected coffee beans. In FrontStreet Coffee's cupping, the coffee showed high viscosity, smooth texture, rich agarwood notes, and high sweetness, with a long-lasting aftertaste that reminiscently brings to mind the image of a Sumatran tiger crouching forward.

This Tiger Mandheling uses two coffee varieties with notable sweetness: Typica and Caturra. Typica has bronze-colored young leaves, with beans that are oval or slender-pointed in shape, offering elegant flavor but weak constitution, poor disease resistance, and low fruit yield. FrontStreet Coffee has cupped Typica from multiple origins and found that its unique clean and subtle flavor, along with its balanced characteristics, are consistently present. Caturra is a Bourbon variety, with coffee beans that have curved ends, are round and slender, and has better production capacity and disease resistance than Bourbon. Its flavor is overall bright with good sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster observed that the Tiger Mandheling green beans are plump, greenish-yellow in color, with good uniformity and high moisture content. The roasting goal is medium-dark roast to eliminate excessive acidity while enhancing its body and balance.

What is the taste of Mandheling coffee beans? Are they very bitter?

FrontStreet Coffee believes that several factors influence coffee flavor. On one hand, the fertile volcanic soil on the island creates the coffee's earthy notes. Regarding its low acidity, the most important factor is the unique Sumatra coffee processing method—the appropriate and distinctive wet-hulling process.

Although the flavor is relatively mellow and heavy, with suitable roasting and proper brewing, Mandheling coffee does not present unpleasant bitterness but rather exhibits noticeable sweet aftertaste.

To allow Mandheling coffee beans to display their full-bodied character while also showcasing the coffee's layered complexity, FrontStreet Coffee roasts the beans to a medium-dark degree.一方面 this allows more caramelization of the coffee beans, producing more substances that contribute to aftertaste, and另一方面 it preserves slight acidity to enhance the overall coffee texture.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Filter: Kono dripper
Water temperature: 88-89°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-coarse grind (70% retention rate on China No. 20 standard sieve)

Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds. With small water flow, pour in circles to 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. Wait until all the water has passed through the coffee grounds, then remove the dripper to finish extraction. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time: 2'00"-2'00".

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473