Flavor Profile, Taste, and Processing Methods of Indonesian Mandheling Coffee Beans - Characteristics of Golden Mandheling from Gayo Region

When you visit a coffee shop and see the dazzling array of single-origin coffees on the menu, don't be overwhelmed. FrontStreet Coffee suggests you first tell the barista whether you prefer acidic or bitter coffee to help them make recommendations. For example, if you enjoy bitter coffee, FrontStreet Coffee would recommend coffees from Brazil or Indonesian regions. If you want a rich body with herbal spice characteristics, FrontStreet Coffee would first recommend the Frontsteet PWN Golden Mandheling coffee from the bean menu.

PWN Company

Those who understand the origin of the Mandheling coffee name may have heard this popular folk story: During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II, a Japanese soldier tasted an incredibly aromatic coffee at a café. When he asked the owner about it, the owner mistakenly thought he was asking about his ethnicity and replied: "Mandailing." After the war, the Japanese soldier recalled the "Mandheling" he had in Indonesia and arranged for 15 tons to be shipped to Japan, which surprisingly became very popular, and that's how the Mandheling name spread.

The first to export Mandheling coffee beans to Japan was the café owner from this story. He recognized the tremendous business potential of Mandheling coffee and established PWN Coffee Company in 1957. PWN Company mainly acquires high-quality batches of Mandheling green beans, focusing on producing specialty Mandheling, with Golden Mandheling being their signature product.

At that time, the Japanese recognized the value of Sumatran coffee and made long-term purchases, gradually discovering 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 bean density, size, color values, and other metrics. The resulting Mandheling requires one machine selection plus four manual hand-sortings to remove defects, ensuring the Mandheling beans are complete, uniform, large, and translucent, while also reducing the earthy and grassy flavors of Mandheling. It's said that when the beans glisten golden under the sun, they earned the name "Golden Mandheling."

As the specialty Mandheling coffee market grew, PWN Company also recognized the importance of trademarks, registering "Golden Mandheling" in English as an exclusive trademark one step ahead of the Japanese. Therefore, only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN Company can be considered genuine "Golden Mandheling," while those produced by the Japanese had to be renamed "Ding Shang Mandheling." The Frontsteet Golden Mandheling that FrontStreet Coffee acquired is, of course, an authentic product from PWN Company. Everyone can identify genuine Frontsteet Golden Mandheling by the green bean gunny sack with the PWN logo and a certificate of origin signed by PWN Company. FrontStreet Coffee displays these two identifiers in the Dongshankou store.

Frontsteet PWN Golden Mandheling Originates from Gayo Mountain

The Mandheling coffee acquired by PWN Company is selected from coffee grown on Gayo Mountain in the Aceh region of north-central Sumatra. Sumatra Island is Indonesia's largest island, featuring a tropical rainforest climate with year-round high temperatures and humidity. Coffee trees are typically grown in highland forest areas. Coffee from Gayo Mountain in the Aceh region can be considered the highest quality in the entire Sumatra region, mostly consisting of ancient varieties at high altitudes between 1,500-2,500 meters. Due to previous political instability, coffee from this region was difficult to export. In recent years, with improved stability, coffee cultivation in Aceh has developed, and the quality is superior to that from the Lindong region.

The coffee variety of Golden Mandheling is Ateng, which is actually the common Catimor we know, known locally by Indonesians. In 19th century Indonesia, the coffee industry was severely affected by leaf rust disease, leading to the introduction of various disease-resistant varieties from other countries, including Caturra, Catimor, Timor, Typica, S288, S795, Sidikalong, and others. Among these, the Timor varieties (Tim Tim, Bor Bor) and Catimor series (Ateng), which are Robusta-Arabica hybrids, have excellent disease resistance and have adapted to Sumatra's terroir, presenting a unique fir-like aroma. The Ateng variety is particularly suitable for cultivation and flavor development in the Aceh region, and combined with the locally traditional wet-hulled processing method, this "Southeast Asian flavor" has become even more popular in the market.

The wet-hulled processing method involves first removing the coffee cherry's skin and pulp, followed by a brief fermentation and drying. While the beans are still semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and drying continues until the moisture content drops to 12%. Since each step is completed in 70-90% humidity, and the parchment layer is removed before the final drying step, the "exposed" green beans easily absorb moisture from the air, resulting in coffee with more woody, herbal, and spicy mellow aromas. FrontStreet Coffee's Lindong Mandheling coffee also uses the wet-hulled method. After roasting, the acidity decreases, body increases, while still maintaining herbal and spicy notes, carrying the unique flavor profile characteristic of Indonesian Mandheling coffee. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also included it in the FrontStreet Coffee daily bean series, launched in small 25g/100g packages, allowing everyone to taste the flavor of Southeast Asian coffee.

Flavor Differences Between Frontsteet PWN Golden Mandheling and Regular Mandheling

For roasting, to present the typical Mandheling flavor profile while preserving more herbal and spicy notes, FrontStreet Coffee's barista uses medium-dark roasting. Before FrontStreet Coffee launches any coffee bean, they conduct at least one cupping session. Under the same standards, cupping allows us to more objectively perceive the coffee's strengths and weaknesses.

FrontStreet Coffee conducted a comparative cupping of Frontsteet Lindong Mandheling and Frontsteet PWN Golden Mandheling simultaneously. Frontsteet Lindong Mandheling has rich chocolate, brown sugar, and nutty flavors, with an aftertaste presenting herbal notes. Frontsteet Golden Mandheling has pine, nutty, spicy, and herbal aromas in the dry fragrance stage. As hot water is added, licorice and caramel notes emerge. The taste is of dark chocolate, nuts, and spices, with overall cleanliness, noticeable sweet aftertaste, and rich body.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling Brewing Recommendations

Brewing water temperature: 87-88°C

Coffee grounds: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Dripper: KONO dripper

Grind size: Medium-coarse grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve, 70% pass rate)

The three-stage pouring method is used for brewing, which better expresses the rich body and caramel sweetness of Frontsteet Golden Mandheling coffee.

The first bloom stage pours 30ml of water, fully wetting the coffee grounds for degassing, to better extract the coffee's flavor compounds in subsequent steps.

The second stage pours 100ml, mainly to bring out the golden foam of Mandheling and raise the coffee bed.

The final stage gently pours 95ml of water at the center, which enhances the coffee's sweetness.

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