Rich and Intense Indonesian Mandheling Premium Coffee Beans: Origin, Development, Historical and Cultural Overview

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

Friends who frequently drink Mandheling probably know about Sumatra's wet-hulling process. In wet-hulling, before the final drying stage, the beans are poured into a hulling machine that uses significant friction to tear away the semi-dry parchment layer tightly attached to the green beans. Through this frictional stirring, the green beans are easily crushed or bruised. The "naked beans" that have had their parchment removed dry very quickly, while also being directly exposed to humid environments, leading to the growth of various microorganisms.

Although wet-hulling indeed creates the unique herbal and woody aromas that Mandheling is famous for, it also results in a higher defect rate in green beans. Dark roasting can perfectly mask this drawback. Additionally, Mandheling's fame originated from early discovery by the Japanese, who preferred the Japanese-style dark roast according to their taste preferences. This is why most Mandheling coffees are roasted so dark. FrontStreet Coffee wants everyone to taste the classic Mandheling flavor, therefore the two Mandheling coffees FrontStreet Coffee regularly sells are both medium-dark roasted, including the Lintong production area's daily Mandheling bean and the Aceh production area's PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee.

How did the name Mandheling come about?

Unlike most single-origin coffees named after their origin or variety, the name Mandheling originates from a mispronunciation of the Mandheling tribal ethnic group in northwestern Sumatra, Indonesia.

During World War II when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier drank incredibly fragrant and mellow coffee at a café. When he asked the owner the name of the coffee, the owner mistakenly thought he was asking about his hometown and replied: "Mandheling." After the war, when the soldier returned to Japan, he remembered the delicious coffee was called "Mandheling." In 1968, Japanese businessmen visited Indonesia's Pawani Medan company and imported 15,000 kilograms of Sumatra Mandheling coffee, which became extremely popular when launched in the Japanese market. From then on, Mandheling coffee and Pawani Coffee Company gained great fame, and people later began calling Arabica beans from Sumatra Island "Mandheling coffee."

Pawani is a trading company that handles export business, founded by an overseas Chinese family from Quanzhou, Fujian. Located in the important Sumatran port city of Medan, it has been handling export business since 1957, including products like rubber, cassia seeds, cloves, patchouli oil, and of course, Sumatra coffee beans exported to Japan. The fame of Mandheling coffee originated from Pawani Coffee Company (PWN) successfully launching Mandheling coffee in the Japanese market. Unlike many local green bean suppliers in Indonesia, PWN Company is the exclusive supplier of high-grade Golden Mandheling coffee, having contracted the best Mandheling coffee production areas in Indonesia, where the produced Mandheling beans are all superior quality.

Why is Mandheling also called Sumatra coffee?

The Sumatra Island production areas that produce Mandheling mainly consist of the higher-altitude Aceh Province and North Sumatra Province, primarily growing Arabica varieties, and also represent the minority of specialty batches in Indonesia. Traditionally, the Mandheling we refer to comes from the Lintong production area around Lake Toba. After peace came to Aceh Province in 2005, the Lake Tawar area in the northernmost region continued cultivating Mandheling coffee, also called Aceh coffee. These two Mandheling coffees are known as the "Two Lakes, Double Mand" and are currently the sources of Mandheling coffee on the market.

The Aceh and Lintong production areas have fertile volcanic soil and abundant rainfall, producing various agricultural products including spices, timber, palm oil, and of course, coffee. Each year from September to April of the following year is the coffee cherry ripening season, where you can see many farmers busy harvesting in the mountains. Traditional Lintong Mandheling is cultivated by the Mandailing and Batak ethnic groups, while the "rising star" Lake Tawar Mandheling is cultivated by the Gayo people.

Indonesia grows numerous varieties. Originally, Indonesia grew the widely recognized excellent-flavored Typica variety, introduced by the Dutch in the late 17th century, known by names like Bergendal and Sidikalang in Indonesia. In 1877, almost all coffee trees in Indonesia were severely affected by leaf rust disease, with large areas of Typica trees withering.

To solve this dilemma, the Indonesian government introduced more disease-resistant Robusta varieties from Africa and other places. Robusta remains Indonesia's main variety to this day. To increase coffee production, Indonesia continuously introduced various disease-resistant varieties from other countries, including Catuai, Catimor, Timor, Typica, S288, S795, Sidikalong, and others. Among these, the Tim Tim, Bor Bor, and Ateng series from the Robusta-Arabica hybrid Timor varieties have good disease resistance and have adapted to Sumatra's terroir, presenting unique cedar aromas. Currently, Ateng and Tim Tim account for 70% of Sumatra coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Lintong Mandheling daily bean is a mix of Tim Tim and Ateng, while the Golden Mandheling is selected from Ateng.

What makes Golden Mandheling so special?

Golden Mandheling Coffee is PWN Company's exclusive signature product. Since they registered the "Golden Mandheling" trademark early on, only Mandheling produced by PWN Company can be called "Golden Mandheling." The characteristic of Golden Mandheling coffee is that the green beans have undergone multiple screenings, resulting in very high overall quality, so the extracted coffee taste presents excellent cleanliness. PWN purchases Mandheling green beans of size 18 or larger, of G1 grade with fewer than 3 defective beans in a 300g sample, which is the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. Subsequently, they strictly follow standards to conduct 1 machine selection + 3 manual selections of defective beans, ensuring the color, shape, and size of Mandheling coffee beans are uniform.

After FrontStreet Coffee acquired PWN's Golden Mandheling, we used medium-dark roasting, hoping to present the classic caramelized taste of Mandheling. Freshly roasted Golden Mandheling coffee was first cupped and tasted by FrontStreet Coffee. In the dry aroma stage, Golden Mandheling reveals cedar wood, nuts, spices, and herbal plants. With the addition of hot water, licorice and caramel aromas emerge. When tasted, it presents flavors of dark chocolate, cocoa, nuts, and spices—overall clean with obvious aftertaste and high body. With such rich flavors, FrontStreet Coffee naturally wants to extract and taste it through pour-over. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the pour-over details for Golden Mandheling, focusing on several key parameters.

Does pour-over Mandheling only taste burnt and bitter? You might not be brewing it correctly!

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

Dark roasting makes the internal structure of coffee beans loose—we can easily crush them with a gentle pinch of our fingers, which indicates strong water absorption after grinding into powder. To avoid coffee powder releasing too many bitter substances after absorbing water, FrontStreet Coffee will adjust the grind size coarser and use 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 large amounts of water-soluble flavor substances. FrontStreet Coffee uses a tool for adjusting grind degree—China 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, medium-dark roasted Mandheling beans have looser internal structure, so their water absorption is better, making it easy to release large-molecule bitter substances. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a grind degree with 70% pass rate on 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 substances, resulting in higher concentration. If using near-boiling hot water for brewing, it's easy to extract unpleasant bitter substances. Therefore, when brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses different brewing parameters than for light-roasted beans. The caramelization reaction is greater than in light-roasted beans, making it easier to release bitter large-molecule substances. To avoid extracting too many impurities, FrontStreet Coffee will lower the water temperature slightly. The brewing water temperature for light-roasted coffee is 91-93℃, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88℃.

Brewing Parameters:

Recommended water temperature: 87-88°C

Coffee powder: 15 grams

Powder-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: Medium-coarse grind (70% pass rate on China Standard No. 20 sieve)

The brewing method uses a three-stage pour-over approach. Dividing the pour into three stages can better express Golden Mandheling coffee's rich mouthfeel and caramel sweetness.

The first bloom stage pours 30ml of water, completely wetting the coffee grounds for degassing, allowing for better extraction of coffee flavor substances in subsequent stages. The second stage pours 100ml, mainly to bring out Mandheling's golden foam and raise the coffee bed. The final stage gently pours 95ml of water in the center, which can enhance the coffee's sweetness, overall expressing a thick, rich mouthfeel with caramel sweetness and flavors of chocolate and nuts.

Important Notice :

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