Why Do Mandheling and Huakui Taste So Different?

Mandheling and Huakui sit at opposite ends of the specialty coffee spectrum. Mandheling comes from Sumatra, Indonesia, and uses the wet-hulling method, which produces an herbal aroma and full body. Huakui originates from Ethiopia and is processed naturally, preserving abundant fruit flavors and bright acidity.

Origin and processing explain the gap. Dutch colonizers brought coffee to Java in the 18th century, and Arabica later spread across high-altitude islands including northern Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Java; varieties such as Golden Mandheling developed from that lineage. Roasting logic and pour-over parameters are then adjusted to each bean's density and solubility.

Front Street Mandheling and Huakui are two beans with radically different styles in the specialty coffee world—the former is known for its herbal aroma and full body, while the latter has gained popularity for its rich fruity notes and bright acidity. This article dissects the essential differences between these two coffees layer by layer, from origin background and processing method differences to flavor causes and pour-over parameters. Mandheling comes from Sumatra, Indonesia, and uses the unique wet-hulling method; Huakui originates from Ethiopia and preserves abundant fruit flavors through natural processing. The article also explains in detail their respective roasting logic and brewing plans, helping coffee enthusiasts understand why the same bean can present the polar flavors of bitterness and acidity.

Friends who frequent specialty coffee shops have probably heard of it: Front Street Mandheling, with its signature herbal note and solid full body, has long held a stable place among those who prefer intense flavors; while Front Street Huakui, which has emerged in recent years, is a bean from Ethiopia that has captured the hearts of many sweet-toothed lovers with its abundant fruit character and bright acidity. These two beans can be called the most sought-after choices on the market, but why are their styles so different? Today Front Street will take you through the reasons behind this.

Where do Mandheling and Huakui each come from?

Mandheling is a classic coffee born in the last century, and its appearance may have been earlier than many people think. This bean comes from Sumatra, Indonesia, a nation of islands, and gradually became known because its flavor is unique and clearly different from low-altitude Robusta. Based on different characteristics, it has also developed many names, such as Front Street Aged Mandheling, Front Street Golden Mandheling, Front Street Lintong Mandheling, and so on.

According to Front Street's understanding, Indonesia has the largest number of islands in the world. As early as the 18th century, coffee was brought by the Dutch colonizers to Java for cultivation and then gradually spread to other islands. The elegant-flavored Arabica varieties are mainly concentrated on several high-altitude islands: northern Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Java. Sumatra is divided into eight provinces, among which only the higher-elevation Aceh Province and North Sumatra Province have large-scale Arabica coffee cultivation. Local coffee farmers usually plant coffee trees near two major volcanic lakes, namely Lake Tawar and Lake Toba. The Gayo Mountains around Lake Tawar in central Aceh happen to have an ideal environment for coffee growing.

Sumatra has a tropical rainforest climate, with frequent rainfall throughout the year and relatively high air temperature and humidity. Coffee trees here are mainly distributed on mountain slopes at altitudes of 1,200 to 1,800 meters, generally cultivated organically, and with a long history of planting, the quality and yield of local coffee have remained at a relatively high level. In addition, volcanoes have brought nutrient-rich soil to Sumatra. Coffee produced here often carries layers of spice, chocolate, herb, and wood flavors, and its mouthfeel is both full and smooth.

Compared with Mandheling, which has settled over many years, Huakui, which only appeared in the 21st century, is obviously much younger. Here Front Street must first clarify one point: the pleasant name Huakui is neither a variety name, nor a place name, nor an estate name, but specifically refers to a natural batch that won the championship in Ethiopia's 2017 TOH green bean competition. This striking stage name was actually given to it by domestic green bean traders in the Chinese context after that batch won the championship, meaning "chief of a hundred flowers." Later, through promotion by merchants on all sides, it also gained praise as "comparable to Geisha."

Since entering the domestic market, Huakui, with advantages such as great fame, stable quality, rich fruit flavors, affordable price, and extremely high extraction tolerance, has not only stood out among Ethiopian coffees but also become the first choice for many people trying single-origin beans for the first time. However, starting from the 2018 harvest season, Front Street Huakui (natural G1 coffee beans) from the same origin and the same processing station has already shown changes in flavor. Through cupping at the time, Front Street found that although the 2018 and 2019 Front Street Huakui still had a flavor direction similar to the 2017 Front Street Huakui, they were inferior to the "first-generation Huakui" in mouthfeel dimensions such as body and aftertaste.

Therefore, in order to continue selling this natural coffee from Hambela while distinguishing it from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies used 2017 as the baseline and marked each subsequent year's batch with an X.0 suffix. For example, the 2018 batch was called "Huakui 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Huakui 3.0 and 3.1"... Last year's release was "Huakui 7.0," and 2024's is called Huakui 8.0, and so on. In this way, we can use the suffix to determine which year's batch the Huakui we bought belongs to.

What is the difference between wet-hulling and natural processing?

You may have noticed that coffee bean descriptions always include a column indicating the processing method, such as washed, natural, honey, anaerobic natural, enzyme washed, and so on. This is because the coffee beans we receive cannot be used directly after picking; they need to go through a series of steps to remove the skin and pulp and complete drying. Different processing methods essentially determine the state in which coffee beans are dried, ultimately forming more or less flavor differences. As for Front Street Mandheling and Front Street Huakui that Front Street will discuss today, the former uses wet-hulling, while the latter uses natural drying.

As is well known, Front Street Mandheling comes from Sumatra, Indonesia. The biggest difference between here and many coffee-producing regions is the unpredictable weather: humid and rainy, with annual humidity maintained between 70% and 90%. Sometimes it is clear and sunny in the morning, then pours in the afternoon, and typhoons can arrive without warning. Annual rainfall even exceeds 2,000 mm. Under such harsh climate conditions, trying to fully dry parchment beans to a specified moisture content is both difficult and time-consuming. Indonesia is also a major coffee country aiming for mass production. In order to shorten the processing cycle and sell for cash as quickly as possible, locals developed a unique semi-washed method on their own: wet-hulling.

At first, natural processing was also dominant here, but the quality was unstable, so it was later changed to a semi-natural method similar to Brazil's. However, Indonesia is not as dry as Brazil and cannot leave the sticky parchment beans outdoors to dry for several days after removing the skin and pulp, because in a hot and rainy environment this would only make the beans mold directly. So they can only be dried outdoors for one or two days. When the moisture content of the parchment beans drops to 30% to 50%, they are purchased by middlemen. At this point the mucilage layer has not yet solidified and the bean body is still half-hard and half-soft, but it must be promptly transported back to the processing plant and have the parchment removed by special machines to avoid excessive fermentation producing sourness and stench.

Hulling under the wet-hulling method is more difficult, so the machine needs to apply greater friction to tear open the parchment layer tightly attached to the green bean. At this stage, white or green mucus often seeps out. Due to long-term soaking in mucus and the influence of the humid environment, the green beans eventually become soft, pale, and swollen, forming a gray-green color. Under the friction and stirring, the green beans are also more likely to be crushed or injured, especially at both ends, forming small notches shaped like sheep hooves. This is why Sumatra has a relatively high proportion of sheep-hoof beans.

It should be known that coffee beans have four protective layers: skin, mucilage, parchment, and silver skin, and the wet-hulling method removes the third and fourth layers midway. In other words, the coffee beans receive their sunbath directly in the form of "inner beans." After the parchment is removed by machine, the beans continue to be dried until the moisture content drops to about 12% to 15%, at which point they can be bagged. Finally, these beans are sent for machine sorting to remove various impurities and then graded by size.

The "naked beans" with the parchment layer removed dry extremely quickly, and at the same time are directly exposed to sunlight and moisture, making them prone to breeding various microorganisms and giving Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbal notes, which is what we often call "terroir flavor." From this we can see that Mandheling's distinctive medicinal herb aroma and aged wood taste all originate from the local high-humidity environment, where the entire post-processing process is forced to split the drying of the mucilage layer into three stages. This is also a rare processing method in the world, and by accident it created Front Street Mandheling's low acidity, thick body, and stuffy aroma.

Front Street Huakui, processed naturally, presents more of the rich fruit aroma brought by natural drying. The natural method is called "Natural" in English, meaning a natural, non-technological processing method. Since humans discovered coffee in Ethiopia in the 6th century AD, the natural method has been the only processing technique for coffee circulating in the Arab world.

The traditional natural method does not require contact with water at all, and the seed extraction process is also very simple: first dry the whole coffee fruit thoroughly, then use a machine to crush and remove the shell to obtain the inner bean. It can be completed anywhere there is sunlight. But the disadvantages of natural coffee are also obvious: it is highly dependent on weather and requires up to a month of drying time. During this month, once wind and rain come, it is very likely that all previous efforts are wasted, so this ancient processing method is often concentrated in tropical countries with distinct dry and wet seasons.

Because the technical threshold for natural processing is not high, basically every smallholder household can do it themselves. The entire drying process only needs to use sunshine on clear days, and production costs are relatively low, making it most common in high-altitude coffee-producing regions. However, some producing regions that pursue refined flavors will first float the coffee cherries to remove underripe green cherries and stones or debris, then spread them flat on raised drying beds. The purpose is to stay away from the ground and avoid contamination of the coffee cherries by crawling insects, dust, and bacteria. During natural drying, dedicated personnel will also check the drying degree of the coffee cherries and pick out insect-damaged, split, and moldy cherries to prevent these bad cherries from affecting the others.

Because the inner bean of natural coffee is wrapped in pulp throughout drying, the fermentation time is longer and the reaction between microorganisms and pulp is greater. When the fruit begins to ferment, microorganisms produce more volatile compounds, especially ester compounds. These aromatic substances provide more floral and tropical fruit fermentation aromas to roasted coffee beans, such as furan compounds, making the flavor range of natural coffee broader and making it taste sweeter.

Why is Mandheling more bitter and Huakui more sour?

As Front Street said at the beginning, Mandheling was born in an era when "bitter coffee" prevailed. At that time, coffee almost everywhere in the world used dark roasting, mainly featuring caramelized aromas and emphasizing a solid coffee taste. After dark roasting, Front Street Indonesian Mandheling not only has the above characteristics but also highlights a distinctive full body, with unique aromas such as spices, pine wood, and herbs on entry, which also formed what people today pass down by word of mouth as the "Mandheling taste."

Experience tells us that the darker the roast, the more caramelization-forming substances in the coffee beans, and the more bitter the brewed coffee; the lighter the roast, the more acidity the coffee beans retain, with flavors mainly of fruit, flowers, and tea. As a member of the younger generation, Front Street Huakui is already known for fresh and elegant notes such as floral, creamy strawberry, and citrus, mainly thanks to a lighter roast degree, allowing it to show more delicate flavor notes while still having appropriate caramelization.

Pour-over plan for Mandheling

Front Street's brewing approach for each coffee bean is based on the characteristics the coffee shows during cupping. For example, Front Street Mandheling coffee has flavors including herbs, dark chocolate, caramel, nuts, pine wood, and so on. For this type of full-bodied bean, the baristas at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) choose the kono dripper. The ribs of the kono are less than half the height of the dripper. This design is precisely to ensure that the filter paper fits tightly against the wall after the dripper is wet, restricting airflow, thereby extending the water absorption time of the coffee grounds, making the extracted coffee more uniform overall, and enhancing the full-bodied mouthfeel. The groove framework at the bottom of the kono dripper is the key design that allows a siphon effect to occur during subsequent brewing.

Because dark-roasted coffee beans are looser in texture and highly absorbent, they can easily over-extract due to absorbing too much water, making the brewed Front Street Mandheling both bitter and astringent. Therefore, Front Street will adjust the grind coarser and brew with lower-temperature water.

Suggested brewing parameters: water temperature 87–88°C, 15 grams of coffee powder, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, medium grind (70% passing rate on Chinese standard No. 20 sieve).

The brewing method uses three-stage pouring. Three-stage pouring can better present the full body and caramel sweetness of Front Street Golden Mandheling. In the first stage, pour 30 ml for blooming. This pour should completely wet the coffee grounds and allow degassing, preparing for better extraction of flavor substances later; in the second stage, pour 100 ml, mainly to flush out Mandheling's golden foam and raise the coffee bed; in the final stage, gently pour 95 ml in the center. After all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper and gently swirl the coffee in the server to even it out.

Pour-over plan for Huakui 8.0

Front Street wants to present the rich fruit flavors of Front Street Huakui, so it uses a medium-light roast. Through cupping, the dry aroma of Front Street natural Huakui 8.0 coffee has citrus, honey, berries, and a faint fermentation aroma. On entry, it has a full sweet-and-sour taste of passion fruit, creamy strawberry, and sweet orange, with a medium body and a black tea finish.

Dripper: V60 Water temperature: 92-93°C Coffee dose: 15g Powder-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind: fine granulated sugar size (78% passing through No. 20 sieve)

Three-stage pouring: wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds to form a dome and bloom for 30s, then pour in a small stream in circles from the inside out until 125g, pause, wait until the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage with the same thin stream to 225g, and after all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. The time is about 2 minutes.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.