What Is Golden Mandheling Coffee and Who Is It For?

Golden Mandheling coffee suits drinkers who prefer low acidity and a full body over the floral, fruity profile that has dominated specialty coffee since Geisha's 2004 win at reliable of Panama. It is an Indonesian Arabica from Sumatra, mainly the timtim and ateng varieties, processed by the wet-hulled method and named after the Mandailing people.

The coffee's Arabica genes supply flavor quality while its Robusta lineage adds pest and disease resistance for Sumatra's hot, humid climate. Wet-hulled coffee processing, known locally as giling basah, removes parchment while the bean is still moist, producing the earthy, low-acid cup that defines Mandheling and its Golden Mandheling grade.

Amid the floral and fruity trend led by Geisha, the low-acid, full-bodied Mandheling coffee still holds a firm place on café menus and remains a classic choice. This article goes through Mandheling’s definition, variety composition, wet-hulled processing method, the origin of the name “Mandheling,” and the birth of Golden Mandheling one by one. At the same time, drawing on Front Street Coffee’s cupping and brewing experience, it explains Golden Mandheling’s flavor characteristics and the people it suits, and provides KONO dripper pour-over parameters to help coffee lovers gain a more comprehensive understanding of this steady, solid Indonesian coffee.

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 the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

In 2004, Geisha coffee became an instant hit at the Best of Panama competition with its intense floral and fruity aroma. Since then, specialty coffee has largely been measured against the floral and fruity profile that distinguishes it from traditional coffee, and the industry set off a new wave of trends.

Coffee with prominent floral and fruity notes often has a refreshing taste and rich layers. By contrast, coffee with obvious bitterness and high body is indeed less appealing, and Blue Mountain coffee and Mandheling coffee are mentioned less and less. Some even think that people who prefer full-bodied-style coffee are somewhat old-fashioned.

Do not think that way! Whether it is Blue Mountain coffee or Mandheling coffee, both are suitable for everyone to drink. Compared with lively, novel light-roasted floral and fruity coffee that brings surprises, Mandheling coffee happens to go in the opposite direction—low acidity and full body, conveying a steady and grounded character, which is also why it has remained on café menus for years and become a classic.

What is Mandheling coffee?

Mandheling coffee specifically refers to Arabica coffee beans grown on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, mainly of the timtim or ateng varieties. Timtim, or Timor, is an Arabica variety with Robusta lineage; Ateng is Catimor, derived from a cross between Caturra and Timor.

Both varieties simultaneously possess the genes of Arabica and Robusta. The Arabica genes give the coffee better flavor quality, while the Robusta genes bring stronger resistance to pests and diseases, making them suitable for growing in Indonesia’s hot and humid climate.

Through Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)’s cupping comparisons, no matter which Mandheling coffee bean it is, it presents full-bodied flavors such as herbs, spices, and cocoa. These unique regional flavors may come from Robusta genes, or they may be related to the local coffee processing method.

Mandheling coffee processing method

Indonesia is humid and rainy year-round, and combined with its island-type wet climate, a short drying method must be used. Therefore, after local coffee farmers pick the coffee cherries, they first carry out washed fermentation, and immediately after fermentation is complete, they pour the cherries into a pulper to remove the pulp and parchment.

At this point, the coffee beans have a moisture content of about 30–40%, and then through sun drying or mechanical drying, the moisture content is reduced to about 13%. This method can save at least 30% of processing time, allowing the coffee beans to be converted into cash quickly and reducing costs.

This processing method can be seen as a combination of semi-washed and semi-sun-dried, and is named wet-hulled. It is also a coffee bean processing method used only in Indonesia.

Mandheling coffee why is it called “ Mandheling ”?

Traditional coffee bean naming mostly uses region + estate + processing method, because under the specialty coffee wave, consumers increasingly value the production history of coffee beans. But Mandheling is very different. It is not a region, place name, estate name, or variety name, but a mispronunciation of the Indonesian Mandailing people.

Legend has it that during World War II, a Japanese person drank coffee with a very full-bodied and solid flavor and mouthfeel in a coffee shop on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and wanted to ask what coffee bean it was. Because of the language barrier, the local thought the Japanese person was asking what ethnic group he himself came from (there are many indigenous ethnic groups in Indonesia), so he answered “Mandheling.”

Later, after World War II ended, this Japanese person remembered the cup of coffee he had drunk back then, and found a way to ship 15 tons of coffee beans grown on the island of Sumatra back to Japan, which indeed became very popular with the Japanese public. In order to give everyone a deeper impression of these coffee beans, this Japanese person used the name of the Mandailing people to name these coffee beans from the Sumatra region.

What is Golden Mandheling coffee ?

The local who had answered “Mandheling” later discovered that the Japanese really liked Mandheling coffee beans very much, and also placed higher demands on Mandheling coffee beans. Therefore, a company named Pwani Coffee Company (PWN for short) was established, specifically selling selected, high-quality, and stable Mandheling coffee beans.

Due to the varieties of Mandheling coffee beans themselves, plus Indonesia’s highly distinctive wet-hulled method (wet-hulled means that during the ordinary washed processing, the beans are sun-dried with parchment for 2–3 days, and the parchment is removed at 20–24% moisture content), the extremely fast processing and drying also causes Mandheling to have a relatively high defect rate.

Thus, in order to improve the quality of Mandheling coffee beans, PWN uses fully manual selection from the cherries to the processed coffee beans. Although this practice increases the cost of the coffee, such high-quality coffee beans are very popular among consumers.

In order to distinguish it from ordinary Mandheling coffee beans, the owner of PWN saw that the green beans emitted a golden color in the sunlight, so he named them Golden Mandheling coffee beans and registered the trademark. Therefore, theoretically speaking, only coffee from PWN is authentic Golden Mandheling coffee; even if other companies have the same screening standards, theirs can only be called specialty Mandheling coffee.

Some friends worry that what they bought is not authentic Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans. In fact, you can ask the merchant to show relevant proof. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)’s store also has relevant certificates hanging on the wall: one is a certificate provided by PWN; the other is the burlap sack certificate for Golden Mandheling green beans, printed with the PWN logo.

How to brew Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans so it tastes good?

In order to highlight the high-body characteristics of Golden Mandheling, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) uses a KONO dripper for brewing. The reason for choosing KONO is that its unique cone design ensures even water distribution and allows water to drip at a stable rate throughout the filter. The grooves in the lower half of the cone fit tightly against the filter, thereby reducing sediment and improving airflow, ultimately yielding a cup of coffee with concentrated flavor and greater body.

Dripper: KONO

Dose: 15 g

Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

Grind size: 70% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve

Water temperature: 88°C

Use 30 g of water to bloom for 30 s, then pour slowly with a small stream to 125 g in stages, then slightly increase the flow and pour slowly to 225 g. Total extraction time: 2 minutes.

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 the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

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