Mandheling is a perennial staple on café menus, but many people are puzzled when they first encounter it: with its herbal flavor description and dark-colored beans, does it taste like Chinese medicine? In fact, a high-quality Mandheling, with proper roasting and extraction, can present a solid, mellow sweetness and a lasting aftertaste, rather than a burnt bitterness. This article starts with the misunderstanding surrounding the name "Mandheling," sorts through the planting history of the Sumatra region and the origin of the wet-hulling process, and introduces the grade standards and brewing parameters of Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, helping coffee lovers truly understand this bean.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow the 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

When the autumn wind picks up, people can't help but want to hold a cup of steaming, aromatic coffee. In summer, we favor something refreshing, but when autumn and winter arrive, what we miss most is often that rich, substantial quality. At this time, if you ask a seasoned coffee lover which coffee tastes rich and mellow, Mandheling will most likely appear in the answer.

Mandheling coffee Is it actually good?

As a regular fixture on café menus, Mandheling can be found on the bean list of almost any specialty coffee shop. Is it good? The flavor description says herbal, and the bean surface is so dark—does it taste as bitter as Chinese medicine... This is probably the question that arises for everyone encountering Mandheling for the first time.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s view is that an excellent Mandheling, as long as it is properly roasted and reasonably extracted, can show a high level of sweetness, with a mellow and solid mouthfeel—the kind of taste you never tire of drinking repeatedly. The sweetness mentioned here is not a fructose-like sweetness, but rather a very prominent aftertaste, rich and full without bringing out burnt bitterness.

For Mandheling to remain consistently delicious, it depends not only on the brewer's and roaster's understanding and interpretation of it, but also on the quality of the coffee beans themselves. Only when the beans have a good foundation can the taste possibly be good; it is not the case that as long as it is roasted dark enough, undesirable flavors can be masked.

What is Mandheling coffee bean ?

The name "Mandheling" is quite different from the naming logic of most regional coffee beans. It is neither a region name, place name, port name, nor a coffee variety name (for example, Yirgacheffe or Sidamo are African region names). It is actually just a transliteration of the Indonesian Mandheling ethnic group.

So why name a coffee bean after an ethnic group? According to Japanese consumers who love Mandheling, this naming originated from a misunderstanding.

During World War II, a Japanese soldier drank an extremely delicious cup of coffee at a coffee shop on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and immediately asked the owner for the name of the coffee. Because of the language barrier, the shop owner mistakenly thought the other party was asking "Where are you from?" and answered: "Mandheling."

After the end of World War II, this Japanese soldier returned to Japan and could never forget that cup of coffee from Sumatra, so he asked someone to request that the coffee shop owner export 15 tons of coffee beans from Sumatra to Japan. As a result, they became very popular in the Japanese coffee market, and the name Mandheling has been used ever since.

Mandheling coffee bean Regional planting history

Not all coffee beans produced in Indonesia can be called Mandheling. Mandheling specifically refers to Arabica varieties grown on the island of Sumatra.

In the 17th century, the Dutch first introduced Arabica seedlings to Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka) and Indonesia. In 1877, a large-scale disaster swept through the Indonesian islands, and coffee rust almost destroyed all coffee trees. People had to abandon the Arabica they had cultivated for many years and instead introduce Robusta from Africa, which had stronger disease resistance. However, some farmers in the Sumatra region preserved Arabica varieties.

Today, among the coffee beans Indonesia exports each year, Robusta accounts for 90% of total production, while Sumatra Mandheling belongs to the scarce Arabica, accounting for only 10%.

These Arabica coffee beans are planted on hillsides between 750 and 1,500 meters above sea level on the island of Sumatra. The varieties plus the local unique processing method give Mandheling a rich aroma, full body, and intense flavor, with a slight chocolate note and a syrupy texture.

At present, Indonesia's specialty coffee producing areas are mainly distributed in the Gayo Mountain in Aceh Province in the north, Lake Toba in North Sumatra Province, namely the Lintong producing area, and Mangkuraja in Bengkulu Province in the south.

The Gayo producing area surrounds the scenic Lake Tawar, with an average annual rainfall of about 2,200 mm and an average altitude of about 1,100–1,600 m, plus volcanic soil favorable for coffee cultivation—the Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean sold by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) comes from the Gayo coffee producing area.

What is Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean ?

Speaking of this, we return to the story at the beginning of the article. As Japanese consumers grew fonder of Mandheling, coffee craftsmen also raised higher demands for bean quality. The coffee shop owner at the time seized the business opportunity and founded a company called Pwani Coffee Company (PWN for short).

After the company was established, the owner began purchasing coffee cherries grown in the Gayo producing area. Coffee cultivation in this area is mostly carried out by independent smallholder farmers, and coffee is grown with shade trees to improve quality.

After purchasing, the owner would also hire people to sort the cherries, keeping only fully ripe coffee cherries of size 18 mesh or above, then drying them, followed by at least 3 rounds of purely manual selection to ensure fewer than 3 defective beans (in a 300g green bean sample), reaching the highest grade G1.

Although this practice drove up the cost of the coffee, the high-quality beans were very popular among consumers. In order to distinguish them from ordinary Mandheling, the PWN owner saw that the green beans showed a golden color in the sunlight, so he named this batch of coffee beans, which had undergone 4 rounds of manual selection, "Golden Mandheling coffee beans" and registered it as a trademark.

Therefore, only the Golden Mandheling coffee bean from PWN can be considered authentic Golden Mandheling coffee. The Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling sold by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) is Golden Mandheling coffee beans certified by a certificate issued by PWN. The certification certificate issued by PWN and the Golden Mandheling green bean burlap sacks bearing the PWN logo can both be seen at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores.

Mandheling coffee bean processing method

The reason Mandheling has such a mellow flavor can be said to be jointly created by climate and geography, variety, and a unique processing method. The local weather is mostly rainy, with constant typhoons, making it difficult to meet the good weather required for sun-drying; at the same time, the local economic conditions are poor, and people cannot afford the relatively costly washed method.

The combination of various reasons gave rise to the highly local wet-hulling method (that is, during the ordinary washed process, drying in the sun with parchment for 2–3 days until the moisture content is 20–24%, then removing the parchment). Wet-hulling is extremely fast, which also causes Mandheling to have a relatively high defect rate. This is exactly why the PWN owner specially hired people to carefully select the beans, and why Golden Mandheling is expensive yet very popular.

How to brew Mandheling coffee beans so they taste good?

At present, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) sells two Mandheling coffee beans, one from the Lintong producing area and one is the Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean from the Aceh Gayo producing area.

Since all freshly roasted coffee beans sold by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are shipped within 5 days after roasting is completed, after receiving the goods you can check the date and start extracting about 5 days after roasting is completed, giving the coffee beans time to release some carbon dioxide on their own and stabilize subsequent extraction.

Dark-roasted coffee beans produce a large amount of carbon dioxide during roasting, and their structure is also looser, making it easier to release flavor substances. Therefore, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends using a medium-coarse grind (70% passing through a Chinese No. 20 standard sieve) and a low water temperature when brewing Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee.

For Mandheling coffee served at Front Street stores, a kono dripper is used, with medium-coarse grinding, a water temperature of 88–89°C, 15g of coffee powder, and 225g of water poured (coffee-to-water ratio 1:15).

Three-stage pouring method: after rinsing the filter paper, pour in the ground coffee, gently level the coffee bed, start the timer, and begin the first pour; first pour 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds; after blooming, pour the second stage until the total water amount reaches 125g, using a gentle circular pouring motion to avoid collapsing the coffee bed, and after pouring let the water slowly filter and extract on its own; when the liquid level drops to one-third, pour the final stage until the total water amount reaches 225g. Finish pouring at around 1 minute 40 seconds, and end extraction and remove the dripper at around 2 minutes 05 seconds.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean brewing flavor: layered and varied, mellow and clean, high balance, rich nut and caramel aroma, with a chocolate note, and a lasting finish.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - Lintong producing area Mandheling coffee bean brewing flavor: herbal medicinal notes on entry, dark chocolate, caramel, sweet aftertaste.

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