What Is Kopi Luwak and How Does It Relate to Mandheling?

Golden Mandheling roasting follows a recorded curve covering charge temperature, heat and airflow adjustments, and the timing of dropping after first crack. A pour-over recipe using the KONO dripper then sets grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, water temperature, and a staged pouring technique, finishing with the bean's flavor description.

Indonesia's variety system is complex because leaf rust wiped out much of the early Typica planting. Disease-resistant types including Tim, Catimor, Caturra, S795, and Robusta entered the country afterward, and farmers gave many local names, so Tim is also called Tim Tim or Bor Bor. Grading relies mainly on defect rate, supplemented by bean size.

The variety system of Indonesian coffee is exceptionally complex due to the history of leaf rust, and its green bean grading standards are also unique. This article, from the perspective of Front Street Coffee, sorts out the origins and naming logic of Indonesian coffee varieties, interprets the grading system that is mainly based on defect rate and supplemented by bean size, and provides an in-depth analysis of the origin background and packaging information of PWN Golden Mandheling. On this basis, it shares the roasting curve of Golden Mandheling—a complete record from charge temperature, heat and airflow adjustments, to the timing of dropping after first crack—as well as a pour-over recipe using the KONO dripper, including grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, water temperature, and staged pouring technique. Finally, it gives the flavor description of this bean.

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Since the Dutch colonists introduced coffee to Indonesia in the 17th century, coffee cultivation in this archipelago country has continued for hundreds of years. Today, Indonesia's position in the global coffee market cannot be underestimated. Due to historical factors, Indonesia's coffee variety pedigree is quite diverse, and its green bean grading system is rarely deeply understood by outsiders. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will guide everyone to understand how to identify the quality of Indonesian coffee.

Why are Indonesian coffee varieties so complex? The root cause of Indonesia's current intricate variety system lies in the ravages of leaf rust. After the Typica that the Dutch had planted became heavily infected and died, in order to preserve coffee production capacity, they could only introduce disease-resistant varieties from surrounding areas. Tim, Catimor, Caturra, S795, Robusta, and others entered Indonesia one after another against this background. Local coffee farmers generally lacked systematic knowledge of varieties, and after these seeds were distributed to farmers for planting, many locally colored names emerged. For example, what we usually call the Tim variety is called Tim Tim or Bor Bor locally in Indonesia.

Faced with such a diverse range of green bean varieties, it is difficult for Indonesia to use a single coffee variety for unified naming. In addition, due to the influence of some famous producing regions in history, coffee generally produced on Java Island is called Java coffee, Arabica coffee from North Sumatra is called Mandheling coffee, and the most famous coffee from Sulawesi Island is Toraja coffee—named after the ethnic group on the island that is skilled at growing coffee. There is also Kopi Luwak, named for its unique processing method.

PWN's Golden Mandheling coffee beans come from the Gayo Mountain area in Aceh Province, at the northernmost tip of Sumatra. The variety is Ateng, which is the local name used after Catimor was introduced to Aceh for cultivation. Ateng is the abbreviation for Central Aceh.

Indonesia's complex green bean grading standards The complexity of the variety system has also given rise to a cumbersome set of coffee grade standards in Indonesia, which are generally based mainly on the number of defective beans and supplemented by coffee bean size as a reference.

According to defect rate, it is divided into six levels, from G1 to G6.

Coffee bean size designation Some higher-quality Indonesian coffees also indicate the coffee screen size. For example, Golden Mandheling is marked as 17 mesh/18 mesh.

Number of sorting rounds In addition to the above grading standards, some specialty-grade Indonesian coffees also undergo manual sorting, reflected in the labeling as Double Picked or Triple Picked. This is because Indonesia mostly uses the wet-hulled method to process green beans, during which defective beans are easily produced. The more manual sorting rounds, the more guaranteed the coffee quality is.

FrontStreet Coffee received a batch of Golden Mandheling coffee in December 2020 from the new crop of October that year. The packaging bag is printed with basic information about the coffee beans. Let's go through them one by one below.

PWN: This is the logo of Pawani Company

GOLDEN MANDHELING: Golden Mandheling

TRIPLE PICKED: Triple picked, reflecting its excellent quality

COFFEE ARABICA: Arabica coffee, referring to the coffee bean variety. PWN previously always selected coffee beans in the Lintong area (the variety was Typica), but in recent years coffee farmers in the Lintong area have grafted trees in pursuit of yield and profit, causing a sharp decline in quality. Therefore, they now choose the producing area in the Gayo Mountains of Aceh, with the variety being Ateng.

GRADE 1: That is, G1, the highest level in Indonesia's green bean grading system, with fewer than 11 total defects in the green beans.

PROD.OF INDONESIA: product of Indonesia, produced in Indonesia

30 KGS NET: 20 kg including the gunny sack

EXP: 10.2024: Shelf life until October 2024, which also exactly confirms that this batch is from the October 2020 crop.

FrontStreet Coffee roasting analysis Golden Mandheling has a high-quality herbal aroma, a stronger caramel sweetness, and a steady and elegant fruity acidity. It has a rich sweetness, and the spice flavor is mellow and wild. Generally speaking, Lintong Mandheling is best roasted until after second crack before being dropped, as this can effectively reduce off-flavors; however, Golden Mandheling dropped before second crack already has very good transparency and sweetness, leaving more room for roasting interpretation.

When the roaster temperature rises to 200°C, charge the beans, set the airflow to 3, and after 1 minute adjust the heat to 160°C while keeping the airflow unchanged. Roast until 5 minutes 40 seconds, at 148°C, when the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and dehydration is complete. Adjust the heat to 140 and the airflow to 4;

At 9 minutes 40 seconds, ugly wrinkles and dark streaks appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of the first crack point. At 9 minutes 54 seconds, first crack begins. Reduce the heat to 60, open the airflow fully (adjusting the heat must be done very carefully, not so low that there is no cracking sound), and drop at 204.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee brewing sharing This brewing is intended to highlight the mellow, clean, and aromatic characteristics of Golden Mandheling, using the KONO dripper for brewing (this dripper was invented to imitate the strong coffee produced by flannel). For medium-dark roasted coffee, choose a medium-coarse grind (70% passing a No. 20 standard sieve). Use a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:13, with 20 grams of coffee powder. Lowering the coffee-to-water ratio makes the coffee taste richer. Use a water temperature of 87°C.

Brewing process: Slowly pour in the coffee powder, trying to keep it as level as possible during pouring, and avoid shaking the dripper (because shaking will reduce the spacing between coffee particles, which is not conducive to degassing during blooming). In the first stage, pour 40 g of water in a small circle in the center and bloom for 30 seconds. The coffee bed will slowly expand and puff up into a "hamburger."

In the second stage, pour 120 g of water in circles from the center outward, keeping the pouring height as close to the coffee bed as possible, and move slowly to avoid excessive agitation. In the final stage, pour 100 g, and wait for all the coffee liquid in the dripper to flow into the server to end extraction. The extraction time is 2 minutes.

Golden Mandheling flavor description: nuts, chocolate, spices, herbs, caramel. Golden Mandheling tastes cleaner than Lintong Mandheling. The original herbal, earthy, and woody flavors of Mandheling are almost gone, but the caramel sweetness is stronger, and the fruity acidity is also brighter and more elegant.

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