What makes golden mandheling stand out among Indonesian coffees?

Golden Mandheling is the PWN buyer's signature top-grade Mandheling and the clearest benchmark among Indonesian coffee brands. PWN registered the English name as a trademark, so only beans it produces qualify in the strict sense. Authentic lots travel in green bean jute bags marked PWN and carry a certificate of origin signed by the buyer.

The beans come from the Gayo Mountain area of Aceh Province at the northern tip of Sumatra, grown at 1,100 to 1,600 meters using the Ateng variety, with cultivation centered around Takegon town and the hillsides beside Lake Tawar. Political instability once made export difficult. Indonesia's wet-hulling process, G1 grade and Triple pick standard shape the cup, which suits a medium-dark roast.

Indonesian coffee is most famous for Mandheling, and among them, the Golden Mandheling produced by PWN is regarded as the top representative. This article from Front Street Coffee focuses on Indonesian Mandheling coffee, introducing the origin of PWN Golden Mandheling, the characteristics of the Ateng variety, Indonesia's unique wet-hulling process, and the G1 grade and Triple pick standard. It also compares the everyday-bean positioning of Front Street Lintong Mandheling and shares Front Street roasters' medium-dark roast approach and KONO dripper three-pour brewing parameters, helping coffee lovers gain a comprehensive understanding of Indonesian coffee brands and flavors.

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When it comes to Mandheling coffee beans, the first thing Front Street wants to recommend is naturally PWN's exclusive "golden signature"—Golden Mandheling coffee beans. In this article, Front Street will talk with you about what advantages Front Street Golden Mandheling actually has compared with ordinary Mandheling.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Selected coffee beans from high-quality origins

PWN is a well-known local Indonesian green bean buyer, and Golden Mandheling is precisely its selected top-tier coffee. There are many types of Mandheling products on the market. Because PWN has registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as its trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN is truly Front Street Golden Mandheling in the strict sense. To identify authentic Golden Mandheling, you can look for the green bean jute bag bearing the PWN mark and a certificate of origin signed by PWN. Front Street displays these two identifiers in its Dongshankou store.

This Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling that Front Street obtained comes from the Gayo Mountain area in Aceh Province, at the northernmost part of Sumatra, and uses the Ateng variety. Aceh Gayo is located at the northernmost tip of Sumatra, and coffee cultivation mainly centers around Takegon town and the hillsides beside Lake Tawar. The average altitude of the production area is between 1,100 and 1,600 meters, and coffee quality has always been excellent. However, due to previous political instability, coffee from this region was difficult to export. In recent years, as the situation has become peaceful, coffee cultivation in Aceh has also developed, and its quality is now superior to that of the Lintong region.

Ateng is what we call the Catimor variety, a hybrid descendant of the Bourbon variant Caturra and Timor. Because of its strong vitality and ability to maintain high coffee yields, it is favored by many local coffee farmers. In many countries, Catimor is often criticized by industry professionals for flaws in flavor. Grown in Sumatra's mysterious flavor environment, combined with the region's unique wet-hulling process, Catimor instead performs better in cupping, rich in woody notes and a full-bodied mouthfeel.

Flavors brought by the wet-hulling process

Indonesia's wet-hulling process is a method farmers are forced to use to adapt to the local island-type tropical rainforest climate. The island is humid and hot year-round, and typhoons are also "routine." In such an unstable environment, coffee farmers can only shorten the drying time so that the coffee beans do not mold and spoil in the humid air. In the wet-hulling process, the coffee fruit's skin and pulp are first removed, followed by a short fermentation and then drying. While the beans are semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and drying continues for the later stage until the moisture content drops to 12%.

Because every step is completed in an environment with 70–90% humidity, and because the parchment layer has already been removed before the final drying step, the "exposed" green beans easily absorb moisture from the air, so the resulting coffee has more of a muted aroma of wood, herbs, and spices. Front Street Lintong Mandheling coffee also uses the wet-hulling process. After roasting, its acidity decreases and its body increases, while still retaining grassy and spicy notes, carrying the flavor profile unique to Indonesian Mandheling coffee. Therefore, Front Street has also added it to the high-cost-performance everyday-bean series and launched it in 100-gram small packaging, so everyone can taste the flavor of Southeast Asian coffee.

Multiple manual selections Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee

Looking at the green bean jute bag of Front Street Golden Mandheling, Front Street can see the words "Triple pick" and "GRADE 1," meaning it belongs to the highest grade of Indonesian green beans and has undergone three manual selections during production.

The grading of Indonesian green coffee is based mainly on the number of defective beans, supplemented by size specifications. General quality requirements are no live insects, no moldy, rotten, or stinking beans, a maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and an impurity rate of less than 0.5%. According to the defect rate, it is divided into six grades. Among them, the highest grade, G1, requires that the total number of defective beans in a 300g sample must be fewer than 11. Front Street Lintong Mandheling coffee in Front Street's everyday-bean series is G1, uses the wet-hulling process, and presents the classic Indonesian Mandheling flavor.

PWN, which pursues perfection in screening, subjects G1-grade Mandheling to multiple strict selections to minimize the coffee's defect rate. In addition, before packaging, PWN also places the green beans in a machine for density and color sorting, making Golden Mandheling coffee uniform and translucent.

Front Street Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling What is the flavor like?

In order to present the classic full-bodied flavor of Mandheling coffee, Front Street roasters choose a medium-dark roast, making the aromas of dark chocolate and caramel more explosive. After Mandheling coffee beans enter their best tasting period, their aroma is at its fullest. Front Street believes that brewing with freshly roasted coffee beans is crucial. The aromatic substances in coffee beans accelerate their loss over time, which affects the final expression of the coffee's flavor. Front Street hopes every customer can drink fresh, good coffee, so it only ships roasted beans freshly roasted within 5 days. Including logistics time, they are just ready to enjoy upon receipt.

Front Street's coffee brewing parameters are all based on the characteristics of the coffee beans, the roast level, and the flavor profile. Whenever a coffee bean is launched, Front Street tastes it through cupping. Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee shows flavors of nuts, dark chocolate, spices, pine wood, and caramel in cupping, with relatively low acidity and a high body.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas choose the KONO dripper to brew this type of full-bodied coffee. Compared with the v60, the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface, weaker exhaust effect, and straight ribs that occupy only one quarter of the dripper, allowing the coffee bed and hot water to form immersion extraction, making the coffee taste rounder and fuller. The KONO dripper is also suitable for coffees such as Front Street Brazil Queen's Estate coffee and Front Street Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 coffee.

Brewing water temperature: 87–88°C

Coffee powder: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio 1:15

Grind size: medium-coarse grind (70% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve)

The brewing method uses a three-pour water technique. Dividing the pouring into three stages better expresses the full-bodied mouthfeel and caramel sweetness of Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee.

In the first stage, pour 30ml for blooming. This pour fully wets the coffee grounds and allows them to degas, so that the coffee's flavor substances can be better extracted afterward.

In the second stage, pour 100ml. This stage mainly flushes out Mandheling's golden foam and raises the coffee bed.

In the final stage, gently pour 95ml in the center, which can enhance the coffee's sweetness.

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