Mandheling is the representative coffee of the Sumatra region, and the Golden Mandheling produced by PWN is the best among them. This article focuses on Front Street Golden Mandheling, starting with the identification of the authenticity of the PWN trademark and certificate of origin, sorting out the unique features of Golden Mandheling in terms of screening standards, green bean appearance, and flavor performance, and extending to the geographical distribution of the Sumatra region, Indonesia's green bean grading system, and the local unique wet-hulling process. It also explains in detail why Front Street roasters choose deep roasting to highlight the mellow and nutty caramel notes, giving you a comprehensive understanding of this classic coffee known as "the ugliest appearance, the best taste."
The name Mandheling is usually used to refer to coffee beans from the Sumatra region that have been carefully cultivated and processed, and the aroma also shows subtle differences depending on the harvest location. Front Street Golden Mandheling is the most representative product under Indonesia's Pwani Coffee Trading Company (PWN). At present, there are many types of coffee on the market under the banner of Golden Mandheling, but because PWN has registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as an exclusive trademark, only the Golden Mandheling produced by this company can truly be called "Golden Mandheling" in the true sense. To identify the genuine product, two points can be noted: first, the green bean burlap sack printed with the PWN logo, and second, the certificate of origin issued by PWN. Front Street has displayed these two credentials in its Dongshankou store for customers to verify.
Front Street Golden Mandheling undergoes one machine screening and three manual selections in quality control, and the production process is quite rigorous. Its green beans are dark green in color and plump, all reaching 18 mesh or above, and the bean color remains consistent after roasting, making it possible to brew a coffee that is both delicate and rugged. Compared with ordinary Mandheling, Golden Mandheling has a cleaner mouthfeel, and the herbal, earthy, and woody notes commonly found in ordinary Mandheling almost disappear, replaced by more prominent caramel sweetness, while the fruit acidity also appears bright and elegant. For this reason, veteran coffee lovers are particularly fond of the taste of Mandheling, and Golden Mandheling is even more highly sought after.
Front Street Golden Mandheling also spurred a new round of market demand. Many merchants saw the business opportunity in it, and as a result a large number of products named Golden Mandheling have emerged on the market, with prices varying widely. Front Street Indonesia PWN Golden Mandheling black coffee beans are freshly deep-roasted, priced at 89 yuan/227g.
Sumatra
Indonesia is the country with the largest number of islands in the world, and Sumatra, the origin of Golden Mandheling, is both the largest island in Indonesia and the sixth largest island in the world. Sumatra coffee is usually also called Mandheling coffee. Most of what is produced in North Sumatra is Gayo, with ateng as the main variety, and the Lake Tawar production area at the northern tip can be called Aceh coffee or Tawar lake coffee; the Lintong and Toba lake area in South Sumatra is called Mandheling, and the Lintong area is the core production area of Mandheling. Mandheling is produced in the mountains around Lake Toba, which is located north of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province, and is an alpine freshwater lake with an average elevation of about 900 meters.
The grading of Indonesian green beans is determined by the number of defective beans and bean size. Indonesia's requirements for conventional quality include: no live insects, no moldy, rotten, or foul-smelling beans, a maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and an impurity rate below 0.5%. Graded by defect rate (based on 300g), the grades are mainly divided into 6 levels from G1 to G6, among which G1 is the highest grade.
PWN, which pursues perfection in the screening process, strictly implements 1 machine screening plus 3 manual selections for G1-grade Front Street Mandheling, ensuring that defective beans are thoroughly removed and greatly reducing the defect rate. In addition, before packaging, PWN also sends the green beans into a machine for density and color difference screening, making Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans uniform and translucent with a bright luster.
The processing method of Mandheling coffee beans
Indonesia is hot and humid all year round, with insufficient sunshine hours, and humidity remains between 70% and 90% year-round, so relying solely on sun-drying is obviously impractical. For the weather-variable island of Sumatra, even if washed processing is used, it is difficult to string together a continuous week of sunny weather to complete drying, and thus the wet-hulling process was born. The wet-hulling process is as follows: first complete the washed processing, then place the coffee beans with parchment in the sun to dry for 1 to 2 days, and after the moisture content drops to 30% to 50%, remove the parchment and continue sun-drying. This method can speed up the drying of coffee beans and greatly shorten the time required. As a rare processing method in the world, wet hulling accidentally gives Mandheling its low-acidity, mellow, and muted-aroma flavor characteristics, and also earned it the title of "the world's most mellow coffee."
Front Street Mandheling coffee beans are relatively large and hard in texture. Because the three-stage drying method in the processing involves many variables and the processing method is relatively rough, Mandheling coffee beans occasionally appear in a goat-hoof shape, but this is not a defective bean; it is caused by machine squeezing when removing the parchment. Therefore, some people sigh: Mandheling coffee beans have the ugliest appearance, yet the best taste.
To highlight Mandheling's mellow body and nutty caramel notes, Front Street roasters chose deep roasting. In terms of extraction performance, the flavor of Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans includes spices, pine, herbs, and baked toast, with a rich overall layering, mellow yet clean, intertwined with strong nutty and caramel aromas, along with chocolate notes, a lasting finish, and excellent balance.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
