What Does Mandheling Coffee Flavor Actually Taste Like?

Mandheling coffee is known for a full body, low acidity, herbal aroma, and a bittersweet, smoky finish. Baristas often suggest it to drinkers who ask for coffee that is not sour. The name comes from the Mandailing people of Indonesia, and the beans are typically Ateng (Catimor) varieties grown at high altitude and processed with Indonesia's wet-hulling method.

A faint sourness can still appear in Mandheling, usually tied to roast level and extraction rather than the bean itself. Lighter roasts and uneven brewing preserve more acidity, while darker roasts push the cup toward bittersweet and smoky notes. Golden Mandheling is linked to the PWN company, which helped standardize selection and grading for this Indonesian coffee.

Many people, when ordering a pour-over at a café for the first time, will specifically ask for "coffee that isn't sour," and the barista will often recommend Mandheling. But what exactly should Mandheling taste like? Why does it sometimes taste slightly sour? This article starts with an interesting anecdote about the origin of the name Mandheling, sorts out the connection between Golden Mandheling and the PWN company, introduces the characteristics of the Ateng (Catimor) variety and Indonesia's unique wet-hulling process, and analyzes the relationship between Mandheling's acidity and roast level. At the end, it includes the origin information of Front Street Golden Mandheling, roasting curve suggestions, and Kono dripper staged extraction parameters, to help you fully understand this full-bodied coffee.

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There are always some friends who are new to single-origin coffee and don't like sourness. When they walk into a café, they will say to the barista, "Give me a pour-over that isn't sour." At this point, the barista will usually recommend Mandheling. Once the coffee is brewed, the first sip often gets feedback of bitterness, and some people even want to add sugar. The first time Front Street drank Mandheling, what surprised me was not the bitterness, but the herbal aroma before it entered the mouth, the sweetness that surged on the rear palate after swallowing, and the lingering smoky finish. But later, when I ordered Mandheling at another café, the first sip felt wrong—it actually had a faint sourness. Shouldn't Mandheling be bittersweet? How could it have sourness? What should its true flavor actually be like?

The Origin of the Name Mandheling The earliest name of Mandheling was actually Mandailing, originally the name of an Indonesian tribe. During World War II, when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier drank a very aromatic and mellow cup of coffee in a local café and asked the owner what the coffee was called. The owner mistakenly thought he was asking where he was from, so he answered: "Mandailing."

After the war ended, the Japanese soldier remembered that mellow coffee he had drunk in Indonesia and asked a friend to find a local coffee merchant to help ship 15 tons to Japan. When others asked the name of the beans, he mistakenly said Mandailing as Mandehling. It was precisely this "double misunderstanding" that gave birth to the name Mandheling. Because Mandheling coffee became very popular in Japan, the name spread along with it, and that coffee merchant from back then is today's famous Pwani Coffee Company (PWN).

PWN Golden Mandheling When people mention Mandheling flavor, the first thing that often comes to mind is the Indonesian bean "Golden Mandheling." But have you ever noticed that a few English letters always appear alongside the name Mandheling, such as Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling?

PWN (Pwani Coffee Company) is the abbreviation of Pwani Coffee Company. This company is a very famous local coffee buyer in Indonesia, mainly purchasing Indonesian Mandheling coffee beans. It has taken in almost all of Indonesia's best-producing regions, so most of the Indonesian Mandheling produced by PWN is uniquely specialty-grade. After the beans are collected, PWN also conducts multiple rounds of hand sorting to select plump, defect-free beans. Only such beans are classified as Golden Mandheling.

Later, PWN registered "Golden Mandheling" as a trademark. Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling thus became the Golden Mandheling that only this company produces today and that can truly count as "Golden Mandheling." Front Street needs to emphasize that most Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling on the market today comes from the Aceh producing region of Sumatra. Ateng The variety of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s new-crop 2020 Front Street Mandheling coffee beans is Ateng, also known as Catimor. Only Catimor grown in Sumatra and Indonesia's native islands can be called Ateng. Catimor is not the purebred Arabica we often talk about, but a hybrid of Timor from the Robusta species and the Bourbon mutation Caturra.

It was first developed in 1959 and began to be promoted in Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. With disease resistance and high yield, it secured a place among Central and South American coffee varieties, and the recurring coffee leaf rust crises in Central and South America also drove the adoption of Catimor. Compared with varieties such as Typica and Bourbon, Catimor is characterized by high yield, short plants, suitability for dense planting, and reddish-brown new leaves. However, because it matures quickly and has high yield, it must be ensured sufficient fertilizer supply and shade, and according to Front Street's understanding, its lifespan is quite short, averaging only ten years.

Wet-Hulling Process When people talk about Indonesian Mandheling, what often leaves a deep impression is the rich cocoa note on entry, as well as the special herbal and earthy flavors. The reason for these special flavors is actually related to the way Mandheling is processed.

Just as K72 is to Kenya and honey processing is to Costa Rica, wet hulling can be said to be a highly distinctive local processing method in Indonesia. Because local water resources are precious and sun-drying conditions are unstable, locals combined Indonesia's rainy climate and invented the wet-hulling method.

The wet-hulling process is as follows:

1. Depulp the coffee cherries, place the parchment beans into a large bucket or tank filled with water, and remove defective parchment beans floating on the surface.

2. Briefly wash the dense parchment beans that sink to the bottom, take them out and put them into a bucket or plastic bag, and perform a short dry fermentation, that is, allowing the pectin sugars on the surface of the parchment to ferment and enhance flavor. Basically, the longer the fermentation time, the heavier the acidity. Fermentation time varies from person to person, generally only a few short hours, but some estates omit the dry fermentation stage and directly sun-dry the parchment beans, which can suppress acidity and increase a viscous mouthfeel, allowing the pectin sugars to fully ferment and increase flavor. Usually the fermentation time is between 12-36 hours, depending on the specific situation.

3. Sun-dry the parchment beans for one to two days, until the bean moisture content reaches 30%-50%. The beans are still half-hard and half-soft. Use a huller to scrape off the parchment and then dry again to accelerate the drying process. After about two days, when the moisture content reaches 12%-13%, the coffee beans are collected into woven bags, usually 40 kg and 80 kg per bag, and sent to a coffee processing factory for hulling. Done, the whole process takes about four days.

4. The hulling process uses a huller to grind off the bean parchment, then dries again until the moisture content reaches about 12%-15%. Then, the coffee beans are sent for machine sorting to remove various impurities, and then classified by bean size.

During the wet-hulling process, the fruit skin is removed, allowing the beans to directly contact the air, so the proportion of defective beans such as moldy beans is much higher than in washed and natural methods. It is also precisely for this reason that Mandheling carries special flavors reminiscent of grass jelly, herbs, and earth.

Mandheling in our impression should be bittersweet, so why does it have sourness? Actually, in terms of the green bean itself, Mandheling is a coffee bean with extremely high acidity. The change in acidity is characterized by this: under light-medium, medium, and medium-dark roasting, the fruity acidity undergoes a change from quite obvious strong acidity to acidity to weak acidity.

Front Street once roasted Front Street Golden Mandheling into light, medium, and dark roast levels for comparison, and found that no matter whether it was light, medium, or dark, the flavor was not bad.

The reason the Mandheling we commonly see is dark roasted is, first, because its processing method and mixed varieties result in a relatively high defect rate for this bean, and dark roasting can perfectly conceal this flaw; second, because Mandheling was first discovered by the Japanese, and in coffee tasting the Japanese tend to prefer mouthfeel-oriented coffees. So it is not hard to understand why Mandheling chooses dark roasting.

Coffee beans are the fruit of the coffee tree, and every fruit carries natural fruity acidity. The "acidity" in coffee is also affected by roasting and extraction. How the roaster roasts and how the barista brews will both affect the flavor of a cup of coffee. If you really do not want Mandheling with acidity, you might as well choose beans with a darker roast level. After all, the longer the roasting time, the more substances such as floral and fruity acidity in the coffee have been worn away; but Front Street believes that fruity acidity can be said to be an indispensable member of a cup of coffee, because it is precisely these acidic notes that make the flavor layers of coffee fuller, and this also creates each cup of coffee's own unique personality.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee): Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Company: PWN Producing region: Gayo Mountain, Aceh, Sumatra Altitude: 1100-1600m Variety: ateng Processing method: wet-hulled

[Roasting Suggestions]

When Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) roasts Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans, the roast level is medium-dark, in order to erase Mandheling's excessive acidity and enhance its body and balance. Front Street Golden Mandheling is a green bean with relatively high moisture, and has a relatively large moisture deviation compared with natural beans, so special attention must be paid during dehydration. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) suggests closing the damper immediately after charging the green beans, steaming for 30 seconds, then opening the damper to 3, until the color of the green beans turns light green or white, then opening the damper to 4, and opening it to maximum after first crack.

Machine: Yangjia 800N, green bean charge 550g Charge temperature: 200°C Turning point: 5'40", 148°C First crack: 9'54", 191.2°C Develop for 3 minutes 30 seconds after first crack, discharge at 204.5°C

[Brewing Suggestions]

Front Street suggests using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing, as this allows you to experience the coffee's rich flavors to the greatest extent. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all within 5 days of roasting, because Front Street deeply understands the great impact of coffee bean freshness on flavor. Front Street's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," so that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee. The resting period for coffee is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it is exactly at its best flavor.

Dripper: Kono dripper Water temperature: 88°C Dose: 15 grams Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: medium-fine grind (EK43s setting 11)

*Reason for choosing the Kono dripper: The Kono dripper has few ribs and they are located at the lower end, and the filter paper fits closely against the dripper, which can restrict airflow and lengthen the contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the full-bodied mouthfeel.

Brewing method: staged extraction

Use 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour in a small stream in circles until 125 grams for the first stage. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until 225 grams and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Start timing from the beginning of the bloom.) The extraction time is 2'00".

Front Street Mandheling coffee characteristic mouthfeel description: layered and changeable, full-bodied and clean, high balance, with strong nutty and chocolate flavors, rich spice and caramel aromas, with fruity notes, and a lasting finish.

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