Which Arabica Variety Is Behind Mandheling Coffee?

Mandheling is not one variety and Golden Mandheling is not a grade: it is a trademark registered by the PWN company. The coffee comes from the Mandailing area near the Bukit Barisan mountains in North Sumatra, belongs to the Arabica species, and is known for a full body, low acidity, and slight herbal, agarwood-like notes.

Indonesian grading and the wet-hulling process shape that profile. Golden Mandheling shows better cleanliness and body than regular Mandheling, which is why it is treated as the specialty-grade pick. Compared with Lintong Mandheling, it reads cleaner and heavier in the mouth, and brewing parameters should be adjusted toward lower acidity to keep the herbal and woody notes balanced.

Mandheling coffee is a quintessential representative of Asian coffee, renowned for its full body and herbal, agarwood-like flavor. But did you know? Mandheling is not a single variety, and Golden Mandheling is not a grade classification, but a trademark registered by the PWN company. Starting from the Indonesian Sumatra producing region, this article will detail the differences between Mandheling and Golden Mandheling, Indonesia's coffee bean grading system, the varietal composition of Mandheling, and the unique wet-hulling process. At the same time, Front Street Coffee will share a flavor comparison between Golden Mandheling and Lintong Mandheling, along with specific brewing parameter recommendations, to give you a comprehensive understanding of this Indonesian specialty coffee.

Mandheling coffee occupies a pivotal position in the Asian coffee landscape and is also a flagship product of Indonesian coffee. It exudes a distinctive aroma of herbs and woody agarwood, and once it enters the mouth, it is remarkably full-bodied and unforgettable. There is a saying that those who prefer Mandheling are mostly men, because its flavor profile leans toward the heavy and robust, while women tend to favor the fresh, light style of Ethiopian coffee with its floral notes and fruity acidity. However, Front Street has found that while this may indeed have been the case in the past, things have now changed—more and more female consumers are falling in love with Mandheling coffee.

Mandheling belongs to the Arabica species and originated in the Mandailing region near the Bukit Barisan mountains of North Sumatra. It stands out for its full body, low acidity, and slight herbal notes. Compared with regular Mandheling, Golden Mandheling is superior in both cleanliness and body, with an overall better mouthfeel. Therefore, Front Street regards Mandheling as the representative of Indonesian coffee and an entry-level choice, while those who truly understand coffee prefer the specialty-grade Golden Mandheling.

Indonesian Sumatra Coffee Producing Regions

Mandheling coffee is produced on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, so it is also called "Sumatra coffee." Indonesia's main coffee producing areas include Java, Sulawesi, and Sumatra, of which about ninety percent is Robusta. The "Mandheling" produced on Sumatra is the most well-known. Among the refined traditional Arabica coffees produced in northern Sumatra, the highest quality ones enter the market under the names Lintong and Mandheling. Strictly speaking, Lintong refers to coffee grown in a small area in the southwestern part of Lake Toba in the Lintong administrative region. These coffee-growing areas are scattered across clay plateaus at higher altitudes, with undulating terrain and fern coverage. Lintong coffee does not use shade-growing methods or chemical products and is almost entirely managed by smallholders. Mandheling, on the other hand, is a broader term that covers Lintong coffee as well as coffee from Diari (capital Sidikalang) and the northern Lake Toba growing areas, grown under similar conditions.

At present, the highest-quality coffee beans from the Sumatra region come from the Gayo highlands and are mostly grown from old tree varieties. Front Street Coffee's new-crop Golden Mandheling comes from the Gayo mountains of Aceh in North Sumatra. The Gayo mountain range is located in the Aceh producing region of North Sumatra Province, at an altitude between 1,500 and 2,500 meters, and the vast majority of coffee farmers are local indigenous people—the Gayo ethnic group. This region possesses ideal conditions for coffee cultivation: high altitude, fertile soil, abundant rainfall, with Lake Tawar providing a rich water source, and local coffee is widely grown organically without chemical fertilizers, making it considered a green coffee production region in the world. Therefore, Gayo coffee is also often called green coffee or Gayo organic coffee.

Front Street's Golden Mandheling comes from the PWN company. It should be noted that Golden Mandheling is not a grade name, but a trademark registered by the Indonesian company N.V. Pawani Medan (PWN for short). Founded in 1957, the company deals in the export of Indonesian products such as coffee, rubber, cinnamon, cloves, and patchouli oil. It was the first Indonesian company to export coffee from North Sumatra and the first company to make "Mandheling coffee" famous in Japan. Since 1977, the company has focused on exporting high-quality coffee beans, mainly Sumatra Arabica coffee Mandheling Grade 1 and Robusta coffee AP-I Grade 2, with main export destinations being Japan, Taiwan, and the United States, of which Japan and Taiwan account for more than 95% of exports. In Japan and Taiwan, "PWN" has become synonymous with quality assurance.

Golden Mandheling is even more stringent in quality control. First, the coffee beans must reach a screen size of 19 and be plump and uniform, belonging to the highest grade G1. PWN's Golden Mandheling is darker green in color and has a neat, flat bean shape. In addition, the green beans must undergo one machine sorting and three rounds of hand sorting to ensure fewer than 3 defective beans (based on a 300-gram green bean sample).

However, Front Street needs to remind everyone of one thing: as Golden Mandheling has become more and more famous, many beans that are not produced by PWN but are marketed under the Golden Mandheling name have appeared on the market. These can actually only be called specialty Mandheling. The Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling sold by Front Street Coffee is Golden Mandheling coffee beans certified with a certificate issued by PWN. The certification certificate issued by PWN and the jute sacks of Golden Mandheling green coffee beans bearing the PWN logo can both be seen at Front Street Coffee stores.

Indonesia Coffee Bean Grading Methods

Indonesian coffee is mainly semi-washed, and is graded according to the proportion of defective beans and the number of hand sortings of defective beans, with five levels from G1 to G5, G1 being the highest. Under this grading system, Sumatra is further divided into four different systems: Mandheling, Golden Mandheling, Lake Tawar coffee, and Aged Mandheling. Currently, Front Street carries Lintong Mandheling coffee and Golden Mandheling coffee.

Golden Mandheling Coffee Varieties

Sumatra is the Indonesian region where Arabica coffee beans are grown. As early as 1658, the Dutch transplanted descendants of the "European Typica mother plant" to Sri Lanka, but the cultivation failed. Later, in 1699, the Dutch transplanted coffee trees from Malabar in eastern India to Java, and this trial planting succeeded, with Typica steadily reproducing in Java. In 1718, the Dutch transplanted the successfully trialed Typica from Java to Sumatra and Sulawesi. After more than a century of propagation, just as Indonesian Typica was thriving, a leaf rust disease at the end of the 19th century swept through most of Indonesia's Typica, after which the more disease-resistant Robusta variety had to be introduced.

Mandheling coffee does not specifically refer to a single coffee variety. Generally speaking, Mandheling's main varieties are Ateng and TimTim. In fact, TimTim is Timor, an Arabica variety with Robusta lineage; while Ateng is Catimor, a hybrid of Caturra and Catimor. Because both varieties carry Robusta coffee bean genes, and are grown at not very high altitudes, they cannot form strong day-night temperature differences to allow the coffee beans to develop more refined flavors. Therefore, whether TimTim or Ateng, both naturally carry unique herbal, woody agarwood, and spice notes.

Introduction to Golden Mandheling Coffee Processing Methods

The processing method of each coffee bean depends on the local climate and environment, and at the same time best reflects the local coffee flavor. Sumatra is the largest island in Indonesia, located on the equator, with a tropical rainforest climate, high temperature and humidity, and abundant rainfall. Smallholder coffee farmers usually grow coffee in wild mountain forests. Sumatra is rich in water resources and warm year-round, but there is one unfavorable factor: the local weather is mostly rainy and cloudy, with frequent typhoons, which cannot provide the good weather needed for sun-drying; moreover, local economic conditions are poor, and they cannot afford the higher cost of the washed method. Thus, a highly local wet-hulling method emerged. It is precisely this seemingly accidental processing method that creates Mandheling's unique flavor.

The characteristic of the wet-hulling process is that after the coffee cherries are harvested, the skin and pulp are first removed with a wooden pulper, followed by 3 hours of fermentation, and then drying to reduce the moisture content to 30% to 50%, which is semi-dry and semi-wet. Next, the mucilage and parchment layer are removed, and drying continues for the later stage, which takes 2 to 4 days, with the moisture content finally reduced to 12% to 13%.

Front Street believes that although the wet-hulling process greatly speeds up the entire processing procedure, because the parchment layer still in a semi-dry state needs to be removed, the required friction is greater, and the green beans are easily crushed and squeezed, especially at both ends, forming small chips. Therefore, Indonesian coffee beans processed by the wet-hulling method generally have a relatively high defect rate, and green bean traders arrange manual hand sorting before export sales to remove incomplete beans with defects.

Front Street Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Regarding coffee brewing, Front Street recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans, as this is the best way to experience coffee's rich flavors. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee are all within 5 days of the roasting date, because Front Street knows well that freshness has a great impact on flavor. Front Street's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," so that every customer who places an order can receive the freshest possible state when they get the coffee. The resting period for coffee is about 4 to 7 days, so when customers receive it, it is exactly at its best flavor.

Of course, some customers need Front Street to help grind the coffee, and that is no problem either, but Front Street would like to remind you: once coffee beans are ground into powder in advance, they no longer need to rest, because during transportation the pressure from carbon dioxide inside the package can also make the coffee flavor smoother, so as soon as you receive the coffee grounds you can brew a cup right away. However, coffee grounds need to be brewed as soon as possible, because after contact with air they oxidize quickly and the flavor dissipates faster, so the coffee will not perform as well. Therefore, Front Street recommends buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing, so you can better taste the coffee's flavor.

Front Street's brewing parameters for Mandheling coffee:

In order to better highlight Mandheling coffee's full-bodied mouthfeel, Front Street chooses the Kono dripper. The Kono dripper has few ribs and they are located at the lower end; the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, which can restrict airflow and extend the contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and thereby enhancing the body.

Water temperature: 88°C, coffee dose: 15 grams, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, grind size: medium-fine grind (75% passing through a No. 20 sieve).

Use staged extraction. First, bloom with water at 2 times the coffee dose, that is, 30 grams of water for 30 seconds. The purpose of blooming is to let the coffee grounds release internal carbon dioxide, thereby making the later extraction more stable. Pour in a slow circular stream until 125 grams, then pause, continue pouring until 225 grams and stop. After the water in the dripper has dripped through, remove the dripper. Timing starts from the beginning of pouring, and the extraction time is 2 minutes 00 seconds. Next, swirl the entire cup of coffee to mix it evenly, then pour it into a cup to taste.

[Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Flavor]: The coffee has a varied overall layering, is full-bodied and clean, with rich nut and caramel aromas, obvious chocolate notes, a long finish, and high balance.

[Lintong Mandheling Coffee Flavor]: The entry has rich herbal aromas, black chocolate and caramel flavors, and a sweet aftertaste.

Everyday drinking bean Mandheling coffee can serve as an introductory bean for beginners to learn about Indonesian coffee; while Golden Mandheling coffee may be the higher-level specialty coffee sought by friends who understand coffee. Of course, if you do not like this flavor direction, you can also choose other flavors, such as Ethiopia's floral and acidic profile, Colombia's nutty black chocolate and soft fruity acidity, and Costa Rica's raisin, osmanthus, and rose floral aromas brought by special processing methods, and so on. If possible, Front Street suggests trying coffees from different producing regions to experience different coffee terroirs and cultures.

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