What is java flavor in Indonesian coffee beans?

Java flavor refers to the cup profile of coffee grown on the island of Java, one of Indonesia's three main producing areas alongside Sumatra and Sulawesi. Indonesian coffee as a whole is mellow and bittersweet, with herbal notes, dark chocolate, and cedar typical of Asian producing countries. Sumatra gives Mandheling, Java gives Arabica beans, and Sulawesi gives plump, aromatic beans.

The Dutch brought coffee trees to Indonesia in the mid-17th century, and the first batch of Java coffee reached Amsterdam in 1712. Coffee leaf rust destroyed the plantations in 1877, forcing the introduction of Robusta from Africa as a replacement. Today only about 6% to 10% of Indonesian beans are Arabica, while java robusta coffee dominates national output at roughly 6.8 million bags a year.

Indonesian coffee is known for its mellow, bittersweet character and is a representative of Asian coffee-producing countries. From Sumatra's Mandheling to West Java's honey-processed specialty beans, and on to Sulawesi's Toraja, the Indonesian archipelago has given rise to coffees of widely differing flavors. This article will introduce you to Indonesia's three major representative producing regions, the origin of the name Mandheling, and distinctive processing methods such as wet hulling and honey processing, with a special recommendation for Front Street Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling and West Java Armani, to help you find Indonesian coffee beans that are good and not expensive.

When people think of Indonesia, many associate it with sunshine, islands, beaches, and vacations, but for coffee lovers, coffee beans are often the first thing that comes to mind. What coffees from Indonesia are worth trying? Next, Front Street will introduce them to you one by one.

If you're after acidity, you might choose Yirgacheffe; if you value a balance of sweetness and acidity, you might choose Costa Rica; but if you want a mellow, bittersweet cup, then Indonesian Mandheling is the one. Indonesia belongs to the Asian coffee-producing countries, and herbal notes, dark chocolate, and cedar are typical Asian coffee flavors, much loved by those who prefer a rich mouthfeel. The best growing areas in the Indonesian archipelago are concentrated on Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, and these three islands have respectively given rise to three representative Indonesian coffees: Mandheling is produced in Sumatra, with moderate acidity and a prominent rich aroma; Java coffee comes from Java and is of the Arabica species; Sulawesi coffee has plump beans and a rich aroma.

Which Indonesian coffee brand is good?

In the mid-17th century, the Dutch brought coffee trees to Indonesia. In 1712, the first batch of Java coffee arrived in Amsterdam. But in 1877 coffee leaf rust destroyed all the plantations, forcing the introduction of Robusta from Africa as a replacement. Today only 6% to 10% of Indonesia's coffee beans are of the Arabica species. Indonesia is a major global producer of Robusta coffee, with an annual output of about 6.8 million bags, about ninety percent of which comes from smallholder farms. If you want to taste high-quality Indonesian Arabica beans, Front Street Coffee is the only choice.

Indonesia's Sumatra Producing Region

Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia, and its coffee history dates back to 1696, when Dutch farmers, seeking broader planting grounds, ultimately settled on Java. After thirty years of development, Indonesia had established a firm foothold in the coffee market. Yet today Indonesia's coffee representative is Mandheling, which is not surprising, because most of the early Java coffee sold to Europe actually came from Sumatra, and Mandheling is a product of Sumatra. Therefore, Sumatra can be called an important coffee-producing region in Indonesia.

Mandheling, also known as Sumatra coffee, has its home in the Lake Toba area at the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island. Lake Toba is located in the central part of North Sumatra province, and in 1888 Dutch colonists moved "Java Mandheling" north to the Lake Toba area. Both Lintong in South Sumatra and the Lake Toba area can be called Mandheling, but the Lintong area is the true Mandheling producing region. Mandheling is produced in the mountains around Lake Toba, which lies north of Medan, the provincial capital of Sumatra, and is an alpine freshwater lake with an average elevation of about 900 meters. What is usually called Mandheling refers to the Timor or Ateng varieties grown in the mountains around Lake Toba.

Front Street Coffee — Indonesia Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Region: Gayo Mountain, Aceh, Sumatra Altitude: 1100-1600 meters Variety: Ateng Grade: G1, 3 times hand-sorted Processing Method: Wet Hulling

Front Street's flagship Mandheling — Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling — uses the Ateng variety, which is the local Indonesian name for Catimor. Ateng is very well suited to being grown in the Aceh region and to developing flavor there. Since the original Catimor is a cross between Arabica and Robusta, if you ask how Indonesia's Golden Mandheling variety is related to Robusta, you could say Ateng is Robusta's "grandson." These Ateng plants are grown in the Gayo mountain range area, in Aceh province in northern Sumatra, with coffee gardens distributed around the town of Takegon and the slopes around Lake Tawar. The growing altitude averages between 1110 and 1600 meters, and they are cultivated by small tenant farmers under shade trees, processed by the wet hulling method, showing a unique flavor and a deep yet lively richness.

The Origin of the Name Mandheling Coffee

"Mandheling" in Indonesian coffee was originally the name of a tribe. After colonizing Indonesia, Japanese soldiers returned to Japan and could not forget the delicious local coffee, so through trading partners they asked locals to help collect high-quality coffee beans, among which was this Mandheling. The Japanese loved it, and since the commercial source was inconvenient to disclose, the local casually said "Mandheling," and this name accidentally became the name of the coffee bean. This local was the owner of Indonesia's PWN company (Pwani Coffee Company). PWN was the first company to export Golden Mandheling to Japan, and only Mandheling produced by this company is authentic Golden Mandheling. Front Street Coffee has for many years consistently used Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling; PWN's packaging has also changed from the original 60 kilograms per bag to 30 kilograms, and the producing region has also changed from Lintong to Gayo Mountain.

How to distinguish the real Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling?

Severely affected by the pandemic, shipping space from Indonesia to China has been especially tight this year, and the new-crop Golden Mandheling originally scheduled to arrive at port in October was a full month late. Compared with other Mandheling, Golden Mandheling has a stronger sweet aftertaste and a more prominent sucrose aroma. Although everyone knows that only PWN's Mandheling is called Golden Mandheling, PWN's annual output is limited, and many large-bean select Golden Mandheling on the market are not from PWN. If you cannot be sure, you might ask the seller to provide the PWN green bean sack or a certificate accompanying the beans, and you can then confirm whether it is what we call Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling.

Why is Front Street Coffee's Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling so popular?

Golden Mandheling's specification is 18 screen and above, with fewer than 3 defective beans (in a 300-gram green bean sample), belonging to the highest grade G1, dark green in color, with a neat flat-bean shape. After strict four-time sorting, Golden Mandheling not only removes the earthy, miscellaneous flavors common in ordinary Mandheling, but its mouthfeel is also cleaner and more transparent, and its sweetness is stronger. Front Street Coffee's baristas once conducted a blind test among 7 Indonesian Mandheling coffees, and all Front Street Coffee baristas could immediately identify it, which shows just how distinctive it is.

Indonesia's Unique Green Coffee Processing Method — Wet Hulling

Mandheling mostly uses Sumatra's unique wet hulling method. The region is rainy with frequent typhoons, which cannot meet the weather needed for sun-drying, and economic conditions are limited, so it also cannot afford the high cost of the washed method, and thus the highly local wet hulling method emerged.

Today Indonesian coffee is no longer poor, and many estates and companies can afford to use the washed method, but why is wet hulling still retained? Front Street Coffee believes that wet hulling is what made Mandheling known to the world; at the mention of Mandheling one thinks of wet hulling, and the two have long complemented each other. Wet hulling has two stages: in the first stage, a wooden pulper removes the skin and pulp, followed by 3 hours of fermentation and then drying, bringing the moisture content down to a semi-dry, semi-wet state of 30% to 50%; in the second stage, the mucilage and parchment layer are removed, and drying continues, a process that takes 2 to 4 days, with the moisture content finally dropping to 12% to 13%.

West Java Producing Region

Indonesia's West Java producing region is a first-level administrative region of Indonesia, located in the western section of Java island, bordered by the Java Sea to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, including offshore islands, with an area of 46,300 square kilometers. Java has a tropical rainforest climate, hot and humid year-round. The northern coastal plain has the highest temperatures, while the mountain areas are much cooler.

High humidity often creates an enervating climate. From November to March is the northwest monsoon period, rainy and cloudy; from April to October is the southeast monsoon period, with more sunny days and less rainfall. Jakarta's average annual rainfall is about 1760 millimeters. Jakarta's average daily maximum temperature is 30°C, with a minimum of 23°C. In the highland area of Tossari (1735 meters above sea level), the average temperature is 22 to 8°C. Thanks to periodic fertilization by volcanic ash, Java's soil is very fertile.

Front Street Coffee: Indonesia West Java Armani Coffee Beans

Region: Mount Tigula, West Java Altitude: 1400-1600m Variety: S795/Jember Processing Method: Sun-Dried Honey Processing

The honey-processed West Java coffee bean that Front Street has obtained is a very special variety, using S795, with a blue-green bean color. Its native tree naturally mutated from S288, and S288 was an excellent hybrid variety bred in India in 1946. The predecessor of S288 was lineage S288 (first generation) crossed with Typica and named S26; because the first-generation S288 bean was a cross between Arabica and Liberica, it always carried Liberica's earthy, fishy taste. Indian botanists therefore crossed the Kent variety, itself a hybrid of first-generation S288 and Typica, with second-generation S288, becoming today's S795. Local coffee farmers call S795 Jembe, because S795 was introduced from India by the Jember Coffee Research Center in East Java and then given to Java farmers to plant.

Coffee Bean Honey Processing Method

Honey processing is Costa Rica's specialty processing method, rarely used for Indonesian coffee, but West Java uses it to increase the coffee's complexity and achieve a breakthrough in mouthfeel. Honey processing means that after picking ripe coffee cherries and removing the skin to separate out the seeds, the seeds with the mucilage layer still attached are spread on drying racks for a long drying period.

During this time they must be constantly turned by hand so that the coffee beans ferment evenly and do not over-rot. This state, with mucilage resembling honey stickiness, was named honey processing. When Front Street Coffee cupped this honey-processed bean, it found that its main characteristic lies in complex sweetness and fruity aroma; compared with Africa's Yirgacheffe, also known for floral notes, its fruitiness is more obvious. Its flavor profile leans toward heavier tropical fruits such as mango and jackfruit, complex and steady, while the unique honey-processing technique brings a faint hint of red wine.

Indonesia's Sulawesi Island Producing Region

Sulawesi, formerly called Celebes, is the oldest island in the archipelago, with exposed rocks all over a million years old. The coffee-producing areas commonly have yellow-red podzolic soil, often with several layers of clay beneath the surface, rich in iron. The most famous producing area is Toraja in the high mountains of South Sulawesi. Toraja coffee is a rare specialty bean in the world, with an annual output of about 1000 metric tons, distributed on rugged slopes at about 1200 meters above sea level in the central and southwestern parts of the island; planting and harvesting are not easy, with an average annual output of only 300 kilograms per hectare, and the semi-washed processing method is common on Sulawesi island.

Coffee Bean Semi-Washed Processing Method

Because they are grown in highland areas with inconvenient transportation and limited water resources, local coffee farmers soak the coffee cherries in a basin of water, then ferment them in plastic bags, and then dry them in parchment. After drying (11% to 13% moisture content), they are transported from the mountains down to Kalosi at the foot of the mountain and resold to intermediaries or processing plants for subsequent processing, which is why Kalosi became an important collection and distribution center, and also why Toraja coffee is sometimes called Kalosi coffee. Coffee beans processed this way retain their floral character, and the fermentation brings a mild acidity and a ripe-grape charm, clean and solid, with a caramel sweetness lingering in the mouth in the finish.

How to brew Front Street Mandheling coffee so it tastes good?

Front Street Mandheling has a rich flavor, sweet aroma, pure bitterness, and full body, with a little sweetness. After roasting, the beans are relatively large, with a special caramel-like aroma and a mellow mouthfeel. Most enthusiasts like to drink it as a single origin, and it is also an indispensable variety in blends, suitable both for pour-over and for espresso blends.

Good coffee cannot be separated from fresh roasting; every bean sold by Front Street Coffee is shipped within 5 days after roasting is completed. Front Street Mandheling itself is low in acidity, and even after long holding time or being made into iced coffee, it will not develop an unpleasant sourness or astringency. Therefore Front Street Coffee recommends brewing Front Street Mandheling hot.

Dripper: KONO Dose: 15 grams Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15 Grind size: 70% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve Water temperature: 88℃ Use 30 grams of water to bloom for 30 seconds, then pour slowly in a small stream up to 125 grams for a stage, then slightly increase the flow and pour slowly up to 225 grams; total extraction time 2 minutes.

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