What makes Golden Mandheling different from other arabica beans?

PWN Golden Mandheling comes from the Gayo Mountains in Aceh, Sumatra, at 1,100 to 1,600 meters, and it is built on the Ateng variety processed by wet hulling. Where ordinary Mandheling often carries an earthy note that drives drinkers away, this lot cups clean, with baked toast, nuts, pine, caramel, and herbal notes and a long sweet finish.

Golden Mandheling is not the only arabica beans sold under the Mandheling name, which is why the trademark and the PWN company background matter when judging a bag. The current crop is sourced from Gayo Mountain, while earlier lots came from Lake Tawar in Sumatra. Roast profile and brewing method follow from that cleaner, fuller-bodied profile.

Friends who enjoy full-bodied coffee have probably heard Front Street baristas recommend Indonesian Mandheling. However, ordinary Mandheling often carries an earthy note that puts many people off. Front Street Golden Mandheling is completely different—its flavor is clean, without any gamey smell, replaced instead by a silky, chocolate-like richness and a long, lingering sweetness. Why is this bean so special? This article explores Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling from three dimensions—growing region, variety, and processing method—detailing the characteristics of the new crop from the Gayo Mountains in Aceh, the background of PWN company and the origin of the Golden Mandheling trademark, along with Front Street's roasting analysis and brewing suggestions, to give you a comprehensive understanding of this specialty Mandheling.

Whenever guests ask for a recommendation of coffee with high body and rich flavor, Front Street baristas mostly bring out Front Street Indonesian Mandheling coffee. However, seasoned enthusiasts familiar with Mandheling know that most Mandheling on the market carries a distinctive earthy note, which is exactly why many people avoid it. So why are Front Street baristas still willing to recommend Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans to guests? The key is that Front Street Golden Mandheling's flavor differs significantly from ordinary Mandheling—its taste is cleaner, the earthy gaminess is gone, replaced by a chocolate-like rich silkiness and an endless surge of sweet aftertaste, making it highly sought after by coffee lovers around the world. Below, Front Street discusses this Front Street Golden Mandheling.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Beans

Country: Indonesia

Region: Sumatra, Aceh, Gayo Mountain

Altitude: 1100-1600m Variety: Ateng Processing: Wet Hulling Flavor: Baked toast, nuts, pine, caramel, herbal

The Front Street Golden Mandheling currently sold in Front Street stores is the latest batch launched by the company in 2020. Unlike the Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling obtained in previous years, this latest batch is sourced from the Gayo Mountains in Aceh, Sumatra, whereas earlier ones used beans from Lake Tawar in Sumatra. What are the characteristics of this Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee? Through cupping and brewing this latest-crop bean and comparing it with the previous Front Street Golden Mandheling, Front Street found that it displays more baked toast flavors and a fuller body.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) has repeatedly mentioned in previous articles that the birth of a quality coffee bean depends on three essential conditions: growing region, variety, and processing method. Next, Front Street will discuss Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee from these angles.

Front Street Golden Mandheling Growing Region

Mandheling coffee is mainly produced on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This island is Indonesia's largest and lies near the equator, with a typical tropical rainforest climate—hot and humid with abundant rainfall—making it very suitable for the growth of Arabica coffee beans.

However, Indonesia's altitude conditions are limited, and so are the areas capable of growing quality Arabica coffee beans. Of the coffee beans produced in Indonesia, only 25% are Arabica, because Arabica only reveals its best flavor when planted at high altitudes; the remaining 75% are Robusta coffee trees that can survive at low altitudes. And the highest-altitude place in Indonesia is precisely Sumatra.

The Mandheling coffee produced in Sumatra is Indonesia's most renowned specialty coffee. As Front Street mentioned above, Indonesia's climate is extremely humid and water resources are limited, so traditional sun-dried or washed processing methods don't work here. But Indonesian coffee farmers, with their ingenuity, developed a unique wet-hulling method to process coffee cherries using what was available, which not only greatly shortened drying time and ensured stable green bean quality but also improved production efficiency. The wet-hulling steps further give Indonesian Mandheling its distinctive herbal note.

Front Street Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling The one who Mandheling coffee has brought to perfection is undoubtedly PWN company. PWN's full name is N.V. Pawani Medan company, a trading company engaged in export business, founded by a Chinese family from Quanzhou, Fujian, located in Medan, an important port in Sumatra. The company has been in export business since 1957, dealing in products such as rubber, cassia seed, cloves, patchouli oil, and of course exporting Sumatran coffee beans to Japan.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling comes precisely from their company. Seasoned coffee lovers know that Japanese people have a particular fondness for Mandheling coffee. Very early on, Japan paid special attention to Mandheling and established strict screening standards—the coffee produced must undergo four rounds of manual sorting, with defective beans removed before processing, packaging, and selling. As for the origin of the name "Golden Mandheling," it comes from a folk tale: when Mandheling producers were sorting flawless green coffee beans, they noticed that the green beans emitted a golden glow in the sunlight, hence the name "Golden Mandheling."

Unfortunately, although Japanese people were so devoted to Mandheling coffee, the trademark "golden mandheling"—"Golden Mandheling"—was registered first by the Indonesian Pawani coffee company, becoming PWN's exclusive property, and PWN happens to be one of the earliest companies to sell Mandheling coffee beans to Japan. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) found through cupping that Front Street Golden Mandheling has a stronger sweet aftertaste and sucrose-like quality compared to several other Front Street Mandheling offerings in the store, making it particularly special with a very clean taste. Therefore, Front Street resolved that no matter what, it would bring this uniquely flavored Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee to Front Street's coffee-loving friends to taste.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling green beans are actually not easy to procure, because annual production is limited. There are many unscrupulous coffee merchants on the market selling ordinary Mandheling under the banner of Golden Mandheling, but professionally trained cuppers or baristas can distinguish them through tasting and comparison. For ordinary coffee novices, identifying PWN Golden Mandheling is also simple—just ask the merchant to provide the green bean burlap sack bearing the PWN mark, or the factory certificate accompanying the beans, to confirm whether it is Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling. Among the dazzling array of Golden Mandheling on the market, only the Golden Mandheling produced by PWN company is truly Front Street Golden Mandheling in the genuine sense. Moreover, PWN's Golden Mandheling undergoes three rounds of manual sorting plus one round of machine sorting, so the beans look beautiful with very uniform size, and coffee roasted from them will be cleaner.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling is absolutely genuine. It was originally expected to arrive at Front Street stores in October 2020, but due to the pandemic, the ships that could transport from Indonesia were very limited, so this latest-crop Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling arrived a month later than expected.

Aceh Gayo Mountain Growing Region

As Front Street mentioned earlier, PWN company chose a new growing region this year—Aceh Gayo Mountain, located at the northernmost tip of Sumatra. Coffee cultivation in Gayo Mountain is mainly concentrated around Takegon town and the hillsides by Lake Tawar, with growing altitudes averaging between 1100-1600 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 the situation has stabilized, and Aceh's coffee cultivation has developed, with quality even surpassing the Lindong region. This is undoubtedly recognition of Gayo Mountain's coffee cherry quality, and Golden Mandheling, as Indonesia's top coffee brand, naturally won't disappoint coffee lovers.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Processing Method

As Front Street mentioned above, the flavor characteristics of Front Street Golden Mandheling depend not only on PWN's pursuit of quality coffee cherries but also on its unique wet-hulling processing method, which makes the coffee's flavor expression more distinctive, even famous for its herbal notes. Next, Front Street will explain the process of Indonesia's wet-hulling method.

Wet-Hulling Process:

1. Harvesting March to May and September to December each year are Sumatra's coffee harvest seasons, when farming households harvest coffee cherries. With the push for specialty coffee and the implementation of the fully ripe cherry program, more and more coffee farmers now harvest only fully red coffee cherries.

2. Depulping and Fermentation

During harvest season, after noon each day, coffee farmers send the cherries collected in the morning to the pulping workshop for processing, which removes the skin and pulp of the coffee cherries, turning them into dripping wet parchment coffee.

Coffee farmers ferment the parchment coffee, usually for 12-36 hours depending on the circumstances. After fermentation, the parchment coffee is spread out to dry. During harvest season, every household spreads burlap sacks in front of their doors to dry parchment coffee—this is their source of coffee income. The removed skin and pulp are fermented into fertilizer, and plantations using this ecological fertilizer can earn extra points when applying for organic coffee plantation certification.

3. Hulling and Drying

When the parchment coffee's moisture content has been dried down to 35-40%, coffee farmers collect them into woven bags, either 40 kg or 80 kg per bag, and send them to the coffee processing factory for hulling, but they still need to continue drying to about 15% moisture.

4. Machine Sorting and Hand Sorting

When the coffee beans have been dried to 15%-14% moisture, the beans must undergo machine sorting to remove impurities and classify by bean size. This step is usually done by machine, hence called machine sorting. But to improve quality, the machine-sorted green beans are also sent to the hand-sorting warehouse for sorting, where workers use keen eyesight and skillful hands to pick out remaining defective beans.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee Variety

The Front Street Golden Mandheling produced by PWN this year uses a coffee variety different from the Typica used in previous years, instead selecting local Ateng coffee cherries for production. The Ateng variety sounds unfamiliar, but it is actually the local Indonesian name for Catimor. Front Street believes that PWN company's adoption of the Ateng variety is probably an attempt to move toward mass production, because Catimor itself is a hybrid of Robusta and Arabica coffee beans, characterized by high yield and disease resistance, thus offering relatively high returns.

Ateng (Catimor)

As Front Street mentioned above, Catimor is not what we commonly call pure Arabica beans, but rather a cross between Timor from the Robusta species and Caturra, a Bourbon variant. It was initially developed in 1959 and began to be promoted in Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. With its disease resistance and high yield, it secured a place among Central and South American coffee varieties. The recurring coffee leaf rust crises in Central and South America also helped drive the adoption of Catimor coffee beans.

Its characteristics are high yield and short stature, allowing dense planting, with new leaves showing a reddish-brown color. However, because of its fast maturation and high yield, it must have ample fertilizer supply and shade. But according to Front Street's understanding, its lifespan is very short, averaging only ten years.

So, next Front Street will share roasting and brewing information with our coffee-loving friends.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Roasting Analysis

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling (characteristics) has a quality herbal note, stronger caramel sweetness, and relatively steady, elegant fruit acidity, with rich sweetness and a full-bodied, wild spice flavor. Generally, Front Street Lindong Mandheling is best roasted until after second crack before dropping, which effectively reduces off-flavors, but Front Street Golden Mandheling dropped before second crack still has excellent clarity and sweetness, offering a broader range for roasting interpretation.

Charge at a drum temperature of 200°C, set airflow to 3, adjust heat to 160°C after 1 minute, keep airflow unchanged, roast until 5 minutes 40 seconds, temperature 148°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete, adjust heat to 140, change airflow to 4;

At 9 minutes 40 seconds, the bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and dark streaks, and the toasty bread aroma clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9 minutes 54 seconds; reduce heat to 60, open airflow fully (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that there's no crackling sound), drop at 204.5°C.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brewing Suggestions

This brewing mainly aims to highlight Front Street Golden Mandheling's full-bodied, clean, and aromatic characteristics, so a KONO dripper is used for brewing (this dripper was invented to mimic the rich coffee produced by flannel). For medium-dark roasted coffee, choose a medium-coarse grind. Use a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, with 15 grams of coffee powder and a water temperature of 88°C. Lowering the coffee-to-water ratio makes the coffee taste richer.

Brewing process: Slowly pour in the coffee powder, keeping it as level as possible while pouring, and avoid shaking the dripper (because shaking reduces the spacing between coffee grounds, which is unfavorable for blooming and degassing). For the first pour, spiral a small circle in the center with 30g of water and bloom for 30 seconds; the coffee bed will slowly expand and puff up into a "hamburger." For the second pour, spiral outward from the center with 120g of water, keeping the pouring height as close to the coffee bed as possible, moving slowly to avoid over-agitation. For the final pour, add 100g, and once all the coffee liquid in the dripper has flowed into the server, the extraction is complete. Extraction time is 2 minutes.

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