What Sets Mandheling Apart From Other Java Coffee Variety Lots?

Mandheling coffee from Sumatra is known for herbal notes and a full body, a profile that divides drinkers. It covers several lots, including Lintong, Golden, Tiger, Aged and Wahana Estate Natural, each with its own origin background, processing method and flavor. Wet hulling, a distinctive Sumatran step, shapes much of that character.

Judging specialty coffee usually runs on four dimensions: altitude, variety, processing method and a cupping score above 80. Mandheling often falls short of that score, yet its regional character still draws a loyal following. For anyone wondering what does java coffee taste like, the earthy, herbal and low-acid profile is the answer, and roasting and brewing parameters can be tuned around it.

Mandheling coffee is renowned for its herbal notes and full body, standing out uniquely in the specialty coffee wave. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article traces the history of Indonesian Sumatra coffee, explains the origin of the name Mandheling, and introduces one by one the origin backgrounds, processing methods, and flavor characteristics of five Front Street Mandheling coffee beans: Lintong, Golden, Tiger, Aged, and Wahana Estate Natural. It also covers the specific process of wet hulling, roasting suggestions, and brewing parameters for each bean, helping coffee enthusiasts gain a comprehensive understanding of the diverse facets of Mandheling.

With the continuous advancement of the third wave of specialty coffee, the public's acceptance of coffee flavors has significantly increased. Front Street Indonesian Mandheling coffee beans, known for their herbal notes and mellow mouthfeel, were initially controversial in their evaluation, but Front Street Coffee has observed that there are now many consumers who love it. Front Street Coffee believes that judging what constitutes specialty coffee should start from four dimensions: altitude, variety, processing method, and cupping score (above 80 points). In fact, Front Street Mandheling does not reach 80 points in cupping. Some people therefore conclude that Front Street Mandheling is not specialty coffee, but Front Street Coffee's view is that "specialty coffee" is merely a result that meets public evaluation standards.

When coffee with distinctive flavors from certain regions gains high recognition in the market, whether it is classified as specialty coffee is no longer so crucial. The reason Front Street Coffee conducts detailed cupping on the one hand and continuously introduces beans from different regions on the other is precisely to make everyone aware that coffee beans are always in a state of being discovered and changing. People's tastes are also constantly evolving, so existing evaluation standards are only the starting point for understanding coffee. Beyond that, one also needs to establish their own coffee worldview—this is the philosophy that Front Street Coffee has always conveyed.

Next, let's join Front Street Coffee in getting to know Front Street Mandheling coffee.

The origins of Mandheling coffee beans and the development of Sumatra coffee

Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia, and its coffee cultivation history can be traced back to 1696. At that time, Dutch plantation owners, seeking broader cultivation areas, selected Indonesia's Java Island after several surveys. Thirty years later, Indonesia had established itself in the coffee market. However, as it developed to the present day, the representative of Indonesian coffee has become Mandheling, which is not surprising—a large portion of the Java coffee exported to Europe in the early days originated from the Sumatra region, and Mandheling comes from Sumatra. It can be said that Sumatra is a crucial coffee-producing region in Indonesia.

The origin of the name Mandheling

Mandheling was originally the name of an Indonesian tribe. After the Japanese army colonized Indonesia and returned to their home country, they could not forget the deliciousness of the local coffee, so they asked locals through trade partnerships to transport high-quality coffee beans on their behalf, including this Mandheling.

According to Front Street's understanding, Mandheling's rise to fame began when Pwani Coffee Company (PWN) successfully promoted Mandheling to the Japanese market. This is an export trading company founded by a Chinese family from Quanzhou, Fujian, located in Medan, an important port in Sumatra. It has been engaged in export business since 1957, involving rubber, cassia seeds, cloves, patchouli oil, and of course, exporting Sumatra coffee beans to Japan.

Unlike many Indonesian green bean merchants, PWN is the exclusive supplier of high-grade Golden Mandheling coffee, contracting the finest Mandheling coffee-producing regions in Indonesia, and all Mandheling beans it produces are of premium quality. The Golden Mandheling coffee that has long occupied the top right corner of Front Street's bean list comes from PWN, and the Dongshankou store also displays the burlap sacks used for green bean packaging and certification certificates.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans are produced from Lake Tawar in the Gayo Mountains of northwestern Sumatra. Since the discovery of Mandheling, the Japanese have always paid considerable attention to this coffee bean, and in the process of cooperating with local green bean merchants, they established strict screening standards. After processing, the green beans undergo density and color sorting, and then require four rounds of manual bean selection, ultimately presenting Mandheling with uniform color and even bean shape. It is said that during green bean processing, Mandheling under sunlight emits a golden luster, hence the name "Golden Mandheling."

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling's specifications are 18 mesh and above, with fewer than 3 defective beans (per 300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest grade G1, with a darker green color and a neat flat bean shape. After strict screening of Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans, Front Street Coffee found that it not only removes the earthy off-flavors characteristic of ordinary Mandheling, but also has a cleaner and more transparent mouthfeel, with more prominent sweetness.

However, it was not a Japanese company that registered Golden Mandheling as a trademark, but rather PWN (Pwani Coffee Company), an Indonesian local enterprise that cooperated with Japanese companies in exporting Mandheling coffee beans in the early days. The Japanese company registered "Gold Top Mandheling." Front Street Coffee believes that the flavor differences between the two are minimal, but due to different brands and varying marketing strategies, it is inevitable that public opinion will diverge. Therefore, which of the two Golden Mandhelings is superior is truly a matter of personal opinion.

Currently, the most common and widely accepted Mandheling varieties on the market are Lintong Mandheling and Golden Mandheling. Having covered Golden Mandheling, let's now introduce Front Street Lintong Mandheling.

Front Street Lintong Mandheling

Lintong Mandheling is produced in the Lintong mountain area of north-central Sumatra, near Lake Toba. Lintong Mandheling is the regular version of Mandheling. Front Street Lintong Mandheling also uses the regular wet-hulling method, resulting in its low acidity and high body. However, the wet-hulling method brings about a situation where semi-hard, semi-soft moist green beans are easily crushed when removing the mucilage and parchment layer, causing the beans to crack into a goat's hoof shape, commonly known as goat hoof beans. Front Street Coffee considers this a distinctive feature of Mandheling, not a defect.

Front Street Lintong Mandheling does not go to great lengths in screening, but this does not diminish the world's love for its mellow flavor.

In addition, Front Street also has three other Mandhelings: Front Street Tiger Mandheling, Front Street Aged Mandheling, and Front Street Sumatra Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling. Below, Front Street Coffee introduces them one by one.

Front Street Tiger Mandheling

The Front Street Tiger Mandheling selected by Front Street Coffee comes from the Sumatra Tiger Estate in Indonesia, hence it is also called "Mandheling Tiger" or "Sumatra Tiger Mandheling." The northern part of Sumatra Island has relatively high altitudes, with the Aceh Province where Lake Tawar is located and North Sumatra where Lake Toba is situated being the main Arabica coffee-producing regions. Front Street Mandheling Tiger requires a flavor with herbal Chinese medicine-like aroma, and only Mandheling with 17 mesh and above and a defect rate below 4% can bear the name Mandheling Tiger.

Front Street Aged Mandheling

Aged coffee beans do not simply mean leaving green coffee beans for a long time—this is not advisable, because green beans will also spoil if left too long, changing from fresh green to white, then to yellow, becoming bland and tasteless, and even breeding pests. Like aged wines, green beans must undergo proper processing and long-term storage to be called true [Aged Coffee].

Front Street Sumatra Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling

This Front Street Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling is not processed using the wet-hulling method unique to Indonesian coffee (to be introduced later), but instead uses the more challenging natural process. The natural method first requires manually removing defective beans and unripe or overripe fruits, then evenly spreading the coffee cherries on drying beds, turning them several times daily. The drying process typically lasts 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the local climate, and Indonesia's rainy weather extends this time. When the moisture content inside the coffee beans drops to 11% to 13%, the natural process is complete. After drying, the coffee husk has become dry and hard, and only needs to be removed with a huller.

Special Processing Method: Wet Hulling

As mentioned earlier, Mandheling mostly uses the wet-hulling method unique to Sumatra. This is because the local weather is predominantly rainy, with frequent typhoons, unable to meet the good weather required for natural drying; combined with the poor local economy, it is also difficult to afford the higher-cost washed method, thus giving rise to the highly localized wet-hulling method. Today, the Indonesian coffee industry is no longer in its former state of poverty, and many estates and companies have the conditions to use the washed method, but why have they still not abandoned wet hulling? Front Street Coffee believes that wet hulling is precisely the factor that brought Mandheling to the world. At the mention of Mandheling coffee, one thinks of wet hulling—the two have long formed a mutually reinforcing relationship.

The specific steps of wet hulling can be divided into two stages: In the first stage, a wooden pulper is used to remove the skin and pulp, followed by 3 hours of fermentation and then drying, reducing the moisture content to a semi-dry, semi-wet 30% to 50%. In the second stage, the mucilage and parchment layer are removed, and drying continues, with the drying process taking 2 to 4 days, reducing the moisture content to 12% to 13%.

In addition to the regular wet-hulling method, there is also an aged wet-hulling method. Coffee beans first undergo regular wet hulling, then are sealed and stored in warehouses for 2 to 3 years. The warehouse environment must be cool and ventilated, with regular turning of the beans to prevent mold. During this period, the acidity of the coffee beans gradually weakens and converts to sugar, and the color becomes darker, mostly yellowish-brown or dark brown. The Mandheling coffee beans using this processing method on Front Street Coffee's bean list are named Front Street Aged Mandheling Coffee Beans.

Wet hulling has forged Mandheling's special flavor, and it can be said that Mandheling and wet hulling are inseparable. But today's coffee market is no longer satisfied with the status quo—even though wet hulling is Mandheling's characteristic, there are also attempts with other processing methods. The Front Street Coffee Wahana Estate Mandheling coffee beans mentioned earlier use the natural processing method.

[Characteristics of Five Mandheling Coffee Beans]

[Roasting Suggestions for Five Front Street Mandheling Coffee Beans]

Front Street Coffee uses medium to dark roast levels when roasting these five Front Street Mandheling coffee beans, aiming to eliminate the excessive acidity of Front Street Mandheling and enhance its body and balance. Front Street has designed five roasting profiles based on the characteristics of each Front Street Mandheling, as follows:

Machine: Yangjia 800N, 550g green bean charge

Front Street Golden Mandheling Roasting Record

Front Street Lintong Mandheling Roasting Record

Front Street Tiger Mandheling Roasting Curve

Front Street Aged Mandheling Roasting Curve

Front Street Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling Roasting Curve

Brewing Suggestions

Front Street Coffee's recommended brewing parameters are: Kono dripper, 88°C water temperature, 15g coffee dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size with 70% to 75% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve.

Readers who frequently read Front Street Coffee articles should understand that light roast and dark roast coffee beans differ in water temperature and dripper selection. The lower water temperature is to avoid extracting too many off-flavors—Front Street Coffee believes that dark roast beans have already released a large amount of aromatic substances, and if extracted at the water temperature used for light roasts, it would lead to over-extraction. The reason for choosing the Kono dripper is that the V60 dripper has too fast a flow rate, which easily leads to under-extraction at low water temperatures, while the Kono dripper has fewer ribs located at the bottom, with the filter paper clinging closely to the wall, restricting airflow and extending the contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the mellow mouthfeel. It is suitable for brewing medium-dark roast coffee beans, such as Front Street Golden Mandheling and Front Street Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.

Front Street recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing to experience the rich flavors of coffee to the fullest. Coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee are all within 5 days of the roasting date, because Front Street deeply understands the significant impact of freshness on flavor. Front Street's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Good Coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest product when they get their coffee. The resting period for coffee is about 4 to 7 days, so when customers receive it, it is at its peak flavor.

Brewing Technique

Front Street Coffee uses a staged extraction: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour in a small stream in a circular motion until reaching 125g for the first stage; when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until reaching 225g and stop; when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the beginning of blooming.) Total extraction time is 2 minutes 00 seconds.

Flavor Descriptions

[Front Street Lintong Mandheling] Herbal, chocolate, caramel, relatively balanced overall; [Front Street Golden Mandheling] Nuts, spices, herbs, licorice, chocolate, caramel, clean and soft flavor; [Front Street Tiger Mandheling] Nuts, cream, dark chocolate, caramel, herbal Chinese medicine, noticeable sweetness, relatively clean and clear flavor; [Front Street Aged Mandheling] Ripe pu-erh, caramel, herbs, chocolate, lower acidity; [Front Street Wahana Estate Natural Mandheling] Tropical fruits, fermented notes, moderate acidity, smooth mouthfeel, noticeable sweetness.

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