When it comes to impressions of Mandheling coffee, CoffeeHunters believes that besides its mellow body and steady roasty aroma, many people also associate it with a unique "Mandheling flavor"—herbal notes.
The herbal flavor of Mandheling refers more to aromas reminiscent of herbs, earth, and wood, which emerge after the mellow fragrance—distinctive and wild. Thanks to this, Mandheling has long been considered a highly polarizing coffee bean. Those who enjoy this aroma will love Mandheling, while those who don't will strongly dislike it.In recent years, many friends have noticed that the herbal flavor in Mandheling has become milder, or at least less pronounced than before. As a result, quite a few people have started tracing back to the source, wanting to understand why this herbal flavor has weakened and where it originally comes from.In fact, just like the formation of other coffee flavors, the herbal notes in Mandheling inevitably stem from three factors: variety, growing environment, and processing method.First, we need to understand that Mandheling coffee does not refer to a specific coffee variety, but rather to all Arabica coffee beans grown on the island of Sumatra. Through a twist of misunderstanding, Arabica beans from Sumatra were sold under the name "Mandheling" and gained great fame. Since then, Arabica on the island has often been sold under the Mandheling name. This is a story CoffeeHunters frequently shares, and we believe friends have heard it so many times their ears are calloused, so we won't dwell on it here.Sumatra's coffee-growing history can be considered fairly long. Starting in the 18th century, the Dutch expanded coffee cultivation to this island.On Sumatra, the main coffee-producing regions are centered around Lake Toba and Lake Tawar. Among them, the Lintong region is more famous around Lake Toba, while the Gayo Mountain region is more famous around Lake Tawar. Their elevations are all around 1,100–1,600 meters, ideal for growing coffee. Because of this, CoffeeHunters' daily drinking series selected Mandheling from the Lintong region as the representative Indonesian daily coffee, while CoffeeHunters' Golden Mandheling comes from the Gayo Mountain region.As in many origins, the varieties first planted on the island by the Dutch were pure-blooded Arabica such as Typica and Bourbon. But not long after, due to coffee leaf rust, Arabica varieties fell one after another, so the Indonesian authorities had no choice but to continuously introduce new varieties to maintain production. Gradually, Indonesia became a "melting pot" of coffee varieties.The varieties planted in larger quantities on the island include: Ateng, TimTim, Typica, Caturra, and Robusta. In Mandheling coffee, the most common varieties are Ateng and TimTim.Whether Ateng or TimTim, both are varieties produced by crossing Arabica and Robusta. Simply put, Ateng is Indonesia's local Catimor, and TimTim is Indonesia's local Tim. Because both varieties carry Robusta genes, they naturally possess some of Robusta's distinctive herbal and woody tones, though relatively less intense.(The image shows the Ateng variety)The factor most often thought to cause Mandheling's strong herbal flavor is actually the region's unique processing method—wet hulling. Let's first look at the general process of wet hulling, which goes roughly as follows:First, use a depulper to remove the skin and pulp of the coffee cherries, and wash the beans, then move the beans outdoors to dry; after about 3–4 days of drying, reduce the moisture content to around 30%–40%, then use a huller to remove the parchment layer from the surface of the beans while they are in a semi-hard, semi-soft state. Finally, after just a few more days of drying, the beans can be dried to a moisture content of 12%–13%.From CoffeeHunters' introduction above, you can see that wet hulling has a notable advantage: a relatively short drying time. Compared with other processing methods, wet hulling uses very, very little drying time, because the coffee's skin, pulp, parchment layer, and other materials are removed before drying, greatly shortening the drying time.The reason Indonesia needs wet hulling is that the local weather is unpredictable year-round, sunshine hours are relatively short, and the environment is quite humid. Using methods like natural/dry processing that require long sunlight can easily cause beans to spoil due to prolonged drying. CoffeeHunters believes that at this point another question comes to mind: "Why does wet hulling intensify the herbal flavor of coffee?"Logically speaking, CoffeeHunters believes wet hulling is not actually the main reason. Rather, it is the rough handling during the process that causes Mandheling's herbal flavor to be intensified.First, we can see that the beans are forced through a depulper to remove the parchment layer while in a semi-hard, semi-soft state. In this state, the parchment layer is relatively difficult to remove, so the depulper willbe rather violent, sounder these circumstances, the beans are very easily cracked by the depulper. Compared with intact coffee beans, beans with chips are more susceptible to contamination;(The one on the right in the image is a parchment bean cracked by the depulper, but if it has not been contaminated, it is not considered a defective bean)At the same time, the coffee beans are dried after the parchment layer is removed, and the drying location is on concrete ground or flattened dirt roads! After removing the protective parchment layer, the beans are exposed bare in this environment, making it easier for them to directly contact dust and thus become contaminated, which in turn enhances the herbal flavor in the beans. That is why everyone thinks wet hulling increases the herbal flavor in coffee!In summary, we can conclude that the main reason Mandheling has a relatively strong herbal flavor comes from variety and processing(the rough handling during processing).But as CoffeeHunters mentioned earlier, in recent years Mandheling's herbal flavor has decreased a lot! Combining this with the above introduction, you can deduce that it is because the rough handling during processing has been reduced.For example, greater care is taken in drying, keeping the beans off the ground and turning them multiple times to reduce the probability of contaminating the beans while increasing drying uniformity; or manually sorting to remove defective beans, thereby reducing the proportion of defective beans in the coffee, and so on.When the probability of coffee beans being contaminated decreases and the number of defective beans is reduced, naturally the herbal flavor becomes less pronounced. In particular, CoffeeHunters' high-quality Indonesian representative, CoffeeHunters PWN Golden Mandheling, has almost none of this herbal flavor. Instead, it offers a very comfortable, deep, stuffy aroma, and drinks clean and transparent.The reason CoffeeHunters PWN Golden Mandheling can achieve this effect is naturally inseparable from stricter sorting standards. Whether in variety or processing, its requirements are all stricter than ordinary Mandheling.In terms of variety selection, the Golden Mandheling currently produced by PWN uses the Ateng variety. Although it is also a type of Catimor, it does not have as many Robusta genes. Because it is a backcross of Catimor and Typica, the Robusta bean genes are diluted, so the flavor is even better and the herbal flavor is less.After these coffee beans undergo refined processing, they also pass through three rounds of manual hand sorting! The sorting mainly removes beans with defects, small size, or poor appearance. What remains are large, plump beans with very few defects. With fewer defective beans, the cleanliness of the coffee naturally improves. Combined with the Ateng variety, which has a relatively low proportion of Robusta genes, the herbal flavor present in this coffee is minimal.Because of this, in Golden Mandheling it is difficult for us to taste herbal flavors. Instead, there is more of a soft and unique aroma, along with flavor notes of chocolate, caramel, and spices—very good!Currently on the market there are many different versions of "Golden Mandheling," such as 20-mesh Golden Mandheling, 21-mesh Golden Mandheling, Ding Shang Golden Mandheling, and so on. But only PWN(Puwani)company's Golden Mandheling is the true Golden Mandheling. This is because Golden Mandheling is a product launched by PWN, which registered the trademark in 2003.How can you tell the genuine from the fake? It is certainly very difficult to tell just by looking at the beans, but when purchasing PWN Golden Mandheling green beans, they come with a jute bag printed with PWN and the corresponding certificate. When buying, you can also pay attention to whether the seller shows these two accompanying items, which can serve as a way to distinguish authenticity. For example,what CoffeeHunters sells online on a certain Taobao and Tmall store is Golden Mandheling produced by PWN, and these two items are attached on the product details page. You can refer to it~ The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
