As the exclusive brand of PWN Green Coffee Company, the uniqueMandheling coffeehas been given the word "Golden" and become a famous representative of Indonesian specialty coffee. In this article, Front Street Coffee will explainPWN Golden Mandheling coffeeand what makes it so distinctive.
AuthenticGolden Mandheling coffee
On Front Street Coffee's daily bean list, there are two Indonesian Mandheling coffees for you to choose from, and the most popular one is, of course, the multiple-hand-sorted "PWN Golden Mandheling coffee". It not only carries Mandheling's classic herbal spice aroma and rich, mellow mouthfeel, but the lower defect rate also reduces the off-flavors common in regular Indonesian coffee beans, bringing cleanliness to an even higher level.
"Golden Mandheling" is the exclusive brand of Pwani Coffee Company (PWN). There are many different types ofMandhelingproducts on the market. Because PWN registered the English name "Golden Mandheling" as its trademark, only Golden Mandheling coffee produced by PWN is truly Golden Mandheling in the strict sense. You can identify authenticGolden Mandhelingby the green bean jute sack bearing the PWN logo and a certificate of origin signed by PWN. Front Street Coffee displays both of these marks in its Dongshankou store.
Looking at the jute sack of Golden Mandheling green beans, we can see the words "Triple pick" and "GRADE 1," meaning it belongs to the highest grade of Indonesian green beans. During production, PWN carried out three rounds of hand sorting on the basis of purchased GRADE 1 green beans.
Indonesian green coffee bean grading is based mainly on the number of defective beans, supplemented by screen size. General quality requirements are no live insects, no moldy or rotten-smelling beans, a maximum moisture content of 12.5%, and an impurity rate of less than 0.5%. According to the defect rate, beans are divided into six grades, of which the highest grade, G1, requires that a 300g sample contain fewer than 11 total defective beans. The Lintong Mandheling coffee in Front Street Coffee's daily drinking bean series is G1, produced in the Lintong region of Sumatra using the wet-hulled process, presenting the classic Indonesian Mandheling flavor: dark chocolate, nuts, herbal spices, and caramel.
PWN, which pursues the utmost in screening, subjects G1-grade Mandheling to multiple strict selections, reducing the coffee's defect rate to a minimum, removing off-flavors such as earthiness, and at the same time enhancing Mandheling's sweetness and cleanliness. In addition, before packaging, PWN places the green beans into a machine for density and color sorting to ensure that the Golden Mandheling green beans produced are large, uniform, and bright in color.
Mandhelingis also called Sumatra coffee
Just like all kinds of vegetables and fruits, coffee is also a crop, and its flavor is always closely tied to variety, climate, altitude, soil, management, and many other factors. It is a natural and authentic expression of variety and local terroir, and what post-processing methods and roasting should do is preserve, restore, and present their truest flavors to the greatest extent possible. The distinctive flavor of Mandheling cannot be separated from the mysterious island of Sumatra.
Sumatra is divided into eight provinces in total, and only the high-altitude provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra cultivate Arabica coffee on a large scale. Sumatra lies in a tropical rainforest zone, and its mountains and forests are often shrouded in clouds and rain, casting a layer of mystery over Sumatra. Locals plant coffee trees around two major volcanic lakes, Lake Tawar and Lake Toba. The Gayo mountain range around Lake Tawar has ideal conditions for coffee growing, with organic cultivation widely adopted, and together with a long history of cultivation, the coffee produced here is higher in both quality and yield. As a result, many green coffee traders also place greater importance on this area, including the locally very famous Pwani Coffee Company (PWN).
Semi-washed method — wet-hulled process
Friends who often drink Mandheling coffee are certainly familiar with the wet-hulled process. The processing time for the wet-hulled method is much shorter than for washed processing. Traditional washed processing takes 1 to 3 weeks, while the wet-hulled method can complete the entire process in just a few days. In the wet-hulled process, the coffee fruit's skin and pulp are first removed, followed by a short fermentation and then drying. While the beans are semi-dry, the parchment layer is removed, and drying continues for the later stage. Once the moisture content reaches 12%, the beans can be bagged, sorted, and graded.
The wet-hulled process may seem fast and time-saving, but without strict control, it is extremely prone to moisture and mold under Indonesia's hot and humid conditions. However, besides Sumatra, Sulawesi in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea also widely use this processing method. This is because Indonesia has a tropical rainforest climate, with air humidity as high as 70–90%, making it impossible to dry green coffee beans through long periods of sun exposure, and the cost of washed processing is quite high. Coffee farmers had no choice but to develop this semi-washed method. Although the time required for each step is greatly shortened, the green beans with the parchment layer removed still absorb moisture from the hot and humid air, so the Mandheling coffee produced has a somewhat stuffy aroma of wood, herbs, and spices.
To present the classic Mandheling flavor, Front Street Coffee uses a medium-dark roast to remove Mandheling's excessive acidity and enhance its body and balance. During cupping, Front Street Coffee detected in Golden Mandheling the aromas of spices, herbs, and pine wood, along with the rich, mellow bittersweet flavors of caramel, nuts, and pure dark chocolate, accompanied by a sweet, refreshing finish reminiscent of fruit and melon. It is layered and changeable, full-bodied and clean, with high balance.
Flavor characteristics of medium-dark roasted Golden Mandheling coffee
Front Street Coffee's flavor descriptions for every coffee are based on freshly roasted beans. If coffee beans are stored for more than a month, much of the aroma may already have been lost, and it is difficult to reproduce it in brewing. Front Street Coffee also understands the importance of freshness, so it ensures that only coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days are shipped, allowing everyone to enjoy the fullest peak flavor period upon receipt.
When brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans, Front Street Coffee uses brewing parameters different from those for light-roasted coffee beans, so that the coffee presents a richer chocolate character. There is more caramelization than in light-roasted coffee beans, so it more easily releases bitter large-molecule substances. To avoid extracting too many off-flavors, Front Street Coffee lowers the water temperature slightly. The brewing water temperature for light-roasted coffee is 91–93°C, while for medium-dark roasted coffee beans Front Street Coffee recommends 87–88°C.
The grind size is also adjusted coarser, paired with a Kono dripper for staged extraction. The Kono dripper has few ribs, and they are located at the lower end. The filter paper clings tightly to the dripper, which can restrict airflow and lengthen the contact time between water and coffee grounds, allowing the coffee grounds to be fully extracted and enhancing the mellow mouthfeel.
Dripper: Kono dripper
Water temperature: 88°C
Dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 70–75% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve
Front Street Coffee uses staged extraction: bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 seconds, then pour in a slow circular stream until the water reaches 125 grams for the first stage. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until it reaches 225 grams and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. The extraction time (starting from the beginning of the bloom) is 2'00".
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
