In the early days of specialty coffee, Blue Mountain, Kona, and Golden Mandheling were must-have options on every coffee shop menu. Unlike today's pursuit of coffee with rich floral and fruity acidity, the specialty coffee of the past sought a mellow and solid mouthfeel.

Many people are averse to dark roast coffee, perhaps deterred by the beans' black, oily appearance, thinking it will taste burnt and bitter. But if such dark roasting is done by a roaster with sufficient understanding of the beans, using high-quality coffee beans, a reasonable roasting approach, and proper extraction, dark roast coffee can truly give a steady feeling, making you want to drink it again and again without ever getting tired of it.

Front Street Coffee particularly enjoys drinking GoldenMandheling coffee. Because it has a creamy texture, smooth and full-bodied, with the aroma of dark cocoa accompanied by herbal flavors, adding a touch of embellishment to the pure flavors. After swallowing, the tongue feels the sweet aftertaste brought by the returning sweetness, very fragrant and enticing.

How to brew dark-roasted GoldenMandheling coffeeto taste good?

A good cup of Golden Mandheling coffee has 5 conditions: sufficiently high-quality green beans, just-right roasting heat, fresh roasting, fresh grinding, and coarse grind with low water temperature extraction.

Among them, GoldenMandhelingquality is beyond doubt, and it can be said to be the highest grade among Indonesian specialty coffee beans, and the best quality Mandheling coffee beans. Golden Mandheling is the gold medal product of the Indonesian PWN (Pwani) company, and it is also a registered trademark.

GoldenMandheling coffee beansWhat makes them special?

Due to the varieties of Mandheling coffee beans themselves and Indonesia's highly distinctive wet-hulling method (wet-hulling is the process of sun-drying with parchment for 2-3 days during ordinary washed processing, until the moisture content reaches 20-24%, then removing the parchment), the ultra-fast processing and drying also causes Mandheling to have a higher defect rate.

Therefore, in order to improve the quality of Mandheling coffee beans, PWN purchases coffee cherries from the Gayo region of Sumatra, first selects ripe coffee cherries of 18 mesh or above, then dries them, and then carries out at least 3 rounds of purely manual sorting to ensure fewer than 3 defective beans (in a 300g green bean sample), belonging to the highest grade G1. Because the green beans give off a golden color, they are named Golden Mandheling.

AuthenticGolden Mandheling coffeerequires looking for the PWN trademark～AsGolden Mandheling coffeebecomes famous for its good quality, there are many Mandheling coffee beans on the market that have also undergone several rounds of screening, but those can only be considered specialty Mandheling coffee beans. The Golden Mandheling coffee beans sold by Front Street Coffee all come from the PWN company.

How to roastGolden Mandheling coffee beans?

With good-quality coffee beans, a roasting plan must be specified according to the flavor of the coffee bean's origin, density, and its own moisture content. Because compared with many other specialty coffee origins, the coffee planting altitude in Sumatra is not high, and it cannot form a large diurnal temperature difference to extend the formation time of the coffee beans, so the density of the coffee beans themselves is relatively loose.

If the heat of the entire roasting process is not well controlled, the coffee beans can easily fail to withstand the high temperature, and will burn before they have developed a sufficiently complete flavor; if one is not skilled with the roasting heat, when the coffee enters the final stage, the temperature may rise too quickly or may not climb enough; and for brewing, one must avoid over-extraction, which causes the overall balance to be upset by bitter substances.

Front Street Coffee's roastingGolden Mandhelingapproach is as follows: Yangjia 800N, charge amount 480g. Charge when the drum temperature reaches 200°C, set airflow to 3, after 1 minute adjust the heat to 160°C, keep airflow unchanged, roast until 5'40", temperature 148°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete, adjust heat to 140°C, change airflow to 4; at 9'40", the bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and dark streaks, and the toast aroma clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, one must listen clearly for the sound of the first crack point. First crack begins at 9'54", reduce the heat to 60°C, set airflow to 5, and discharge at 204.5°C.

Through cupping, Golden Mandheling discharged before second crack can express mellow and rich flavors such as herbal and cocoa, while also allowing the coffee to show cleanliness and an obvious sweet aftertaste.

Golden Mandheling coffee brewing suggestions

For coffee brewing, Front Street Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing, so as to experience the coffee's rich flavors to the greatest extent. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee are all within 5 days of roasting, because Front Street understands that the freshness of coffee beans has a great impact on flavor, and therefore hopes that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when they get it.

Although Front Street Coffee offers a grinding service, the flavor of coffee beans dissipates at an accelerated rate after being ground into particles. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone buy a hand grinder and grind the coffee into particles just before brewing.

Because Front Street Coffee's Mandheling coffee beans are roasted to a relatively dark degree, the flavor substances in the coffee are easily extracted during brewing, so Front Street recommends using a coarser grind size and a lower water temperature.

At the same time, in order to obtain a mellow mouthfeel, Front Street recommends using a dripper with an immersion function, such as the KONO dripper. Then pair it with a medium-coarse grind (coarse granulated sugar size, 70% passing rate through the Chinese No. 20 standard sieve), 88°C water temperature, and a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio for extraction.

Specific brewing method: first pour 30g of water for a 30s bloom; for the second stage, pour in a small stream in circles up to 125g, wait for the water level in the coffee bed to drop halfway before pouring again, then continue pouring in a small stream in circles up to 225g, and after all dripping is complete, the total extraction time is about 2 minutes 10 seconds.

Front Street Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling pour-over flavor performance: nuts, spices, herbs, licorice, chocolate, caramel, clean and soft flavor, strong sweet aftertaste.

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