Front StreetMandheling CoffeeAs one of the representatives of dark roast coffee, some people love it for a lifetime because of its full body, while others repeatedly say no because they find it too bitter.

To make Front Street Mandheling Coffee taste good, one factor is that the coffee beans themselves are of high quality, another is whether the roaster has mastered and attended to the details, and there is also the need for a suitable extraction method for the coffee beans.

Nowadays, many coffee-producing regions have adopted more scientific cultivation or more screening techniques to enhance coffee quality, and Mandheling coffee is no exception. For example, Front Street from the Indonesian PWN (Pwani) companyGolden Mandheling coffee beanscan be said to be the highest-grade Mandheling coffee in all of Indonesia, and also the best representative of specialty Mandheling coffee.

Front Street Golden Mandheling CoffeeWhy is it so famous?

Front StreetPWN Golden Mandheling CoffeeThe reason it stands out among Mandheling coffees is that PWN company takes Mandheling coffee beans purchased from the Gayo Mountain producing region in Aceh, Sumatra, and uses one mechanical sorting plus three manual hand-sortings to ensure the produced batches reach Indonesia's highest grade, G1. The purpose of mechanical sorting is to first screen out beans that must be above 18 mesh in size, and the subsequent multiple manual sortings are to remove irregular defective beans. The reduction in defect rate greatly improves the quality of Mandheling coffee.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) currently sells Front StreetGolden Mandheling Coffeeall from PWN company. In the physical store, you can see the certification certificate issued by PWN company, already packed in Front StreetGolden Mandheling Coffeegreen beans, in jute bags printed with the PWN logo.

Because it has undergone multiple rounds of careful selection, the consistency of Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans also improves roasting uniformity, and also makes the coffee flavor expression cleaner and more consistent. Through cupping comparisons by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), compared with ordinary Mandheling coffee beans, the overall performance of Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee allows you to taste the characteristic flavors of Sumatra's producing region—herbs, spices, and dark chocolate. While full-bodied, the coffee has better cleanliness and sweetness, and the sweet sensation is also higher.

Where does Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee come from?

Indonesia mainly grows Robusta varieties, with Arabica coffee production accounting for less than one-tenth. Among them, Mandheling coffee produced on Sumatra Island is the most famous, so it is also called Sumatra coffee. Traditionally, Sumatra Mandheling mainly comes from Lake Toba in the Lintong producing region of North Sumatra Province and the area around Lake Tawar in the northernmost Aceh region.

Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling comes from Gayo Mountain in the Lake Tawar area of Aceh, with growing altitudes in the production area averaging between 1,110 and 1,600 meters. The coffee is grown by smallholders under shade trees, and the wet-hulled coffee beans show unusual flavors as well as a deep and lively full-bodied flavor.

Is Front Street Golden Mandheling dark roast or light roast?

Front Street has noticed that in the past, Mandheling coffee on the market was uniformly medium-dark roast, presenting the classic strong black coffee flavor type. With the development of specialty coffee culture in recent years, people have begun to pursue more unique coffee tastes, and many merchants have launched medium roast, or even medium-light roast Mandheling coffee. The lighter the roast, the more acidity the coffee beans retain, with flavors mainly of fruit, floral notes, and tea-like sensations, and lower body. We might think, since medium-light roast Mandheling is so refreshing, why not roast it lighter?

Friends who often drink Mandheling should know about Sumatra's wet-hulling method. In wet hulling, before the final drying stage, the beans are poured into a huller, using greater friction to tear open the semi-dry parchment layer clinging tightly to the green beans. Through the stirring caused by friction, the green beans are easily crushed or damaged. The "naked beans" that have lost their parchment layer dry very quickly, and are also directly exposed to a humid environment, where various fungi breed.

Although wet hulling indeed gives Mandheling its unique herbal and woody aroma, it also causes a higher defect rate in green beans, and dark roasting can perfectly conceal this flaw. In addition, Mandheling's rise to fame originated from its early development by the Japanese, and according to their taste preferences, what they liked most was Japanese-style dark roasting, which is why most Mandheling is roasted so dark. Front Street hopes everyone can drink the classic Mandheling taste, so the two Mandheling coffees Front Street sells daily are both medium-dark roast, including Front Street Lintong producing region Mandheling daily beans and Front Street Aceh producing region PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee.

Front StreetPWN Golden Mandheling CoffeeHow to brew it?

In order to let Front Street Mandheling coffee beans show their unique herbal flavors clearly while also expressing their full-bodied characteristics, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) takes Front Street Mandheling coffee beans out just before the second crack when roasting, so it is a medium-dark roast level. Good coffee needs to be freshly roasted, and the coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all dispatched 5 days after roasting is completed~

For brewing Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends medium-coarse grinding (coarse sugar size, 70% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve), 88°C water temperature, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, paired with a KONO dripper.

The characteristic of the Kono dripper lies in its short rib design, which can slow the speed at which water passes through the coffee particles, making the coffee's mouthfeel fuller. The reason for using medium-coarse grinding is that as roasting time increases, the structure of the coffee beans becomes denser and the release of substances becomes easier, so dark roast coffee beans need a combination of medium-coarse grinding plus relatively low water temperature for brewing. The KONO dripper is perfectly suited to the medium-dark roasted Front Street Golden Mandheling.

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

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - PWN Golden Mandheling Coffee flavor performance: the coffee overall has multiple layers, is full-bodied and clean. Rich nut and caramel aromas, with chocolate notes, a lasting finish, and high balance.

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