Although Front Street's daily bean list features dozens of coffee beans, a careful look reveals that each region's flavor is different, and each bean also presents a unique aroma depending on its processing method and production steps. For example, on Front Street's bean list,PWN Golden Mandheling coffeehas theMandheling coffeeunique herbal, full-bodied aroma, along with a clear and clean flavor and mouthfeel.

Mandheling coffeebean characteristics

Mandheling coffeecomes from Sumatra, Indonesia's most famous producing region, and is also known as "Sumatra coffee." High-quality coffee is mainly distributed across the northern part of the island, around two volcanic lakes: Lake Tawar in the Aceh region and Lake Toba in the Lintong region. Both lakes have fertile volcanic ash soil, and the rainy season brought by the local tropical rainforest climate gives the coffee beans produced here a rich herbal character.

The year-round high-temperature, high-humidity environment, combined with the local scarcity of freshwater resources, makes it impossible for locals to use the washed processing method as they do in Central and South America, while the African-style 20-day sun-drying process is even more difficult in a tropical rainforest region. So locals adapted to local conditions and developed a unique "semi-washed" processing method—wet hulling.

The coffee cherries, after removing the skin and pulp, are poured directly into a pool for a short fermentation of a few hours. At this point, a small amount of mucilage still remains on the parchment. The mucilage is removed by scrubbing. Then the parchment beans are spread out to dry. The first drying only needs to reach a 30–40% moisture content, about 2–3 days, after which the coffee farmers sell the green beans to collectors. The collectors will directly hull the purchased semi-dry parchment beans by machine to obtain the innermost green beans.

Because the hulling machine uses relatively strong friction, it crushes open the parchment layer clinging tightly to the green beans. At this stage, white or green viscous liquid often flows out. Due to long soaking in the viscous liquid and the humid environment, the green beans eventually become soft, whitish and swollen, and take on a grayish-green color. Stirred by friction, the green beans are also more likely to be crushed or bruised, especially at both ends, forming small notches and resulting in goat-foot beans.

The "naked beans" with the parchment layer removed dry very quickly, and at the same time are directly exposed to the humid environment, where various molds and bacteria grow. This gives Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbal notes. This is what we call the "taste of place." Whether in fermentation time or drying time, wet hulling is shorter than the traditional washed processing method, thus also saving a lot of labor.

What is Golden Mandheling coffee?

In order to raise the quality of Mandheling coffee higher, Indonesia's PWN company hand-sorts the purchased Mandheling green beans four times, ensuring each green bean is intact, uniform, plump, and must reach a size of 18 mesh or above, which is Indonesia's local G1 grade. Through cupping comparisons, Front Street found that after strict sorting,Golden Mandheling coffeeeliminates the earthy and woody flavors generally found in ordinary Mandheling, and the overall flavor is cleaner and brighter.

It should be noted that although there are many Golden Mandheling coffees on the market, PWN company registered the Golden Mandheling trademark early on, meaning only PWN Golden Mandheling is truly Golden Mandheling coffee. To witness the charm of Mandheling's flavor, Front Street believesPWN Golden Mandheling coffee is very worth trying.

The most representative characteristics of Golden Mandheling coffee lie in its spice, herbal notes, and body. To present this profile, Front Street's roaster uses a dark roast for this coffee bean.

The pour-over flavor of PWN Golden Mandheling coffee

Golden Mandheling coffee has a complex aroma. To drink the best flavor and mouthfeel, Front Street suggests using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing. Coffee beans reach their optimal flavor period 4–7 days after roasting. After this period (about a month and a half), the aroma will gradually fade and produce woody defect flavors. Front Street believes that the freshness of coffee beans is especially important, so the coffee beans shipped are freshly roasted within 5 days. Combined with the logistics and shipping time, you can start tasting as soon as you receive them.

Front Street's brewing approach for each coffee bean is based on the characteristics the coffee presents during cupping. For example, Golden Mandheling coffee has flavors of herbs, dark chocolate, caramel, nuts, pine, and so on. For this type of full-bodied bean, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s baristas use the KONO dripper. KONO's ribs do not reach even half the height of the dripper. This design is actually intended to ensure that after the dripper is wet, it clings tightly to the wall of the dripper, restricting airflow. This increases the water absorption time of the coffee grounds, so the brewed coffee is more uniform overall and gains a fuller mouthfeel. The grooved skeleton under the KONO dripper is also the key design that allows the subsequent brewing to produce a siphon effect.

Because dark-roasted coffee beans are relatively loose and highly absorbent, they easily absorb too much water and become over-extracted, making the brewed Mandheling coffee both bitter and astringent. So Front Street will adjust the grind coarser and brew with slightly lower-temperature water.

Suggested brewing parameters: Water temperature: 87–88°C  Coffee grounds: 15 g  Coffee-to-water ratio 1:15    Grind size: medium grind (70% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve)

The brewing method uses a three-stage pouring approach. Dividing the pour into three stages better expresses Golden Mandheling coffee's full-bodied mouthfeel and caramel sweetness. In the first stage, pour 30 ml for blooming. This pour fully wets the coffee grounds for degassing, so that the coffee's flavor substances can be better extracted afterward. In the second stage, pour 100 ml. This stage mainly washes out Mandheling's golden foam and raises the coffee bed. In the final stage, gently pour 95 ml in the center. After all the coffee liquid has drained through, remove the dripper and gently swirl the coffee in the server to even it out.

The pour-over PWN Golden Mandheling coffee tastes very rich, giving off aromas of spices and herbs, showing an overall solid, full-bodied mouthfeel, with caramel sweetness and flavors of chocolate and nuts.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

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