When it comes to Indonesian coffee beans,Mandheling coffee beansare the most famous.Mandhelingcoffee beans are the representative of Indonesian specialty coffee and also the representative of Asian coffee, with a distinctly Asian coffee style: pine, herbal, nutty, and caramel notes, an extremely full body, and a solid, lingering finish. Precisely because of this, not everyone will like this kind of coffee flavor, but for those who are captivated by it, Mandheling is a taste that leaves an endless aftertaste. Below, Front Street will give everyone a proper introduction to this coffee.
Most coffee beans are named after their country of origin, producing region, estate name, or variety name, but the Mandheling coffee beans from the Sumatra region of Indonesia are the exception! Mandheling can even be called synonymous with Indonesian specialty coffee. In fact, Mandheling is not the name of a producing region, a place, or a port, nor is it the name of a coffee variety; rather, it is a mispronunciation of Mandailing, an ethnic group that originally lived in Sumatra. Why would this ethnic group be connected to coffee? There is a legendary story of a lucky accident behind it. It is said that during World War II, when Japan occupied Indonesia, a Japanese soldier went to a certain café and drank a cup of rich, full-bodied coffee. He then asked the shopkeeper for the name of the coffee beans, but the shopkeeper thought he was asking where he was from, so the shopkeeper answered "Mandailing." After returning to Japan in defeat, he hoped to drink that coffee again and asked the local Indonesians in Indonesia to look for it, but mispronounced it as "Mandheling." Since then, the name Mandheling has been used ever since.
The Development of Coffee in Indonesia
Indonesia has a long history of coffee cultivation. Coffee cultivation in Indonesia mainly originated during the colonial period, and it has played an important role in the world coffee industry. Coffee has also played an important role in Indonesia's national development. Indonesia is an excellent place for growing coffee, located on the equator and with many high mountains. Coffee was first brought to Indonesia by the Dutch in 1696. However, due to major flooding in Batavia (present-day Jakarta), the cultivation did not succeed. It was brought to Indonesia again in 1699, and the first batch was exported to Europe in 1711. Coffee was introduced by the Dutch colonizers at the time and began to be planted on the island of Java, after which it spread widely to the island of Sumatra and began to be cultivated on a large scale. Nearly two hundred years later, Indonesia's coffee industry was severely affected by leaf rust disease, and large areas of coffee trees were infected and withered, seriously affecting production.
Mandheling Coffee Comes from the Island of Sumatra
Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 islands, scattered along the equatorial volcanic belt, with fertile soil. Famous producing regions include Sumatra in the west, Sulawesi in the center, and Java in the south. Mandheling comes from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Sumatra is located in western Indonesia and consists of eight provinces. The high-quality coffee-growing areas are all in the northern part of the island, namely Aceh Province (ACEH) at the northernmost tip and the adjacent North Sumatra Province (Sumatera Utara). Each of the two provinces has a relatively large lake: Tawar Lake in Aceh Province, and Lake Toba in North Sumatra Province. The important coffee-growing areas in the provinces are also all around these two lakes.
Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world and also the largest freshwater lake in Indonesia. Its average annual temperature is around 22°C, and it has a tropical rainforest climate. The rainy and humid environment, together with an altitude of about 1,400 meters, provides conditions very suitable for the growth of coffee trees. To the south of the lake is the well-known local Lintong producing region. Front Street's daily-drinker Indonesian Mandheling coffee comes from here.
The other, Lake Tawar, thanks to the surrounding Gayo Mountain, brings an altitude of more than 1,500 meters to coffee cultivation in the Aceh producing region. Because Aceh Province's political situation was unstable at the time, with frequent armed conflicts, this greatly affected the development of the local coffee trade. In 2005, a major tsunami broke out centered on Aceh. Under this natural disaster, the civil war also came to an end, and Aceh's coffee industry gradually returned to the specialty coffee scene from then on.
Lintong Mandheling
The Mandheling coffee produced in the Lintong mountain area in northern Sumatra, Lintong is near the southwest side of Lake Toba, at an altitude between 1,000 and 1,500 meters. There are multiple volcanoes and volcanic lakes here. The fertile volcanic soil, combined with the local tropical rainforest climate and abundant rainfall year-round, allows coffee to grow vigorously.
The Lintong producing region, which has a certain reputation in the coffee trade, also switched to planting quite a few new varieties in order to increase production, making the local coffee quality less excellent than before. Meanwhile, the Lake Tawar producing region in Aceh Province has always insisted on cultivating the ancient Typica variety and has maintained relatively high coffee quality. Some large exporters, such as Pwani Coffee Company, have also invested more resources here.
Unselected Lintong Mandheling green beans sometimes produce inconsistent results, but they also largely retain the flavor characteristics of Sumatra coffee: a strong, intense body and a distinctive spicy, herbal aroma. Therefore, Front Street also lists Lintong Mandheling as part of Front Street's high-value daily-drinker bean series, so everyone can try the unique taste of Indonesian coffee.
Front Street'sGolden Mandhelingcoffee beans come from PWN Pwani Coffee Company. On the basis of Indonesia's G1 green bean grade, they undergo four rounds of manual sorting to ensure that the Mandheling coffee beans are uniform in color, shape, and size, and the resulting Mandheling coffee has a cleaner taste and brighter flavor. Golden Mandheling is the upgraded version of Mandheling coffee, as well as another entry-level version of Mandheling, Lintong Mandheling coffee beans. Both coffees have low acidity and a full body, originating from the wet-hulled method widely used locally.
After strict sorting,Golden Mandheling, Front Street Coffee found that not only does it no longer have the earthy, miscellaneous flavors unique to ordinary Mandheling, but it also drinks cleaner and more transparent.
Mandheling Coffee Variety
The Mandheling coffee variety was initially Typica, an ancient variety of Arabica, but later, because of leaf rust disease, it was switched to Catimor. As early as 1658, the Dutch transplanted the descendants of the "European Typica mother plant" to Sri Lanka, but unfortunately the planting failed. Later, in 1699, the Dutch transplanted coffee trees from Malabar in eastern India to Java. This trial planting succeeded, and Typica grew steadily in Java. In 1718, the Dutch transplanted the successfully trial-planted Typica from Java to the islands of Sumatra and Sulawesi. After more than a century of propagation, just when Indonesian Typica was at its peak, a leaf rust disease at the end of the 19th century swept through most of Indonesia's Typica, and later the disease-resistant Robusta had to be introduced.
Typica tree characteristics. Typica has distinctive features and may be the easiest variety to identify. These plants are conical in shape with a main vertical trunk and can reach up to 5 meters in height. This height means that, compared with other varieties, the distance between branches and between nodes on the same branch is longer. One of its characteristics is that the top leaves of Typica are bronze-colored. The beans are relatively large, forming a pointed oval or slender pointed shape, and some also call it "red-top coffee." Typica coffee has its own uniquely quiet, clean flavor and balanced characteristics, with a high level of cleanliness in the cup, but its shortcoming is insufficient yield, requirements for altitude, susceptibility to leaf rust disease, and weak resistance to pests and diseases.
The Indonesian government successively introduced multiple disease-resistant varieties, including Robusta, such as Tim Tim, Catimor, and the Indian variety S795, which locals call Tim Tim, Ateng, and Jember. Typica is also the variety with the longest planting history in Indonesia. It was initially introduced from Java to the broader island of Sumatra for cultivation. After a long period of adaptation to the local terroir, it formed the unique herbal, spicy, low-acid, full-bodied flavor of Sumatran Typica. At present, it is mainly distributed around Lake Toba and in the Lintong producing region.
Tim Tim is a natural hybrid of Typica and Robusta, inheriting Robusta's high yield and disease resistance. Another variety, Ateng (Catimor), is a hybrid descendant of the Bourbon variant Caturra and Tim Tim. Because of its strong vitality and ability to maintain high coffee yields, it is favored by many local coffee farmers. In many countries, Catimor is often criticized by industry people because of flavor defects. Grown in Sumatra's unique flavor environment, Catimor instead performs better in cupping, with rich woody tones and a full body.
Wet-Hulled Method
Indonesia's year-round rainy and humid environment makes it impossible to use sun-drying processing like African countries, so Indonesians invented the unique wet-hulled method. After the coffee green beans are depulped with a depulper, the mucilage layer still feels slippery to the touch. After a night of fermentation, the mucilage layer is more easily removed under flowing clean water, and at this point the appearance of the parchment beans becomes rough. Then the green beans begin to dry. This step also depends on the weather. If it is sunny for two consecutive days, the coffee beans are sun-dried for two days, and the moisture content of the parchment beans is then 30-50%. At this point, a specially made hulling machine can be used, relying on friction to strip off the still relatively hard parchment layer. The force is relatively strong, so we can see that the surface of the green beans appears slightly deformed. Finally, drying continues for another two days. Under sunlight, the coffee beans easily crack open, which is what we call it. When the moisture content reaches 12%, they can be packed and stored.
However, coffee beans processed by the wet-hulled method will crack and deform, which is what we often call "goat hoof beans." These are not defective beans; this is the condition that appears in Mandheling coffee beans after wet-hulled processing.
Wet-hulled Mandheling coffee has low acidity and a high body. The wet-hulled method greatly shortens the time for processing green beans and is also widely used in rainy and humid Indonesia. Removing the parchment layer midway through drying makes the coffee's acidity lower, and after roasting it further highlights the coffee's full-bodied mouthfeel.
The difference between the wet-hulled method and the washed method is that after the coffee beans are fermented, the parchment is removed while they are still in a semi-dry, semi-wet state. This processing is based on the local high-temperature, high-humidity air, under which it is impossible to maintain more than ten days of sun-drying to dry green beans like coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Ethiopia, so this unique method was developed.
Front Street's brewing parameters for Mandheling coffee:
Front Street's Mandheling coffee uses a dark roast. The beans have a loose texture and stronger water absorption, and are prone to over-extraction during the extraction stage. Front Street will make the grind coarser, which can speed up the flow of water, while also lowering the water temperature to avoid extracting too much bitterness.
The biggest characteristic of Mandheling coffee is its full body, so Front Street chooses the KONO dripper. The smooth curved surface of the upper part of the KONO dripper allows the filter paper to fit better, hindering water vapor from rising upward, while the guide ribs in the lower part speed up the water flow. This can extend the extraction time between water and coffee grounds, thereby increasing concentration.
Dripper: KONO dripper, water temperature: 88°C, coffee dose: 15 grams, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, grind size: medium-coarse grind (75% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve).
Use staged extraction, using twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds for blooming, that is, 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom. The reason the blooming process is needed is to allow the coffee grounds to release internal carbon dioxide gas, thereby making the later stages of extraction more stable. Pour in a small stream in circles until 125 grams, then pause, continue pouring until 225 grams, then stop. After the water in the dripper has dripped through, remove the dripper. Start timing from the beginning of pouring; the extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the whole cup of coffee and swirl it to mix evenly, then pour it into a cup for tasting.
[Front Street LintongMandheling Coffee Flavor Characteristics] Herbal, chocolate, caramel, overall relatively balanced.
[Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee Flavor Characteristics] Nuts, spices, herbs, licorice, chocolate, caramel.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
