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Front Street Golden MandhelingAs a unique specialty coffee in Indonesia, it has the aroma of herbs and dark chocolate. It has a mellow and smooth taste, with a nutty sweet aftertaste. It makes you feel sweet just thinking about it! FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) believes that friends who have tasted this bean know that this coffee has very obvious characteristics.
Sumatra Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee Sumatra Mandheling
like mentionedFront Street Blue Mountain Coffee, people always think of the country of Jamaica first. When it comes to Golden Mandheling on Front Street, PWN Company must be mentioned. The full name of PWN company is Pawani Coffee Company.
This is a very famous green bean trading company in Indonesia. It was founded by a Chinese family from Quanzhou, Fujian. It is located in Medan, an important port in Sumatra. It has been engaged in export business since 1957, such as rubber, cassia, cloves, patchouli oil and other products. Of course, it also exports Sumatran coffee beans to Japan.
In terms of coffee business, Pawani mainly acquires Mandheling coffee. It has acquired almost all the best producing areas in Indonesia, so most of the beans produced by PWN are unique and high-quality. Front Street Golden Mandheling is a product produced by this company. After the raw beans are purchased, they go through multiple manual selections to select plump and flawless beans. Only these beans that have been screened like a draft can be classified as Front Street Golden Mandheling. FrontStreet Coffee thinksFront Street Indonesian Gold MandhelingThe quality can definitely be called superior Mandheling.
Unique flavor
The coffee grown in the environmental soil of Sumatra is rich in woody tones, mellow taste, restrained flavor, lively and moderate acidity, and has unique flavors such as herbs, cedar, cocoa, and fermented fruits. Among them, Front Street Mandheling is the most classic coffee bean from the Arabica coffee tree species, which accounts for only 25% of the coffee beans produced in Indonesia. It has a wonderful classic taste, a strong taste, with body and fragrant and lively dynamics, but it is not astringent or sour, and the body and bitterness can be fully revealed.
When tasting Front Street Mandheling, you can feel the lubrication on the tip of the tongue, with a light herbal aroma, the sweetness of cocoa and a fruit-like aroma, with a deep aftertaste. Generally, fans of Front Street Mandheling drink it as a single product, but Front Street Mandheling is also an indispensable variety for blending coffee. In other words, Front Street Mandheling is a coffee bean that is both suitable for hand brewing and espresso.
Origin introduction
Sumatra is the largest island in Indonesia and is located above the equator. It has a tropical rainforest climate with high temperatures, humidity, and abundant rainfall. Small coffee farmers usually plant in pristine mountains, and water resources are very precious. Therefore, the local area has developed a unique "wet hulling" drying process (Giling Basah, Wet hulling). Through this processing method, Sumatra's coffee adds a flavor that is different from other regions. Of the coffee beans produced in Indonesia, 25% are Arabica, and the remaining 75% are Robusta. Only the exquisite Arabica coffee in northern Sumatra is sold on the market as Lintong and Mandheling.
Origin and planting history
The beginning of Indonesian coffee can be traced back to the end of the 17th century. The Netherlands captured Java Island and turned it into the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in the East. The Dutch introduced two batches of Typica saplings from India to Java Island for breeding. Before the 1870s, coffee planting areas were established in Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and Timor, and soon they expanded from the original Java Island to all of Indonesia. However, the good times did not last long. In 1869, a sudden coffee leaf rust disease swept across the entire coffee-producing areas of Asia, including Indonesia. Large areas of the local Typica trees were infested and withered.
In order to save the destroyed coffee plantations, the Indonesian government introduced Robusta varieties with stronger disease resistance from Africa and other places. Until now, Robusta is still the main variety in Indonesia. In order to ensure plant survival and increase coffee yield, Indonesia continues to introduce various disease-resistant varieties from other countries. Among them, the Tim Tim, Bor Bor and Catim series Ateng, which are a mixture of Robusta and Arabica, have good disease resistance, have strong yields, and are adapted to the terroir of Sumatra.
Soon, Ateng and Tim Tim gradually replaced the original Typica varieties and became the main varieties in Sumatra and other regions. Among them, the famous representative of the fine products is Mandheling. Mandheling is mainly produced from two major lakes in Aceh and Subei provinces: Lake Toba and Lake Tawar.
Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world and the largest alpine freshwater lake in Indonesia. The annual average temperature here is around 22°C, and it has a tropical rainforest climate. The rainy and humid environment, coupled with the mountainous altitude of about 1,400 meters, is rich in various spices, trees, palm oil and other agricultural products, including of course coffee. Under the rainy weather, most fruit trees grow on slopes at higher altitudes. Several types of ferns cover their surfaces, which together provide good sun protection for coffee, so growers do not need to use shade.
Located in the Gayo Mountains in central Aceh Province, Sumatra, it has a very unique microclimate environment and is close to the famous volcanic Lake Tawa.Every year from September to April of the following year, coffee berries are ripe, and you can see many farmers busy picking them in the mountains. The traditional Lintong Mandheling is cultivated by the Mandailing and Batak ethnic groups, while the "rising star" Tawahu Mandheling is cultivated by the Gayo ethnic group.
The lake here is clear and the natural environment is excellent. Coffee trees are planted on high mountains between 1,200 and 1,800 meters. The fog is shrouded all year round, and the temperature difference between day and night is large. The volcanic soil is rich in minerals and nutrients, and the ripe stems of melons are used as fertilizer. Farmers widely adopt organic methods to grow coffee, coupled with a long history of cultivation, allowing the coffee produced here to be of higher quality and yield. Many coffee bean merchants also value this place more, including the very famous local Pwani Coffee Company (PWN).
Treatment method - wet planing
Since the local weather is often rainy and there are constant typhoons, it is impossible to achieve the good weather required for sun exposure. Moreover, the local economy is not good, and it is also impossible to use the more expensive method of washing. For various reasons, the wet planing method with local characteristics was derived (the wet planing method is to take the parchment paper and dry it in the sun for 2-3 days during the ordinary washing process, until the moisture content is 20-24%, and then plan out the parchment paper).
The ultra-fast processing speed of wet planing also causes Mandheling to have a high defect rate. Front Street Golden Mandheling avoids this shortcoming very well. The specification of Front Street Golden Mandheling is more than 19 mesh, with less than 3 defective beans (300g raw bean sample). It belongs to the highest grade G1 grade. The color is dark green and it is a neatly shaped flat bean.
Front street baking parameters
Front Street chose to add the beans before the second crack, retaining a bit of soft acidity. The taste is highly sweet, rich and mellow, and the flavor is: baked toast, pine wood, caramel, cocoa, and slightly herbal flavor.
Medium-dark roasted beans generally have a higher dehydration rate, so they are lighter in weight. When brewing, the powder does not completely sink to the bottom. It will be absorbed immediately when water is injected. Because the air is strong, the powder is surrounded by bubbles, which creates channels. The fresher the beans are, the longer these channels will last. To make the water level drop quickly, I usually use a coarse flow of water and slowly circle it.
Sharing of Front Street Brewing Plan
Front Street recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing, so that you can maximize the rich flavor of the coffee. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days, because FrontStreet knows that the freshness of coffee beans has a great impact on the flavor. The purpose of Front Street Roasting is "freshly roasted and good coffee", so that every customer who orders receives the freshest coffee. The bean-growing period of coffee is about 4-7 days, so when customers get it, it has the best flavor and is suitable for brewing and drinking directly.
Filter cup: Kono filter cup
Water temperature: 86℃
Amount of powder: 15g
Pink to water ratio: 1:15
Grinding degree: medium to fine grinding (pass rate of No. 20 screen 70%)
Reasons for choosing Kono filter cup: The Kono filter cup has few ribs and is located at the low end. The filter paper is close to the filter cup, which can limit the air flow and increase the contact time between water and coffee powder, allowing the coffee powder to be fully extracted and improving the mellow taste. It is suitable for brewing medium-dark roasted coffee beans such as Front Street Golden Mandheling.
Staged extraction
Use 30 grams of water to steam for 30 seconds. When the water level drops and the powder bed is exposed, continue to pour water to 225 grams and stop pouring water. When the water level drops and the powder bed is exposed, remove the filter cup. (Steaming starts timing) The extraction time is 2'00'.
Overall, a medium-dark roast【Front Street Golden Mandheling】, so that its caramel, pine wood, high-quality herbs, and slight spices can be expressed, bringing a solid taste. As for the new production season of Front Street Golden Mandheling in 2020, due to the serious impact of the epidemic, the shipping space resources from Indonesia to China are quite tight, so that the Front Street Golden Mandheling, which was originally scheduled to arrive in October, arrived a month late. Front Street Coffee also evaluated the beans as soon as possible after receiving them.
It is different in flavor from the previous Mandheling.Compared to other Mandhelings, Front Street Gold Mandhelings have a stronger sweetness and sucrose aroma. Although everyone knows that only PWN’s Mandheling can be called the real Front Street Golden Mandheling, in fact, PWN’s annual production is not much, so a large number of large-grained golden Mandhelings are not from PWN. If you are not sure, you may want to ask the seller to provide the certificate that comes with the PWN beans.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
