Where is the Herbal Flavor of Indonesian Manning Coffee? what about the mixed smell of hand-made manning coffee?

Mantenin is a highly polarized coffee bean, and people who like it will indulge in its wild spice, herbal aroma, caramel cocoa, and unparalleled sticky taste; those who don't like it will find it bitter, mixed with herbs, dirt and wood.

Very often, when we describe the flavor characteristics of Mantenin, we will say that the unique identification of "herbal flavor", "earthy flavor". And now Mantenin, the herbal flavor has gradually disappeared, at least, compared with Mantenin a few years ago, that unique flavor has become less obvious. To explore how Manning's special herbal flavor comes from, we have to start with the local planting environment, varieties and treatment methods. Manning coffee refers to Arabica coffee beans grown on the island of Sumatra. The main producing areas are near Lake Lunda and Lake Tawa, of which Lake dopa is famous for its Lindong area and Lake Tawa is famous for its Gayo Mountain area. Here 1100-1600 meters above sea level ups and downs, is the ideal altitude to grow good coffee. In the early 18th century, the Dutch extended coffee plantations to Sumatra, a land with a long history of coffee cultivation.

Variety may be the reason why Indonesian coffee has the characteristics of herbaceous and earthy flavor. In the 18th century, the Dutch planted iron pickups and bourbon on the island. Later, under the outbreak of leaf rust in 1876, Indonesian authorities had to introduce new varieties to all parts of the world to preserve the production of coffee. Since then, the land of Indonesia has become a melting pot of coffee varieties. Now the common coffee varieties in Sumatra are Ateng (local Katim), TimTim (local Tim), iron pickup, Kaduai and Robusta. Mantenin's main varieties, Ateng and TimTim, contain the Robusta gene and have a hint of grass and dirt. However, the most common people think that the source of Manning's herbal flavor is the unique local wet planing method. The reason why the wet planing method is used is because the humidity in Sumatra is relatively heavy all the year round, and the weather is cloudy and rainy, so the wet planing method is used to shorten the drying time and preserve the quality of coffee beans.

The process of wet planing is roughly as follows: first use a peeling machine to remove the skin and flesh of the coffee fruit, and then wash the coffee beans. if the weather is good, the moisture content of the coffee beans will be reduced to about 30-40% after drying for 3-4 days. This is the semi-soft and hard state of the coffee beans. At this time, the sheepskin on the surface of the beans is scraped off with a shelling machine, and only 12-13% can be dried in a few days. If you use the sun, it may take 3 weeks. On the other hand, the smell of herbs and soil may appear in the rough drying process (due to the poor equipment, the way of drying is directly laid on the cement floor or rammed dirt road, after abandoning the sheepskin protective shell, the high humidity environment is easy to pollute the coffee beans. )

So why is Manning's herbal flavor getting weaker and weaker? Among so many mantenins, golden manning has almost no herbaceous and earthy taste, showing a mellow, clean and transparent taste.

Gold manning is a product of raw bean company Pawani, which has been registered as a trademark in 2003. Pawani does not participate in planting, it only visits major producing areas to find the best coffee beans in Indonesia. At present, Pawani's gold manning is produced in the Gayo Mountains of Aceh. Similarly, the golden manning is the Ateng, which also contains the Robusta gene, but it doesn't have the rustic smell of Katim in the coffee. Therefore, some experts think that Ateng has adapted to the local conditions of Indonesia, while others believe that Ateng is a variety after backcrossing between Katim and Itsuka, which once again dilutes the gene of Luodou.

In terms of treatment, although everyone is called the wet planing method, there may be a big difference in the actual operation. For example, if coffee beans remove sheepskin with different water content, will there be any difference in flavor? Pay attention to some in the process of drying, away from the ground, turn over many times, to achieve uniform drying, whether it can reduce the taste of soil and herbs. The details of the process are not known, but Qianjie can see different performances on raw beans.

The color difference is the problem of shooting light. In 2018, Golden Manning's "Bauhinia Bean" is more obvious, while from 2020, Golden Manning's "Bean" has become less. This should be an improvement in the processing process. Gold manning is also much more expensive than other mantenins because Pawani makes three more hand selections after buying raw beans to get rid of defective, small, ugly beans. The rest are coffee beans with large and full grains and small defects. This measure will improve the cleanliness of the coffee.

In front of the street, there is a coffee bean called Tiger Mantenin, which has a very strong aroma of Chinese traditional medicine, right in the taste buds of some friends, and often some guests come to ask if there is any more of this bean. Qianjie also took a fancy to this special aroma and chose to go on the shelves. In recent years, Human's Chinese traditional medicine fragrance is not as rich as it used to be. Herbs, spices, wild and mellow taste, may be the impression of a generation of Mantenin, and even the whole Indonesian coffee. However, in the first COE competition in Indonesia in 2021, Indonesians took action to tell the world that Indonesian coffee not only has a rigid herbal flavor, but also has high sweetness of fruit and flowers.