Varieties of Indonesian coffee beans and wet planing method

When we talk about Indonesian coffee, the flavor words that come to mind are nothing but herbs, spices, soil, caramel, and mellowness. When we encounter high-quality Indonesian coffee, we will add the flavor description of "clean". This strong regional flavor attribute conquers the international market, which can be said to make Indonesian coffee unique in the international market, and Mantenin has almost become synonymous with Indonesian coffee.

Klasik Beans Co-operative and Manning Coffee is named after the Mandheling ethnic group living in North Sumatra, and there is no producing area or variety of coffee called Mantenin. This beautiful misunderstanding was caused by the first batch of businessmen who came to Sumatra to buy coffee because they misunderstood the local language, so it is still in use today.

There is no specific variety of Mantenin coffee we drink, because there is no such variety at all, but Mantenin has a great reputation and has gradually become synonymous with the regional characteristics of Indonesian coffee. For exporters, you can get a good price by simply labeling mixed coffee as Manning. Why not?

Previously, the Mantenin variety from North Sumatra was supposed to be Atung, but now it is difficult to say exactly what it is. Because the varieties cultivated in North Sumatra are: Yemeni or Ethiopian original Typica (Jember Typica) introduced through India; Tim-Tim; hybridized between Arabica and Robusta from Ethiopia; USDA; of inexplicable lineage from India; Ateng with Catimor lineage, and so on. The flavor brought by all these varieties is not as decisive as that brought by the traditional Indonesian method of wet ploughing. Coffee treated by wet planing has the flavor properties of Indonesian Mantenin coffee, so no matter what kind of coffee produced in Sumatra, it tastes with herbs, spices, soil, caramel and mellow flavor after wet planing. But the slightest carelessness in the handling process can ruin a batch of coffee.

Sunda Hejo processing plant a total of 29 beans, of which only two coffee is the traditional wet planing method, a large part of the treatment of these 29 beans is Costa Rican processing technology. For varieties planted in cooperatives, all kinds of advanced treatment methods are adopted: finer control of each link of whole water washing, comparative experiment of dry fermentation and wet fermentation, strict control of fermentation time, drying time in drying shed and honey treatment.

Although Typica Gulali has been introduced and planted for only 3-5 years and has not yet been officially mass-produced, after testing the three treatments of this coffee (full wash,semi wash,honey process), we get a surprisingly consistent flavor: ginger, jasmine, honey and toffee. These flavors are the flavor properties of Rosa coffee a few years ago, and this local original Typica is indeed genetically linked to Rosa, which itself was introduced from Ethiopia.

Test the other coffee in the cup is Yellow Caturra, the colder this coffee is, the more pleasant it will be. At the beginning of the first impression is milk, a strong sense of sweetness, with lemon, citrus sour, temperature drop, strong tea plum and flower aroma. It's a complete combination of Kenyan coffee and Ethiopian coffee.

The charm of Indonesian coffee lies in its diversity of varieties and processing methods. In addition to marking Mandheling or Mandheling Grade 1, more growers and exporters will be willing to mark "Tim-Tim", "Ateng", "Typica" and so on on the variety column. More people are willing to explore more treatment methods besides the wet planing method "wet hull". This is Indonesian coffee today.