Sumatra Mandheling Decaf

Decaffeinating a Mandheling is a harder problem than decaffeinating most coffee, because the things that make a Mandheling taste like a Mandheling are structural. Heavy body, low acidity, and an earthy depth that sits in the bean rather than on the surface of it. Strip those and you have hot water with a memory of coffee in it.

This lot is from North Sumatra, grown at 1,300 to 1,700 meters, and it is processed the Sumatran way. Wet hulled, then dried in the sun. Wet hulling is the process where the parchment comes off the bean while the bean is still wet rather than after it is dry, which is backwards from how coffee is processed almost everywhere else. It produces the density and the savory weight that Sumatra is known for, and it is the reason this coffee tastes the way it does rather than tasting generically dark.

Royal curates the lots that go into this decaf based on cup profile and physical preparation, and specifically on how well they express after decaffeination. Then the water process runs. The green coffee is pre-soaked in water, which expands the beans, and then it goes into a solution of concentrated coffee solubles. Caffeine migrates out through osmosis while the flavor stays. The green is re-dried and re-bagged, and the extract is filtered of its caffeine and reused. No solvent touches this coffee.

“Wet hulling builds a dense, savory coffee. The water process is gentle enough to leave most of that structure in place.”

Royal’s cup for this lot is grapefruit, coriander seed, graham cracker, and dark chocolate, and it is worth noticing that it does not read as a heavy decaf. Grapefruit leads — a real, slightly bitter citrus that has no business being in a decaffeinated Sumatra and is there anyway. Coriander seed follows, that dusty, slightly sweet herbal note. Graham cracker sweetness sits in the middle, and dark chocolate comes in underneath it to hold the whole thing down. Royal calls the finish clean, and it is.

Compared with the caffeinated Mandheling, expect a lighter body and less of the forest-floor earth. That is normal. Decaffeination takes the edges off a heavy coffee faster than it takes the body, so the profile shifts toward whatever was bright and citrusy underneath the weight.

We roast it dark. Dark is where this lot belongs, and the decaf beans are more porous than standard green coffee, so they take heat faster and darken more quickly than you expect. Push toward second crack and it will cross into thin and ashy before you think it should. Drop while the chocolate is still developing and stop there.

Brew it like the caffeinated version, because that is what it is. French press is the right call — full immersion keeps the body and lets the chocolate fill the cup. Pour-over will bring clarity to the grapefruit and the coriander. Cold brew works well here too; the long slow extraction softens whatever astringency is left and leaves something that drinks like chocolate milk. Use a coarse grind and water at 200°F.

We’ve been roasting coffee in Lakewood, Colorado under our neighborhood brand, Village Roaster, since 1979.

Buying green? The 2, 5 and 10 lb options are raw, unroasted coffee beans. They arrive as green coffee and cannot be brewed as they are. Roast them first, then brew.