Hi all

So I've just roasted a batch of Sumatran Mandheling, and noted 3 odd things:

1. Many of the beans seemed to "crack/split" at the tip...I've never seen this before. Any idea what could have caused it?

2. One or 2 of the beans were pitted on their outermost convex surface. I read somewhere that this could be due to too high a temperature. Is this True?

3. The first crack came at 12 minutes...and was very soft.As mentioned in a previous post, this be due to the bean being too dry So I assume the trick would be to bump up the temperature higher and faster?

4. The 2nd crack took a LOOONG time to come...only at around 19 minutes (usually comes at 16-17 min with my Gene cafe sitting at 235c after first crack at 245). Any idea why this could be (the only reason I could think of is due to a high bean density - but Mandheling isn't a "hard bean" as I understand)?

Thanks
Sing

I cupped the Mandheling today. Apart from the fact that I shouldn't have cupped it right after eating some jam (the bitterness almost killed me, but it became quite pleasant after a while), for some reason the first thing that came to mind on breaking the crust was "Urban Malaysia". LoL.