Robert tests the Hearthware i-Roast 2

I have roasted an 80 gram batch of Costa Rican Tarrazu and a 140 gram batch of Colombian Supremo, and so far, it looks as if I will have to retire my Café Rosto.

I have been roasting my own coffee for about five years but I am far from an expert roaster. I like to think I am an experienced amateur roaster. The only roaster I have ever used is the Café Rosto, and I am on my second one. Actually, I started out roasting with the Melitto Café Aroma, but please don't spread it around. Using the Aroma is like riding a moped. It's fun until your friends find out.

I will give a more detailed report on the i-Roast 2 in a later post. I need to use it and play with it some more before I can tell you about it. I need to study the directions some more so I can experiment with different roast cycles. It allows you to roast at different temperatures at separate stages of the roasting cycle and I need to see if that is worth the hassle.

So far, I like it very much. My Rosto requires a lot of supervision to get a good, evenly roasted batch. In other words, I have to stand there and shake it every 30 seconds so the beans get agitated sufficiently. Otherwise, some burn and others aren't roasted enough. I have wasted too much coffee because I was distracted (computer, kids, computer, wife, computer, telephone, etc.) during roasting and did not shake shake shake.

Accepted wisdom is to never leave a roaster alone. It's not safe. I know that, but, well, mea culpa on getting distracted.

My first two batches were beautiful! I did a preset cycle on the Tarrazu and it was perfect in 10 minutes. I programmed the Colombian to roast at 450 for 13 minutes, but I shut it down at 12 and it went into its 4 minute cooling cycle. Also a beautiful batch. Very nice roaster.

I'll roast some more and report in a later post.

Any questions? Please email me.

Robert