I now live in Greek speaking Cyprus, with semi-regular visits to Oz. It certainly is no hardship location, like some I have been before (Somalia, Afghanistan etc…). Great views, old cities, little villages, great bakeries, good produce, and so on.
But I am far from my workshop, and various coffee related privileges. And, I really can’t say that Greek style coffee inspires me. And ordering espresso or a café latte has only led to disappointment. Something had to be done.
No one retails decent machines, and there are no roasters. No green coffee either. I remembered that my German grandmother used to roast her coffee on a Aga type stove, using a cast iron roasting pot. Lucky that there is ebay. And I did order shiny extraction and grinding stuff to arrive via courier. And a friend brought some green beans. So all was set for roasting in a way I had never done before!
First roast was 250g of Colombian, it took 22min to second crack. Flying blind with hand agitation! Does one turn the thing slow, evenly, in biursts…should the lid be open only once evaporation shows steam? Lots of questions. The result was very palatable, but there were some black beans to be discarded. 5% approx…not bad.
Improvement: add some wire to the agitator so no beans remain in quiet corners of the roaster to burn.
The big day was 2 days ago and this is how the roast progressed:
-I thought more beans would result in more even agitation – use 500g!
-drying out fine and even as far as I could judge
-first crack at 17min
-continues to brown even…smoking!
-all quiet at 21min
-‘matches breaking’ at 23min…panic an tip into colander
-winnowing the chaff and cooling in a panic because I did not think about that!
-cooling off in a single layer
The result:
-very nice, no burned beans. Agitation works
-mostly even color, some 5% maybe a little darker. Not as even as
-breaking open darker and lighter beans show they are all the same color inside
…what does that mean?
-it is late so we wait until the morning for the first shot
-even grind, nice aroma
-shot not bad at all, a little frothy
-Taste: to be honest it was as nice as with my Hottop at home.
I am blown away. I think things are not desperate at all. My daughter is bringing green beans. The roaster could easily take a larger load, at least 750g and that may even improve agitation. The gas could be turned up to do the roast in 20 minutes and I will try that for taste comparison. Has anyone used this type of roaster before?





But I am far from my workshop, and various coffee related privileges. And, I really can’t say that Greek style coffee inspires me. And ordering espresso or a café latte has only led to disappointment. Something had to be done.
No one retails decent machines, and there are no roasters. No green coffee either. I remembered that my German grandmother used to roast her coffee on a Aga type stove, using a cast iron roasting pot. Lucky that there is ebay. And I did order shiny extraction and grinding stuff to arrive via courier. And a friend brought some green beans. So all was set for roasting in a way I had never done before!
First roast was 250g of Colombian, it took 22min to second crack. Flying blind with hand agitation! Does one turn the thing slow, evenly, in biursts…should the lid be open only once evaporation shows steam? Lots of questions. The result was very palatable, but there were some black beans to be discarded. 5% approx…not bad.
Improvement: add some wire to the agitator so no beans remain in quiet corners of the roaster to burn.
The big day was 2 days ago and this is how the roast progressed:
-I thought more beans would result in more even agitation – use 500g!
-drying out fine and even as far as I could judge
-first crack at 17min
-continues to brown even…smoking!
-all quiet at 21min
-‘matches breaking’ at 23min…panic an tip into colander
-winnowing the chaff and cooling in a panic because I did not think about that!
-cooling off in a single layer
The result:
-very nice, no burned beans. Agitation works
-mostly even color, some 5% maybe a little darker. Not as even as
-breaking open darker and lighter beans show they are all the same color inside
…what does that mean?
-it is late so we wait until the morning for the first shot
-even grind, nice aroma
-shot not bad at all, a little frothy
-Taste: to be honest it was as nice as with my Hottop at home.
I am blown away. I think things are not desperate at all. My daughter is bringing green beans. The roaster could easily take a larger load, at least 750g and that may even improve agitation. The gas could be turned up to do the roast in 20 minutes and I will try that for taste comparison. Has anyone used this type of roaster before?











. Does it generate a lot of smoke? What grinder do you use?
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