The Hottop Roaster

19th August 2013

 

Missing and craving the dreamy aromatics and sounds of a tumbling drum of coffee beans. Their metamorphose from the solid pebbles they initially resemble, into a soft, delicately brittle roasted bean, boasting effervescent oils and flavour. I found myself with quite an immediate dint in my MasterCard and an incredibly shiny little home roaster.

 

 

      The very manually operatable electric KN 882-8B 2 Hottop machine gives the Roaster control on such variables as drop temperature, time, fan speed and fuel value. The ease of altering such variables  at any time during the roasting process has quite an immediate effect as the batch size is so small. So responsive. A bean temperature probe that has been built in on request gives an accurate reading of the bean temperature for comparison to the ambient temperature within the drum. Graphing the nature of the ambient vs bean temperature, for fun, exhibits sections of the roast where the beans are working exothermically - creating their own bursting energy. An intoxicating activity within the bean that exudes scent and sound.

Five roasts so far - El Salvador, Mexican, Guatemalan, Colombian and Tanzanian. All gathering some age to be poked and prodded through extracting and infusing vessels...

Taste!