i-Roast2 Swan Song

Published on January 7, 2011 in Commentary. 0 Comments

The i-Roast2 was thought to be a goner about a year ago.  Although many home roasters covet this product, the US importer  told us more than a year ago that it was unlikely they would be bringing it here any longer.  They had rejected a defective shipment in 2009 and that seemed to be the last batch.  But, one final shipment has arrived in the US and we have been informed once again that this may be the last.  We have secured a number of these roasters and expect them to move quickly.  If you have been waiting for the return of the i-Roast2 don’t wait long too long to act !

This round of roasters is identical to those in the past with the exception of the two preset profiles. In the past one of those profiles was intended for a fast or dark roast, the other for slow one. Now, the profiles have been replaced with one preset for high chaff coffees, the other for low chaff coffees. These designations are being made by i-Roast; they say Preset 1 for high chaff coffees is exemplified by Central and South American; Preset 2 is for beans with medium to light chaff such as Arabic, African, Indonesian and decaffeinated. Decaffeinated coffees are very low in chaff but guessing chaff based on sweeping origin generalities just is not accurate. Preset details are as follows.

i-Roast2 New Presets 2011

i-Roast2 New Presets 2011

i-Roast2 Former Presets 2009/10

i-Roast2 Former Presets 2009/10

The i-Roast 2 by Hearthware is profile programmable home coffee roasters and has a real fan base. This i-Roast2, which replaced the i-Roast a couple of years ago, adds several desirable features to an already well-established and popular product. This unit is fairly sophisticated, inexpensive and is one of the few roasters capable of producing dark roasts for the home roaster.  Get them while you can.


Hottop adds emergency ejection knob

Published on December 20, 2010 in Commentary. 0 Comments
Hottop emergency ejection knob

Hottop emergency ejection knob

Hottop announced the addition of an emergency ejection knob to both of their models and has modified the model numbers to designate them as such.  The new model numbers are KN-8828B-2 and KN-8828P-2 (note the -2 addition).  While this announcement has just become formalized, roasters purchased from us since summer have had this latest emergency feature.  Added strictlyas a safety measure, the knob protrudes from the rear of the roaster.

Hottop notes that while emergencies are quite rare, situations can arise such as power failures, which would cause the coffee to sit in a hot drum.  Pulling the ejection knob will get them out. Read the applicable sections of the Hottop owner’s manual for complete usage information.

Ejection knob detail

Holiday 2010 stock status

Published on November 8, 2010 in Commentary. 0 Comments

As we enter the 2010 holiday season we wanted to let everyone know that we are in great shape regarding our stock of Technivorm coffee brewers and various home coffee roasters.  We carry 4 thermal models of the Technivorm including the KBT-741 in polished silver and also in black; the CD Thermal (CDT); and, the smaller KBTS.  All are in stock and we ship most brewers the day your order arrives.

Also in good supply are Behmor home coffee roasters of which we are a large volume dealer.  We also have Hottop, Fresh Roast and Nesco home coffee roasters in stock and ready to ship.

The same holds true for all models of the excellent Baratza coffee mills:  Virtuoso, Vario, Maestro and Maestro Plus.  The newest model, the Precisio, will arrive shortly.

You will find our prices to be the best around and most equipment comes with free or bonus shipping plus other incentives.  We are looking forward to serving your holiday needs for equipment as well as green coffee.

Incoming coffee

Published on August 9, 2010 in Commentary. 0 Comments

New coffees continue to arrive or are on their way.   These coffees will be available on our site within a week or so but we just wanted to give you some advance on them.

We have four  new coffees coming from Panama, all new crop of course. They are:

  1. Hector Vargas’ Panacoffee microlot from Boquete, a blend of Typica and Catuai that is just sensational. We know Hector for some years and we bought all of this coffee.  In the Best of Panama this year, his coffee commanded a high price and a lot of competitive bidding.
  2. Two from Wilford Lamastus’ Elida Estate, also in Boquete, his Elida Estate Reserve, always a top ranking fully washed coffee; also his natural process version of the same coffee.  Processing without washing produces a completely different cup profile.
  3. The ever-popular Carmen Estate by Carlos Aguilera of Volcan Panama, just across the ridge from Boquete.

All three growers (and their four coffees) are top shelf.

Just arrived today and will be on our site within days is Yemen Mocha Harazi that we directly imported.  This is carefully selected, top quality coffee from Yemen.  Yemeni coffee can be very tricky to purchase and this one is excellent.

We still have two coffees still to list from our trip to Costa Rica, Jose Arce’s Finca Chepe and Monte Copey de Dota.

This is a difficult and expensive year for Kenya coffee but we just found an auction lot of peaberry from the Guama mill.   It has a lot of depth and layers of flavor.   Lastly, a new decaffeinated coffee for us, Mountain Water Processed from Honduras.

In all, nine new coffees will hit our offering list within days.  Details and pricing to follow. Check our “new arrivals” section.

CoE El Salvador 2010

Published on May 20, 2010 in Coffee. 0 Comments

Just back from being part of the international judging panel at the El Salvador Cup of Excellence.  It was held near the town of Concepcion de Ataco, in the heart of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec region in the western part of the country, not far from the Guatemala border.  Twenty four judges were in attendance from eleven countries.

Score Farm Region Variety
91.05 FINCA SUIZA Apaneca-Ilamatepec Bourbon
90.48 EL AUSOL Apaneca-Ilamatepec Pacamara
90.45 LA MONTANITA Alotepec-Metapan Pacamara
89.25 SAN ISIDRO Apaneca-Ilamatepec Bourbon
89.16 LOS ANDES Apaneca-Ilamatepec Bourbon
88.86 SAN JOAQUIN Apaneca-Ilamatepec Bourbon
88.84 LA BATALLA Alotepec-Metapan Bourbon
88.84 LOS PIRINEOS Tecapa-Chinameca Pacamara
88.7 LAS MERCEDES Apaneca-Ilamatepec Pacamara
88.18 LLANO GRANDE Apaneca-Ilamatepec Pacamara

Of the top ten coffees, half were Bourbon and half were Pacamara.  One of the attractions of going to El Salvador was a personal fondness for the Pacamara varietal.   This varietal is  a cross between the Pacas natural mutation of Bourbon, and the large Maragogipe, an offspring of Typica known primarily for its size but also with fans for its flavor.   When all is right with Pacamara it exhibits dramatic, dark fruit flavors, layers of them.  El Salvador is perhaps the place where more Pacamara is grown and experiemented with.  While only 5% of coffee grown is Pacamara, it is often in the top group of competition winners as was the case here.

Here are some photos on Flickr.

El Salvador is a unique origin and in some ways the value of its coffee is not really well known.  Unique in Central America, mainly two varietals make up the entirety of the country’s production, Bourbon and Pacamara, with the vast majority Bourbon.  Some of the Bourbon is Pacas.  Bourbon itself is grown in Red, Pink and Yellow varieties.  In much of Central America one comes across a dominance of Caturra and Catuia but not here, where the Bourbon is heirloom.  The only real derivation is with Pacamara, the relatively new coffee, that is itself a star in the making. A dozen years of war set this country’s reputation as a dominant coffee origin backward; once it was the world’s third largest, but the re-establishment of that fame is now beginning to emerge again.

In all, a wonderful experience with good coffee friends, old and new.  And a chance to savor some of the truly world class coffees from an origin that is still under the radar compared to the quality offered.

Bye Bye i-Roast2

Published on May 13, 2010 in Home Roasters. 0 Comments
i-Roast2 display panel

Looks like this may be the  end of the line for Hearthware’s i-Roast2 home roaster. The item has been out of stock for many months, since fall 2009. At first , US distributor Hearthware, said they had rejected an entire shipment for quality control reasons and a replacement shipment was expected earlier this year. That projected delivery time passed with no roasters arriving and the date was moved back a couple of more months. We have periodically checked in asking for an update. Yesterday, when we checked once more, we received this reply:

“Unfortunately our i-Roast2 is still on back order. We are expecting a shipment of replacement parts and maybe a small shipment of roasters sometime in August. We will not receive replenishment after that. We will be forced to discontinue the i-Roast2 after stock runs out. We are working on the next version of our roaster. The release date has not been set.  I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this shortage has caused you.”

If it turns out to be true that some small amount of roasters does arrive in August, and if it makes sense at that time, we will secure some.  Otherwise, we will keep our eyes peeled for a new and hopefully improved model up the road. The i-Roast2 was itself a breakthrough roaster in some ways as it offered programming of up to 10 profiles, each with up to 5 roast stages. The hot air roaster had more power and airflow than its competitors, and except for the smoke it generated (which could be vented out a window) it was a useful roaster, particularly for those who prefer dark roasts.

For the moment, Fresh Roast’s new SR500 and SR300 models are the nearest competitors.  They too have been out of stock for a short while, but gladly we can report a shipment is now on the road heading our way, and, we should be shipping within a few days.