If the small capacity means you can roast quickly, quietly, and with little smoke, then I guess you could count it as an advantage instead of a disadv
Positive Product Points
Quiet
Little smoke
Fast
Can see the beans during the roast
Inexpensive
Negative Product Points
Small capacity
Maybe too fast
Detailed Commentary
I like to roast coffee either before everyone gets up in the morning or during my son's afternoon nap. So I'd like to be able to roast indoors, and quietly. The FreshRoast is therefore THE roaster for me.
It's very quiet. I roast with it setting on my stove, with the fan on. I can hear to cracks easily.
I'm not too bothered by the small capacity, especially as I am still learning. I'd be nervous to experiment on a half a pound of beans at a time. With the FreshRoast, I can play around with different roasts without risking much.
It doesn't take long to roast - 3 or 4 minutes plus a couple of minutes cooling time. This is an advantage and a disadvantage, I suppose. The advantage is that you can easily do up a half pound within a half an hour. The disadvantage is that this may not result in as good a roast. I dunno. I'm happy with the coffee and that's all that really matters.
This is available for $59 from sweetmarias.com, making it the cheapest dedicated roaster by far. I think that the price, the speed, and the small capacity make it a great introductory roaster. If you decide on a larger capacity roaster later on, it would probably still be nice to have the FreshRoast around as a second machine, to quickly do a small quantity of a varietal that you'd like to sample. Or some of that decaf you keep on hand for your mother-in-law.
