I bought this from Tom at Sweet Maria‘s for about $120.00. The first day I got it, I broke the glass carafe by dropping it onto the garage floor. Though disappointed, Hearthware was accommodationg on the telephone and express mailed another to me within 48 hours. To date, I have used the machine twice a week, doing three roasts at a time. I roast only what will last me three days, and use Malabar Gold and Tom‘s Monkey Blend in a 2 to 1 ratio. The first use I followed Tom‘s detailed instructions, set it on 5 or so, and it turned out a delish City+ roast with both beans. Later, I used it on a cold rainy day and discovered that the climatic conditions caused the normal settings to be too low, and that I needed to bump up the dial setting to close to 7 to get the same results. Now, I set it around 6 or 7 and watch the beans, powering on the cooling cycle when the beans reach the right color. It‘s easy to terminate the roasting by just pressing a button. A reminder, though: The beans will continue to roast even after the cooling button is pressed, at least for three minutes or so. I usually begin cooling a couple of minutes (or when the beans are slightly lighter in color than optimal) early to get the desired end result. Roasting my own beans has been, IMHO, the most significant improvement in the quality of my espresso. Though I am aware of complaints on alt.coffee and elsewhere regarding this machine, it has, thus far worked flawlessly for me. |
