291476 Tue Jan 07 08:52:07 -0800 2003 5 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1586291 I keep seeing snippets of an infomercial for a home coffee roaster. The name escapes me - I think "Zak" is part of it. The product is endorsed by coffee maven Ken Davids but his site http://www.coffeereview.com has no mention of it. Also - any have any epxerience with home coffee roasting/roasters? Tue Jan 07 08:52:07 -0800 2003 0 Pat I. 1 1586294 I occasionally roast my own in a cast iron pan. It makes really excellent coffee. It is hard to go back to regular stuff once you have had really fresh roasted. Like Coffee Connection in Boston used to sell before they were bought be Starbucks. Here are two sites that sell green beans and gear. These guys are cheaper and have a great selection of beans: www.coffeebeancorral.com These guys have more gear and very good instructions for home roasting: www.sweetmarias.com Tue Jan 07 09:54:14 -0800 2003 1586291 0 StriperGuy 2 1586295 Ah, Coffee Connection (sigh) (whimper) ... Tue Jan 07 09:57:40 -0800 2003 1586294 0 Karl S. 1 1586372 I've roasted coffee in my oven at home. I can't see why you would need to spend money on a special roaster. I just throw the beans in a pan and turn the oven up to 300 [I think]. I do stir it every so often. I think the last time I did it, it took about 15 minutes. Do be sure to turn off your smoke detector because every time I forget, the alarm goes off and it scares the cat and the kid. Makes the house smell awfully nice, though. Tue Jan 07 17:02:17 -0800 2003 1586291 0 jenn 2 1586381 Home roasters give a more even roast than cooking coffee in a pan, for a different effect in the coffee. Most of them have exhaust fans and chaff removal systems for ease of operation. I used to run mine in the bathroom with the exhaust fan on, and still the house was full of the smell. OK with me, but non-coffee drinkers didn't care for that. In the summer I ran it on the porch. Link: http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.book.poster.misc.shtml Image: http://www.sweetmarias.com/davids.roast.gif Tue Jan 07 17:40:14 -0800 2003 1586372 0 ironmom 1 1586412 The roaster you're looking for is the Zack and Danny. It's talked about regularly at alt.coffee and reviews are generally pretty good. Two other home roasters worth considering: Hearthware Precision-- a very good home roaster though it has a history of reliability problems. Hearthware does stand behind it. Freshroast Plus-- competent job at a pretty low price (about $75) These two plus the Z&D are hot air roasters. That is, the coffee beans are roasted by an upward stream of hot air-- similar principle to a hot air corn popper. They do a far better job than an oven and they collect the chaffe very well. Oh and most importantly-- fresh roasted coffee is incredibly good; far better than anything served up by Starbucks or by just about anyone else. And there are dozens of distinct varietals of coffee, each with very different character. I've been roasting for about a year and can't imagine going back to store bought. Tue Jan 07 20:26:00 -0800 2003 1586291 0 gary