right out of the box it is immediately apparent that it's a quality piece of kit, build quality of the machine is excellent, and looks good in my kitchen as well.
Instructions are very thorough and as well as dealing with the functional operation of the machine covers a reasonable amount about the history of coffee and good clarity on the stages the beans progress through as well as the cracks and types/degree of roast.
First roast was an absolute doddle, Its the simple version of the hottop so only controls are temperature 1-7, so a stopwatch is useful for timing the way to various stages. found an old bag of beans that I forgot I had so they are a bit stale (around 2 years old I think?!? ) and ran 250g of those through it while I stuck my nose back in the manual, I must admit that watching the slow change in the beans from start to finish is almost hypnotic, and even though the beans were well past there best it was a much better cup straight out of the machine than the dross I get inflicted on me at work
buoyed by the simplicity i dove in and whacked 250g of my current stuff once that had finished,
worked a treat, I'm used to my whirely pop but it's so much clearer what stage the beans are at when you
a) dont have to concentrate on winding+gas+thermometer+keeping it over the heat
b) when you can see clearly whats going on along every step of the way.
As far as I can tell so far the Hottop doesnt take any onus away from the roaster in making good coffee, what it does do is do all the process stuff very well so that you can concentrate on the stage you want your beans to get to and how quickly, as well as making it an easily reproducable process.
Was surprised how much difference it made to roasting times when my oven (electric) was on, may be a strong case for getting a variac at some point to ensure a constant voltage.
Anyway first impressions are a big thumbs up and its give the passion a little more heat.
Matt.
- Retired
