The "Joe Roaster": an interview with Joe Behm

Raf interviews the "Joe Roaster" man

Joe Behm's "Joe Roaster": will this be the Mazzer Mini of the home-roasting scene?
(see also our forum: "Another future for home-roasting")

The home-roasting market is moving fast these days: the Z&D was launched last year, the second half of last year saw the breakthrough of the Hottop, and the BuzzRoaster and the WaveRoast have also surfaced as contenders for the home-roaster's cash. Next in line (that we know of, anyway) are the I-Roast and the Joe Roaster. The I-Roast has been getting all the buzz lately, but if the Joe Roaster lives up to its claims, it might actually be worth the wait: an affordable (less than $200), smokeless, radiant heat, 1 pound capacity roaster with cooling function, about the size of a microwave oven - something that could potentially challenge the Hottop for the title of "Best Home Coffee Roaster", at less than half the price and with twice the capacity? Yes, please - I should say so!

I was intrigued when I heard that it was designed by a home roaster, so I contacted Joe Behm to get his story. We e-mailed back and forth for a while, and I cut and pasted his story into an article with all the basic facts on the roaster. Plus: some trivia!

The story of the Joe Roaster or: why did you want to make yet another “ultimate” home roaster?

A little over 7 years ago on a trip to Costa Rica we happened upon a tiny roaster in a cloud forest region called Monte Verde. Seizing upon the opportunity we bought 15 bags of what I can only term ..brown nectar of the gods...

Once back from Costa Rica (two days after buying the coffee) and then weeks later having run out of the nectar for two years my wife and I sought to find an equivalent source as was found in Costa Rica... No luck and with a monthly expense of $100+ buying from local sources, I thought, this is crazy. It was then I looked at a common kitchen appliance so I could buy green and roast it myself. And I thought maybe I could engineer something for the home.. I went into my office and did conceptual drawings. About three weeks later I saw an infomercial for a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie. Realizing I could test my concepts, I built an adapter for it, which is now patented.

Through hundreds and hundreds of tests I recognized what issues (smoke, cooling etc.) needed to be addressed with invaluable feedback from one very notable coffee cupper. I went so far as to take the Ronco unit with adapter to the SCAA for some feedback. It was at this point I refined my drawings for a complete unit based on all I had learned.

How does it work?

The unit is based upon radiant heat...no fluid air.

To date I have had 3 prototypes built. The first was a boat anchor at best, the second was 85% there with the final unit being about 98% of what I'd like to see produced. Currently the 3rd unit is being reviewed by a very well known appliance firm who has expressed an interest in the idea.

To date one mock-up (2nd) has over 400 hours on it with ONLY a minor fan failure due to a set of insulating washers not being used. This failure happened on the 10th roast so since that time (390+ hours) with a $.10(10 cents) fix...not a problem. The latest (3rd) unit has approx. 150 hours on it with ZERO failures. I should note mock-ups/prototypes are prone to failure so these numbers are very good as was noted by engineers I've spoken to.

These times are total from the time you put the beans in the unit, turn it on and then it drops into the cooling cycle. It doesn't include cool down time. No warm up is required.

All roasters are "the best": how is yours different? Did anyone actually see the beast yet? Is this vaporware?

No vaporware! You will see this roaster...Approximately 100 people have already and if you were in my area I gladly invite you or anyone else for that matter to a private demo at my office.

In one case I drove the unit to Northern California so it could be reviewed by a former roaster, now importer. In that particular case while cupping the coffee which had been roasted in the unit one expert said "I'd have never known this was roasted in a home roaster". To me that was the best of all comments.

The first man to review the unit and see a demo heads a very well known California based non profit coffee group, has spoken on coffee quality to various groups and has been raised in and around the roasting industry for his entire life. He stated the following:

Unit as a whole:

"Outstanding job you've done so far".

His "so far" related to the fact he wanted to see me reduce the time between first and second snaps...This has been addressed in the 3rd mock-up thus roast times fell from 22-23 minutes to approx. 18 minutes for a pound with times shortened between snaps. He also recommended a light be installed to view the beans better while roasting. Easy fix that has already been addressed with the engineers and will be incorporated.

Cooling function:

"Pleasantly Surprised"

The cooling cycle/quenching is extremely efficient. No need to drop smoking beans in a pan with a fan sucking air through (Hottop - and most commercial roasters, at least those of the size used by micro-roasters - Phil ). Just let this sucker keep rotating. Chaff is directed into a receptacle.

"Smokeless" ability:

"Ideal for use in the kitchen"

The cooling cycle/quenching is extremely efficient. No need to drop smoking beans in a pan with a fan sucking air through (Hottop - and most commercial roasters, at least those used by micro-roasters - Phil ). Just let this sucker keep rotating. Chaff is directed into a receptacle.

The smokeless systems works well enough so no smoke is visible, up to an espresso roast. If one attempts to go darker...nothing will completely remove the oily smoke. Sorry: I can't explain how I've accomplished the smokeless feature but suffice it to say it works

Other professionals have reviewed the unit calling it "Impressive". Another comment was "I'd say complete success". Kenneth Davids committed to attend this demo but failed to show due to a late scheduling conflict. He was however sent some of the finished product and had no negative feedback.

The coffee roasted at the demo was a JBM Mavis Bank. Same lot of JBM as used/sold by Sweet Maria's in August 2003. As a matter of fact the meeting/demo was conducted at the offices of one of the main wholesale suppliers to Sweet Maria's. In retrospect I should have invited Tom.

200 $ for a decent roaster sounds suspiciously cheap…
Too cheap... hhhhmmmmmmmm

"Cheap" implies poor quality. This roaster will be competitively priced, inexpensive to some, but not cheap. My suggested resale is based upon projected manufacturing costs.

As to unit cost: my goal in the beginning was to have a great unit that is easy to use, efficient, is QUIET, with positive acceptance/approval by coffee professionals all for under $200. Understand, a unit whose cost is high inherently will and almost automatically exclude a majority of the coffee consumers from enjoying what we all know is a better product.

Obviously in the EU with VAT..add what 20%(?) if my days working for a UK based firm are correct and my memory serves me well.

As currently designed the unit has manual timers for several reasons. One of which is having been in electronics for almost 20 years I don't feel comfortable with any CPU/MPU/MCU/ASIC to long term withstand high temperatures. There will be a failure - guaranteed. You can get industrial temp semis but they are always in tight supply and expensive. You still run the risk of a high percentage of failures. Also by having manual timers the users will be forced to be attentive to what is going on.

Can I manually stop a roast anytime because I've achieved the desired roast profile? Yes, you can drop it into the cooling cycle with no ill effects to the unit. I should note the unit is so quiet it sits on a workbench in a warehouse 70+ feet from my desk and I can hear the snaps.

Okay, so kick off the production!

Can't just yet: a final and complete set of engineering drawings are finished and tooling could begin tomorrow, but I am waiting to hear from one well known manufacturer, to see if they wish to move forward with the idea on their own. If that is the case a new set of engineering drawings will need to be done to facilitate a slight redesign, which would require 3-5 days and a mock-up built to verify all data (standard procedure). This in total would push back delivery to late December of 2004. If this manufacturer decides not to proceed, a group of investors has been waiting on the sidelines for my final decision.