# Boca Boca 250. Tapocketapocketa.



## Nerdlinger (Jan 10, 2020)

Cost nearly £160 on eBay second-hand, auction. Had to boil the drum components in a citric acid solution to loosen the residue but came up lovely.

Health And Safety Warning! The IR is literally stunning, I quickly tested it without the drum fitted just to see if it switched on and it hurt my eyes, it was as if I could feel the heat on my retinas, maybe I did, I'm not going to try it again to find out, it's like some kind of death ray.

I have tried one roast so far, started on temperature setting 10 (out of 12) as recommended by the seller and it took 9 minutes to crack. Then I lowered it right down to 4 for 2 minutes and back up to 9 and it only took another minute or so to sound like second crack (snapping toothpicks) though I've no prior experience of the sound of second crack and it might have been just completing its first crack. It was very smoky as well so I stopped there. I think I need to play around with lower temperature settings after first crack next time. I will also do my next roast by the fireplace to see if that can help with smoke venting. Much of the chaff is ejected out of the holes in the sides of the drum but I'm going to try improving this by removing the adjustable airhole plate which has no apparent function anyway, the rest of the chaff gets toasted but is not quite burnt in the drum. The fitted thermometer is a small analogue dial, so not that precise but it looked like about 200 degrees C at first crack and 230 when I stopped it.

I think the main driver for my interest in this roaster was the appearance of it and it feels as solid and well made as it looks and as expected, it sounds nice and is quiet enough to hear all of the cracking clearly, I'm wondering if the Boca Boca name is onomatopoeic. Using this is a far more pleasurable experience than my air popper and I'm going to enjoy getting to grips with it.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

I have no knowledge of this machine BUT would the removing of the air control plate not have an effect on the heating / cooling ?

With a greater airflow the heating would take longer and the cooling more rapid ?


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## Nerdlinger (Jan 10, 2020)

Yes maybe closing the air holes would speed it up to first crack but I think it gets there quick enough (9 or 10 minutes in my first 2 attempts) without even having to crank up the heat to full. To cool the beans they must be emptied out of the drum.

Just tasted my first roast and it lacks body. Maybe because it hasn't rested enough or the beans are stale but I suspect the roast is darker than I like. Today's roast looks similar.

This roaster interferes with AM radio... I took the air hole adjuster off but there was no appreciable increase in chaff ejection. The fireplace works well at venting smoke at least in this case with the fire lit and a gale blowing outside. unfortunately the camera battery ran out during first crack which threw me a bit so I lost concentration and didn't control the roast as well as I might have otherwise. The first crack popcorn noise seemed to merge into more of a twig-snapping noise which I think is second crack and this is how I remember my first attempt went as well, I will try again soon...

I uploaded the video to Youtube, if you watch it you might want to skip through as it is unedited:






And another 10 seconds or so of cracking noises:


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

I was curious about this roaster. I admit I didn't think it would be powerful enough but obviously not. Can you alter airflow during roasting or is it set before?


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## Nerdlinger (Jan 10, 2020)

There is no airflow beyond convection, no forced air, I think the beans are mainly heated by radiation from the infra red lamp. There are adjustable air holes on one side of the drum but this is probably meant for ventilation.

Definitely powerful enough. It is designed for the Korean mains supply of 220V 60Hz so maybe the only difference we see is a slightly slower drum rotation at about 5/6 of the design speed.


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## Nerdlinger (Jan 10, 2020)

During roasting I think I am hearing second crack while many beans are still first cracking, a bit too much carbon taste in the coffee. I hope these Vietnamese beans I got from captaincoffeeltd on eBay (1.9kg for £13.85) are poor quality, the beans look unevenly roasted. Either that or this roaster is flawed, or the concept of home roasting is flawed and it's just not possible to get as good results as a pro. I'll perservere with these beans until I finish them, I've got another 2kg of Brazil Santos (£13.99) I got off eBay and two small packs of pricey greens I got from my usual roasted bean source (scottishcoffee) so I might be able to get to the bottom of the bean quality question.

I videoed it again, this time capturing the whole process, my camera started another file of its own accord, maybe due to the limitations of the sd card file system... The second shorter video shows my cool-down method and the chaff situation. The simultaneous first and second crack noises can be heard at the end of the first video and the beginning of the second, I'd appreciate any thoughts on whether that is indeed what the sound is, I am very new to roasting.


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Quality beans may assist you here and whilst not familiar with your Ebay sellers, the fact that you are buying from Ebay may not source you speciality grade beans from a recent harvest. If cost is one of your main concerns in taking on home roasting you may not save much as you tend to get better results from better quality greens which can negate any cost savings you may be looking for (if this is in fact your driving force)

Speaking solely from personal experience, you may want to try some of the Coffeecompass green offerings (select grind type and you will see the green option of 2kg) for known good quality recent harvest beans. Of course there are other suppliers (your scottishcoffee for example) but for the price in smaller quantities Coffeecompass hard to beat.

Home roasting can be as good as the pro's, decent beans will put you on a level playing field then its down to how you as the roast controller roast them and then finally the equipment you roast them on. I certainly used to get and can still get quality results from the Gene Café, it's just a lot easier / consistent / more enjoyable on the Amazon.

Hope of help and don't give in, don't be afraid to stop 30s to a min earlier than you think and then take it from there (also a good read through the todays roast section)

John


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Nerdlinger said:


> The simultaneous first and second crack noises can be heard at the end of the first video and the beginning of the second, I'd appreciate any thoughts on whether that is indeed what the sound is, I am very new to roasting.


 You have outliers hitting first crack quite early on. You start rolling around 20:50 (which is something like 13 minutes into the roast?) I think and it slowly coasts along (you turn the temperature down) and then you turn it back up again and push it well into second rolling which is when you dump the beans. You probably turned the temp down a little too much and really shouldn't be turning it up after first. You might have some outliers in first crack while the majority are in second but I hear a pretty distinct first crack, then a slow then, then second crack.

Regarding bean quality, put crap in get crap out. Some beans won't roast properly because of defects so if you have cheap beans (seller making a profit for less than £10 a kilo) don't expect to be able to assess your roaster or profiles. Do your beans even come with cupping notes?


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## Nerdlinger (Jan 10, 2020)

Many thanks John and Rob.

Cost is not my reason for home roasting but I was expecting it to be somewhat cheaper than buying roasted as I'm doing the work... My scottish bean dealer actually charges more for green but then they are remarkably cheap for roasted.

"outliers" - good term, led me to this apposite reddit:


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https://www.reddit.com/r/roasting/comments/7956az

Those beans did not come with cupping notes apart from a reference to "sweetness". eBay item 153430222483. Listening back I can distinguish between first and second crack, now that I am getting used to these new sounds and concepts.

The same coffee I drank this morning tastes better this evening though still not great, my palate and my general mood might have been affected by a slight hangover. I will continue experimenting with these cheap beans and I will explore higher quality options in the future. I'm determined to find a source of cheap, good quality greens at some point though.

Andrew


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