# Looking to buy a 500gram plus roaster



## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

Looking to buy a 500 gram plus roaster and also wondering where to buy decent bulk green beans that cheaply priced. I Iove the look of the cormorant but expensive at 1550 odd. TIA


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## Batian (Oct 23, 2017)

It is unlikely that you will find a new 500gm + but good quality roaster of suitable quality sub £1550.

Similarly, decent beans are never (comparatively) cheap! Your best route for obtaining lower cost beans is to open up a trade account with the importers. But trade accounts do mean trade quantities!

Mid way, perhaps https://www.smallbatchroasting.co.uk/ may be your best route. Their costs reduce per kilo based on volume.


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

Thanks for reply, I'll take a look. Do you know anything of the cormorant, such a great machine.


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Totally agree with Batian. It's a waiting game - look on eBay, Facebook market place and here obviously - you may get a used Huky or an abused Chinese machine for closer to a grand. But the bottom line is that roasters of that size tend to hold their value relatively well.

I love the Cormorant - it's a beautifully put together machine and if you live in the UK - it's a no/brainer as Johan and Tazelle his partner offer great support. It's also a pretty straightforward machine to work on if and when things need fixing (which they always do on roaster).

Cheers Phil


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## matted (Sep 30, 2019)

i am not that familar with roasters, but have seen the bocaboca 500 which is cheap, but there are few reviews and a few users here and there - perhaps not the pedigree of machine you are looking for though...


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

Beeroclock said:


> Totally agree with Batian. It's a waiting game - look on eBay, Facebook market place and here obviously - you may get a used Huky or an abused Chinese machine for closer to a grand. But the bottom line is that roasters of that size tend to hold their value relatively well.
> 
> I love the Cormorant - it's a beautifully put together machine and if you live in the UK - it's a no/brainer as Johan and Tazelle his partner offer great support. It's also a pretty straightforward machine to work on if and when things need fixing (which they always do on roaster).
> 
> Cheers Phil


 Thanks for the heads up Phil, the cormorant may seem expensive but it ticks so many boxes, and it's such a beautiful machine made with love... And like you say its supposed to be easy to fix or take back if any problems. Today a gene cafe and a behmor came up on Ebay today, might see if I can get one of them for cheap.


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

matted said:


> i am not that familar with roasters, but have seen the bocaboca 500 which is cheap, but there are few reviews and a few users here and there - perhaps not the pedigree of machine you are looking for though...


 Hi Matted, it looks a nice machine indeed for the price but there's a few things I didn't like about it.... How much is it going for?


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## matted (Sep 30, 2019)

Approx 570ish on ebay


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Are you roasting for yourself or looking to do something bigger as this will be the deciding factor on roaster size.

I ask as you seem to be looking at both 500g and smaller roasters which are in very different price ranges and wondering if you are plucking a figure for size of roaster based on reading something somewhere rather than actual need ( you can after all buy an awful lot of nice green beans with the difference in price between a cormorant, perfectly capable as it is 500g roaster, and a gene café which will roast 250g)

Kilo roasters tend to be in the £2.5-3.5k mark

John


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## CJV8 (Apr 8, 2019)

If it helps back to back roasting on a Gene is no problem and as johnealey said you can get a lot of greens for the cost saving. I find I can get very repeatable results on the Gene.


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## SamB (Oct 31, 2019)

The gene is an excellent roaster. You will only need a bigger one if you plan to roast for others. If that's the case then the cormorant/bullet R1/husky are all top notch machines


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

johnealey said:


> Are you roasting for yourself or looking to do something bigger as this will be the deciding factor on roaster size.
> 
> I ask as you seem to be looking at both 500g and smaller roasters which are in very different price ranges and wondering if you are plucking a figure for size of roaster based on reading something somewhere rather than actual need ( you can after all buy an awful lot of nice green beans with the difference in price between a cormorant, perfectly capable as it is 500g roaster, and a gene café which will roast 250g)
> 
> ...


 Hi John, I'm ooking to roast for a small group of people, if the funds don't get released by the wife I think it's going to be gene cafe, and maybe just roast for a few friends. I can't stop watching vids of the cormorant, looks such a brilliant piece of kit.


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

CJV8 said:


> If it helps back to back roasting on a Gene is no problem and as johnealey said you can get a lot of greens for the cost saving. I find I can get very repeatable results on the Gene.





CJV8 said:


> If it helps back to back roasting on a Gene is no problem and as johnealey said you can get a lot of greens for the cost saving. I find I can get very repeatable results on the Gene.


 CJV8, that's good to know, will be doing a few roasts at a time.


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

SamB said:


> The gene is an excellent roaster. You will only need a bigger one if you plan to roast for others. If that's the case then the cormorant/bullet R1/husky are all top notch machines


 SamB, bullet R1, haven't come across that yet. I'll take a look.


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## SamB (Oct 31, 2019)

https://aillio.com/?page_id=23320


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

That looks the business, especially with recorded roasts profiles but way too expensive and the tax cost coming in to UK would be big I reckon? And if anything goes wrong, it'll be a nitemare. The cormorant looks the best option but would be so much better linked up in a smart way with recorded profiles... I guess it's just down to meticulous logging to get the best out of it tbh.


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## SamB (Oct 31, 2019)

no you can get the maker of the Cormorant to include probes which then hook into artisan which is the opensource option for logging all your info. I have used it and its an amazing piece of software with a great online presence. they even have some really cool analyzer tools to help you improve you roast etc.

so I would say that you cant go wrong with the Cormorant although there is a waiting period of ~8months.

i went with the bullet as i know how good it was and i wanted an electric roaster. one is not better than the other, they are jsut different ways as getting the same outcome which is great home roasted coffee.

good luck!!


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## CJV8 (Apr 8, 2019)

It sounds like you're pretty set on a Comorant so ask yourself if you'd be thinking "I wish I'd gone for the Cormorant" if you plump for something else...?


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

SamB said:


> no you can get the maker of the Cormorant to include probes which then hook into artisan which is the opensource option for logging all your info. I have used it and its an amazing piece of software with a great online presence. they even have some really cool analyzer tools to help you improve you roast etc.
> 
> so I would say that you cant go wrong with the Cormorant although there is a waiting period of ~8months.
> 
> ...


 You have a bullet? Awesome, any issues so far? What's the support like for UK buyers? How much import tax? 1000g load sounds brilliant to make more coffee.


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

CJV8 said:


> It sounds like you're pretty set on a Comorant so ask yourself if you'd be thinking "I wish I'd gone for the Cormorant" if you plump for something else...?


 I'm still undecided but your right, going from pan roasting.... I need to make the best decision long term, what roaster do you have?


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

CJV8 has a Dalian Amazon (if you look closely, it's in their avatar) available form BellaBarista, you would need to get in contact to see when next deliveries are due noting this is quite a step change from your original budget of £1500.

Have a look through all the info in the home roasting section particularly one called something like "what's coming on test "which lists a lot of the initial findings of users

John


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## CJV8 (Apr 8, 2019)

Yup, just got our Dalian up and running. However that's for our plan to start roasting commercially, it'd be a little excessive (but very nice!) for domestic use only.


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## SamB (Oct 31, 2019)

IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE said:


> You have a bullet? Awesome, any issues so far? What's the support like for UK buyers? How much import tax? 1000g load sounds brilliant to make more coffee.


 Well I got it in the states so im not sure of the import taxes as I didn't pay any when I came over with it. I would say you might be in the high £2500 all said and done.

I have had zero issues and have owned 2 of them (110v and 220v which I currently own) and completed around 850kg's. From the folks that did have issues (they had a batch of faulty boards) the service was excellent. New boards sent out when the problem was fixed.

it's really a plug and play machine with the ability to fine tune a lot of parameters . They also have a lot of interesting technology.

I would say that it might be limited on the lighter roasts But maybe that's my weakness!


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

johnealey said:


> CJV8 has a Dalian Amazon (if you look closely, it's in their avatar) available form BellaBarista, you would need to get in contact to see when next deliveries are due noting this is quite a step change from your original budget of £1500.
> 
> Have a look through all the info in the home roasting section particularly one called something like "what's coming on test "which lists a lot of the initial findings of users
> 
> John


 Cheers John, I'll check it out.


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

SamB said:


> Well I got it in the states so im not sure of the import taxes as I didn't pay any when I came over with it. I would say you might be in the high £2500 all said and done.
> 
> I have had zero issues and have owned 2 of them (110v and 220v which I currently own) and completed around 850kg's. From the folks that did have issues (they had a batch of faulty boards) the service was excellent. New boards sent out when the problem was fixed.
> 
> ...


 Sounds a great machine, I'm sure you'll perfect a lighter roast at some point. I'd love one but the wife wouldn't like see that dissappear from the account lol


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## IDREAMOFCOFFEEBEFOREIWAKE (Nov 19, 2018)

SamB said:


> Well I got it in the states so im not sure of the import taxes as I didn't pay any when I came over with it. I would say you might be in the high £2500 all said and done.
> 
> I have had zero issues and have owned 2 of them (110v and 220v which I currently own) and completed around 850kg's. From the folks that did have issues (they had a batch of faulty boards) the service was excellent. New boards sent out when the problem was fixed.
> 
> ...





CJV8 said:


> Yup, just got our Dalian up and running. However that's for our plan to start roasting commercially, it'd be a little excessive (but very nice!) for domestic use only.


 Dalian is rather lovely too, maybe one day I'll afford one or get good enough to need to upgrade again


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