<Snip>
                  "Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
           Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting  -  Tom & Maria
                     http://www.sweetmarias.com

After having used the Hearthware Precision for at least 
a couple of months now, I'm coming to the conclusion 
that it is very difficult for me to achieve the type of 
roast I really like.  My problem is that it seems that 
the roast goes from tasting green/underdeveloped to a 
very flat almost charred flavor.  Its like I can't land 
on anything in between.  Generally, when I purchase 
coffee I like a relatively dark roast...certainly one 
that brings a fair amount of oil to the surface.  
However, if I roast to that degree with the Precision it 
tastes way too charred.  Even lighter roasts taste 
flat.  I gradually bring the roast down to something 
that looks way too light for my taste and it seems to 
just go from flat to green tasting...never hitting 
the "sweet" spot.  Any suggestions?

Thanks to everyone for your ideas regarding my question 
regarding "flat" flavor with the HWP.  Tom, you asked a 
couple of questions I would like to answer.  First, the 
coffees I have liked are your Brazil Cerrado (not sure 
which one) and results were okay with Costa Rica 
Conquistador.  The one I was not able to roast 
satisfactorily at all was the Zimbabwe.  I was also 
disappointed with the Sumatra Manddheling Gr1 which it 
seemed I could only go from underdeveloped to flat, even 
when experimenting with small incremental increases in 
roast temperature.  I was particularly dissapointed with 
it because I've often purchased Sumatra from a local 
store that has a nice full flavor with that distinctive 
strange twist.  With my roast I got an unpleasant grassy 
taste or flat...couldn't achieve anything in between.  
I've wondered if it has to do with the weather 
here...I'm in Oklahoma...roasting outside at night its 
often 95 to 97 degrees with 70 to 80 percent humidity.  
I'm roasting straights only, no blends.  I'm also 
letting the coffee rest about 24 hours on average.  I've 
noted what you said about the oily surface...I'm not 
really targeting that "look"...just using it as another 
piece of information in understanding the process.  
Thanks to everyone for the insights.

<Snip>
                  "Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
           Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting  -  Tom & Maria
                     http://www.sweetmarias.com

Okay, which one of you wise guys is getting burlap bags for $2 from me and
then pawning them off on ebay for $7.00? Actually, the funniest one was a
completely ugly decaf bag that said "west germany" and nothing else, and
the guy was selling it as a authenitic german coffee bag. I line the bed of
my truck with those....
Item #:  454618916
Item:    Burlap Coffee Bag from Brazil
Price:   US $6.99
Bids:    0
Started: 09/30 14:47
URL:    http://grass.ebay.com/go/101/12621152/1/454618916Tom
                  "Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
           Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting  -  Tom & Maria
                     http://www.sweetmarias.com

 
Maria, Tom, Matt & everybody:
Finally I bought a big electric transformator (2000 W, 130 V and about 20 
pounds of weight...) that works better than the converter I first used. 
Nonetheless, it still doesn't work good enough, because when I put the timer 
in 10 it just roast full city (I must say that it tastes very good, by the 
way), and I expected it to roast like french roast at that degree. What else 
can I try? Less beans?
Greetings from Chile,
Felipe
P.S.: for the guys that don't know, I'm writing from Chile, where we have a 
220 V, 50 hz electric current, and I just bought a Hearthware Gourmet 
Roaster.
P.S. 2: I'm still receiving more poems about coffee, specially from 
important poets in english and american literature, because I'm interested 
to study that theme and maybe write a paper.
Get more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download :http://explorer.msn.com

I now have got an opportunity to buy the Brasilia Cappuccino Digital VERY cheap.
Has anybody got some experience?
Regards
Jans_p_r_a_y_
Här börjar Internet!
Skaffa gratis e-mail och gratis Internet påhttp://www.spray.se

Hey all - the smoke is beginning to clear around here after the 
post-holiday rush, and we're all caught up on things. So I can 
resurface again!
A quality concern: If anyone received a Hearthware Precision from us 
lately, and  there were 2 or 3 silver packages of coffee in the roast 
chamber marked Cafe Granado, thone are NOT Sweet Maria's coffee! They 
are from Hearthware. Why bother with this? Because they are AWFUL! I 
mean, the worst past crop coffee I have ever tasted (maybe the 
awfulness is accentuated by the fact they were in mylar wrapping for 
3 years. Coffee in cloth for 3 years, like an indonesian, might be a 
sort of okay aged coffee. But these are phenolic.)
Tom
--
                   "Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
            Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting  -  Tom & Maria
                      http://www.sweetmarias.com