About 5 years ago, my mother-in-law asked me what I wanted to for my birthday. I had been searching about coffee on the web and I spotted a Fresh Roast home coffee roaster and a few pounds of beans for $65. I was used to ordering through Starbucks Encore program several pounds of coffee every month. After the first roast using the Fresh Roast roaster, I was hooked. Up to that point, that was the best cup of coffee that I had ever tasted. Throughout the years, I used the Fresh Roast Plus, Fresh Roast Plus 8, Cafe Rosta, Nesco (formerly Zach & Dani's) and then the I-Roast and I-Roast 2 with great success. After several years of roasting for myself, I needed a larger roaster so that I could share my passion for specialty coffee with my friends.
I began to use the AeroRost which roasts about 2 lbs of beans. When I was working in Chicago for two years, about 30 people came over to my house to drink my coffee. It became an incredible time to spend quality time with friends, an easy cupping party and a way to experiment with different blends. During my first year in Chicago, a great friend, Eric Diamond, designed the Chazzano logo for me as a present. The logo and graphics were so clever and connected to my personality. That was when Chazzano Coffee LLC was born. (The "ch" in Chazzano is pronounced like the "ch" in "Bach" or "Loch.") The logo provided the impetus for me to found Chazzano Coffee (tm). I invested in a 4lb roaster from cafecoffees.com called the MicroTosta Cafe and then the 8lb Tosta Caffe. I have over 300 lbs of green coffee from different countries throughout the world. I am enjoying the adventure in the world of coffee roasting and specialty coffee.
2 comments:
So what did you think of the smaller capacity roasters? What made you switch between them?
I loved the Caffe Rosto because the roast was always excellent but after it kept dying, I bought a Zach & Dani's roaster. Zach & Dani's was a good machine with no smoke thanks to the catalytic converter, but the roast was too long and too noisy. Again, the screw and motor that circulated the coffee broke twice. I then enjoyed the I-Roast and I-Roast2. They allowed you to program the ramp speeds and temperature and cool down period. It was a great machine and I loved the coffee that I roasted. I wished that I could store more programs in the roaster's computer. I started the whole passion for coffee with the Fresh Roast. My very first roast gave me the most delicious coffee that I had ever tasted. The coffee was Costa Rica Tarrazu that I purchased from www.thecoffeeproject.com. I switched between machines because I was curious and because they all ultimately broke down. Even the Fresh Roast carafe broke when the sealant began to melt.
I eventually graduated to bigger roasters because I was drinking a lot of coffee and sharing a lot with friends. I was never interested in buying an Alpenrost. Hottop or the Behmor. I continue to enjoy the great adventure of specialty coffee roasting.
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