Product Description

The Freshroast Plus 8 features a glass chamber for a 3.5 oz. roast batch and a fast roast cycle. Ideal for a household of 1 to 2 coffee drinkers, it takes just 5-7 minutes to roast the green coffee beans with a 2 minute cool-down cycle. The Freshroast Plus has a mechanical timer and the chaff collector is simple yet effective. Because the roast chamber is smaller and the roast cycle is shorter than other home coffee roasting machines, it uses less energy to roast a batch of beans. Because of its basic design, this is the roaster that will outlast all the fancy, computer chip controlled machines out there. If you are a serious home coffee roaster, it is worth having one of these just in case your other roaster fails. Because of the mechanical timer and the fast roast time, this unit requires a little more attention to achieve your favorite roast. This is a simple matter of monitoring the bean color and aroma, then manually turning the machine to cool when the beans are perfect. Typically, in a Freshroast the beans roast a little darker on the outside and the coffees bright notes and aroma are accentuated, while deeper tones can sometimes be muted because of the fast roast time. The roast time will vary between coffee types, but results can be duplicated by recording the roast time for each type of coffee you roast. Includes a pound of our Fair Trade certified organic Sumatra Takengon green coffee.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121629 in Kitchen & Housewares

Features

• The perfect home roasting machine for households with 1 or 2 coffee drinkers.
• Roasts 3.5 oz. Green coffee in about 7 minutes
• A good machine for beginners at an affordable price.
• Includes a pound of Fair Trade certified organic Sumatra Takengon green coffee beans.
• Operates on standard 110 volt household current.

Customer Reviews

great product. the smell will make your neighbors cry
The first one I got burned out in about 5 days, but I got it replaced and this one is now a year old and works great. Roasting coffee will set off all your smoke alarms so be prepared to go outside or roast by an open window. I think the smell is great, but it is powerful.

At first I only made fresh beans on sundays, but gradually I have become addicted to the just roasted flavor and do every pot I make fresh.

Pros :
unroasted beans keep for a very long time so you can have many varieties on hand without worrying about them going bad.

you can get much better coffee and much better prices online than from most brick and mortar coffee stores (read the online reviews of the beans).

you can control the roast the way you like it. I prefer a lighter roast most days than I can get at Starbucks or Peets.

Great tasting coffee.

Easy to use, easy to clean.

Cons

You get cold feet in the winter on the balcony in your PJs

You drink more coffee than might be good for you

Best I've found so far... as long as you have ventilation!
I bought my husband one of these for a present in Christmas 2004. He is a total coffee addict and had been making all kinds of sounds like he needed a roaster. O got him this one because it seemed the cheapest and easiest to figure out. He figured out how it worked pretty easily and it didn't take long before he had figured out all the different "cracks" and which beans needed to go how dark. He has used this thing daily, sometimes even 2-3 times every single day, to make his own coffee in the morning, at night, he brings his own to make it at work, for friends, you name it. We went on vacation (road trip vacation) and it came with us. Twice. It hasn't burned out yet but the plastic top thing has come apart and it's kind of hobbling its way through. If there was a nontoxic epoxy that would stand the heat that I trusted, we would use it and carry on, but I think it's about time for a new one.

Pros - you can see the beans, it's very reliable, ours like I said has not burned out yet even after all the use its gotten. It makes really good coffee (I don't roast it but I do drink it).

Cons - it doesn't make enough, at least not enough for us. Now hubby wants to roast half a pound or more at once. Also, it gets very smoky. I love the smell of the coffee, but even with two commercial range hoods going in the kitchen (no exaggeration, one 36" 1200 CFM and one 60" 1800 CFM), the smoke detector on the first floor goes off. Before we had vent hoods we had to open up all the doors and windows and stand in front of the alarm waving a towel like some demented toreador. Drove the pooch nuts. But still - I'm going to buy this same one again because we like it, how it works and the coffee it makes.

Great when it works
I purchased this roaster, the FreshRoast Plus, a little over a year ago. In that year I used it roughly every two days and after a bit of a rough start had no problem getting just the roast I wanted. Thats not to say that you can just turn the dial and get the same roast each time. Slightly different amounts of beans or different types could require 2 to 3 minutes less to roast often because the first crack was so exothermic that it caused a very rapid second crack. Still, with some experience and good timing the variables were easy to adjust for.
Unfortunately, just days after the 1 year warranty expired, the fan on the roaster started making strange noises and a couple roasts later a small flame shot through the center of the roaster. Only being able to get a year's worth of roasting and risking a major fire in the process more than outweigh the initial savings. I have since bought an I-Roast as a replacement. It roasts more at one shot but is much louder and smokier.