Comments on: Banished Home-Roaster? Meet the Behmor.

By: evening

evening — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:50:36 +0000

OK, I’ll spare you….THIS time :)

I’ve seen that complaint more than once on the coffeegeek boards when I was researching machines. So it is a pretty safe thing to say!

By: Stephen Leighton

Stephen Leighton — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:19:24 +0000

You know as I wrote that I knew it would come back to bite me and still I fell for it. It was more of a personal observation and my wife not likeing roasters on the counter, not a swipe at women roasters at all :)

Please dont hit me :)

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Wed, 16 May 2007 01:21:34 +0000

And let that be a lesson to us all… women roast coffee, too. ;)

By: evening

evening — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:52:06 +0000

Thanks Stephen!

Though I’m the wife and have trouble with the husband wanting it off the counter :) Luckily the Z&D is black and blends well so he doesn’t mind, but this one is real good too (mmmm, stainless steel finish).

By: Stephen Leighton

Stephen Leighton — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:02:10 +0000

I did drop by, and had a bite to eat with Joe afterwards, he’s a really nice guy, and this roaster has been his dream for eight years, so getting it to the show he was really psyched.

Its not the best looking roaster, but its well built well thought out. The one bonus to all the other home roasters is I think it can sit on top on a kitchen counter without the wife wanting a divorce.

One thing to note is I saw prototypes and they looked very close to the finished article. With Ronco its an interesting partnership and I think there will be good back up and the final piece will be well built.

For me the best part is its price point. The hottop and the cafÃƒÂ© gene are good but very expensive. The Iroast well priced but not so good. So this should really shake up the roaster world.

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:57:49 +0000

Hey, Stephen!

You visisted Joe’s setup at SCAA in Long Beach, right? Any thoughts about the machine you’d care to add… notes on build quality, for example?

By: Stephen Leighton

Stephen Leighton — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:17:30 +0000

I know Joe is very careful to say its not smokeless but smoke reduced there is some smoke still. And the aroma is still there too, but I think thats a good thing, as I cant roast without my nose :)

Looks very imrpessive, the more I see read and hear makes me more exited about this roaster.

By: evening

evening — Tue, 15 May 2007 12:32:38 +0000

One thing I thought of this morning is that the Z&D doesn’t produce visible smoke, but you can smell it and can still set off the smoke alarms. So I hope when they say it is smokeless, they’re including the “invisible” smoke.

And the set it and forget it is so perfect for me, which is why I wouldn’t have gotten into home roasting if it weren’t for the Z&D. I can’t use my nose to control the roast as my nose REALLY doesn’t like the coffee roasting smell (even with the Z&D).

And the 1/4 lb lasts me about a week, but roasting every week can become a chore, so the idea of doing a 1/2 lb and vacuum sealing what I don’t need sounds really good.

OK, I’m getting excited about it. Guess what I’m getting myself as a present? :)

Or should I wait and let them work out the kinks? (I know first gen Z&D wasn’t as good, as is with most new products….decisions decisions).

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Tue, 15 May 2007 04:18:14 +0000

Which reminds me… I’m told the list price is slated to be $399. I’d anticipate retailers to start pricing at $350 or thereabouts, and eventually migrating to a price point more like $300 as initial demand and on-hand inventory levels out.

That’s a pretty good price, and surely not what I would have expected to see on any one-pound capacity roaster unless (until) the home-roasting market expands quite a lot. Which, I think, is something that Ronco intends to do… open up the market, and take home-roasting to places it’s never been before.

A ’set it and forget it’ kind of roaster that plays nice in the kitchen is just the ticket.

By: evening

evening — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:30:08 +0000

Yeah, though we’ll have to see about that price tag before I can broach the subject with the spouse :)