Gene Café CBR-101 Roaster
I have used many different rusts over the years. For small batches of 1 kg or less, I prefer the Aillio Bullet. Incredible machine. But it has one major flaw: Mini sample roast. It takes a long time to test roast the Bullet. It takes 30 minutes for preheating, mini batches of 150g or less (which are always the sample sizes indicated). The Bullet just doesn't work very well, and you have to know the machine very well to make such a small sample size work. Other more dedicated test machines leave me wanting more. More dedicated test roasters cost an arm and a leg and only give you 100g of roasts at a time. So for someone who wants to roast at home, 100g is really the bare minimum in my opinion.
This is where the Gene cafe really comes into its own. It's a great little roaster. Both for the enthusiast who just wants to roast beans at home and get a feel for it, as well as the professional roaster like myself who just wants to do quick samples before buying massive 60kg bags of beans. At 250 gram frying capacity, which is enough for a couple of days of brewing for most people. As well as enough control on the roast to give lovely samples of 100g or less. The Gene Café is just a great, easy and quick machine to use.
To use:
- Plug it in
- Press the blue knob to turn on the machine
- Adjust the starting temperature with the red knob
- Set the time for frying with the blue dial
- Put beans in the jar
- Press the red dial to start
Obviously there's a bit more to it than that, but this really lays out the basics of the machine. Giving us control over time and heat is basically all that is needed or desired for trials and simple roasting at home. I can heat up and roast 200g before my Aillio Bullet has even heated up.
While most proof roasters lack the capacity and functionality (control) for any home user who wants to be able to do a little more than push a button. The Gene Café CBR-101 provides just enough control for the home user to learn enough about roasting and get great flavors out of their roasts without being boring.
How I use Gene Cafe CBR-101
- I set the bean container empty in the machine
- Set the preheat temperature to 200c
- Let it get hot and keep it at that heat for about 10 minutes
- Press and hold the red dial until the signal E appears on the dial and I can safely remove the container
- Add 200 grams to the jar
- Place the container back into the Gene Café CBR-101
- Set the heat to 240c and press start
- When the beans reach the first crack, I lower the temperature to about 225c for about 10-20% development time.
Plus for the Gene Cafe CBR-101
- Fast heating
- Easy to use
- Perfect for test roasting
- Perfect for home roasting of slightly larger samples of 250g
- Easy to maintain
- Relatively cheap for a good coffee roaster
Minus of the Gene Cafe CBR-101
- Can't always hear the first crack because the machine is loud
- Not a good tool for chilling the beans. Best practice is to empty the container as soon as your roast is done instead of using the machine to cool the beans.