Officine Balestra (Wampa)
Production drums, Sparanise (Caserta), Italy.
History
“In 1947, through the work of Francesco Balestra, the first Balestra-brand coffee roasting machine was born.” Passed on to his sons Mario and Giuseppe, the firm lives on today in a new company, Wampa S.r.l., with Giuseppe and his daughters, in Sparanise in Campania, and calls itself one of the oldest Italian makers of coffee machines, which is a self-description. It has diversified into pod espresso machines.
Its technical wording is explicit: “the process takes place solely by forced convection of indirect hot air,” in a machine with separate bodies whose cylinder carries a system of fins.
What it makes
Indirect-heating drums using forced convection, with separate bodies, afterburner optional.
The models
- K1 and K3: small productions, roasting in a shop window, the K3 also for barley
- K5 to K40
- K60 and K120
Capacities not published
What you gain
The combustion gases never touch the bean: the safest configuration against smoke flavors, consistent with the aim of roasting in front of the customer. The separate bodies can be installed in a cramped room.
What you lose
A separate generator requires a longer preheat and gives a lower efficiency than direct flame, which weighs on the time between batches of a small machine. No public technical sheet with figures.