Berto Coffee Roaster
Production drums, Tangerang, Indonesia.
History
Robert Patilaya started alone in 1984 making machines for cosmetics, shifted in the 1990s toward food processing, coating machines, cooling tunnels, extruders, fryers, and exports to ASEAN, the Middle East, Australia and Europe. The first roaster, a 60 kg convection machine, came in 2007, with a roasting operation run in Tangerang to test it.
Between 2012 and 2016 the firm made roasters for peanuts and cocoa, and devoted itself to coffee only in 2017. It says it waited ten years before selling its first unit: unverifiable, but consistent with the chronology. It is the best-documented manufacturer in Southeast Asia, in a country that is the world's fourth largest producer.
What it makes
Convection roasters, automated and designed to be “smokeless,” from 1 to 60 kg.
The models
- Berto ONE: micro-roasting
- Type D: small and medium cafés
- Type R: medium to large commercial
- Essential and Essential Air
What you gain
The convective dominance is measured and controlled better than contact with a drum, whose efficiency depends on the state of the metal and the load: automation is reliable there, cups are clean, cycles are short. “Smokeless” is a real argument in a market where roasting takes place in dense urban areas.
What you lose
Convection demands large airflows, hence powerful fans and auxiliary electricity consumption, and it builds less body than a conductive drum.