Cormorant Roasters

History

Cormorant Roasters is the business of a couple, one originally from Namibia, the other from South Africa. The idea came to them while traveling. In 2011 and 2012, they crossed South America by motorbike and camped in the middle of Colombian plantations. There, they were served coffee grown, roasted and ground on the spot, in the mountains. Back in South Africa, they built their first roaster at home. In 2014, they moved to the United Kingdom to develop the brand, in Killigarth, near Polperro, on the south coast of Cornwall. The first CR600g went to a customer in 2016. This is the only firm date for the start of sales, two years after the arrival in Cornwall. The electric version, the CR600e, was designed in 2022. The workshop remains tiny and proclaims it: a limited number of machines per year, each assembled individually, the buyer dealing directly with the manufacturer. Johan, the only first name published, builds the machines. He is also the one who gives the one-hour introductory course offered with every roaster, which says the real size of the firm. It sells a home roaster, but also presents the gas version as a sample roaster for a business. Its warranty says the opposite and excludes any professional use. A South African micro-roastery, Bayhound Coffee Works, nonetheless uses it that way, and for its small, expensive lots.

What it makes

A solid drum, that is, not perforated, heated from below. The bean therefore takes most of its heat from the metal it touches, by conduction, and not from the air that passes through it. The drum wall is 3 mm and carries three stirring paddles. A movable diffuser sits between the heat source and the drum. The manufacturer calls conduction the open-diffuser mode, where the radiation strikes the wall directly. It calls convection the closed-diffuser mode, where the heat arrives carried by the air. Two heating bases mount under the same body, and they are interchangeable. The CR600g burns propane in an infrared ceramic burner, built-in 50 mbar regulator, automatic ignition. The setting runs from 5 to 50 mbar, a ratio of ten between low flame and high flame. A thermocouple safety cuts the gas if the flame goes out. Consumption is announced at 0.08 kg per hour, heating included. The CR600e heats with U-shaped infrared tubes, 2,400 watts announced in total. The parts catalog sells this U tube at 1,200 watts, which makes two of them. Two 12 volt fans give at most 170 cubic feet per minute, or about 290 cubic meters per hour. Marine-grade stainless steel, handles and feet in sapele, an African wood close to mahogany.

The models

Two machines: the CR600g on propane and the electric CR600e, announced in 120, 200 or 240 volts. The specification sheet gives 150 to 600 g per batch, or 0.15 to 0.6 kg. The home page goes down to 50 g in one sentence. It goes back up to 150 g in another, specifying that the profile is faithful only from there. The two versions share the body, the drum, the fans and the probes. Only the heating base changes, and the owner of a gas machine can switch to electric by replacing it. Roast given as 10 to 15 minutes, twelve on average for 600 g. 530 by 300 by 447 mm, 14 kg. Viewing window, sampling rod, chaff chamber, cooling bowl and 2.5 m of flexible duct to carry the fumes out. Analog thermometer from 0 to 250 degrees, plus two probes, one for the bean mass and one for ambient. They come as K thermocouples or as resistance probes, and connect to Artisan, the free software that plots the roast curve. A single price of 1,795 pounds covers both stainless steel versions. It now includes a Yocto box, that is, a small measuring module plugged in by USB, and its two probes. No other model is published.

What you gain

A ratio of one to four on a single drum, 150 g against 600 g: the same machine tests a lot, then roasts enough to drink. The 3 mm solid wall stores heat and smooths out the burner's jolts, like a production drum and unlike a fluid bed of air. The shape of the curve therefore comes closer to that of a big machine. The diffuser gives two heating paths on one body, the wall or the air, and it is operated during the batch without dismantling anything. The two probes are fitted and wired at the factory to Artisan: the curve exists from the first batch, the only way to redo a profile rather than remember it. The parts catalog is public and priced, from the infrared tube at 20 pounds to the complete burner at 50 pounds. A machine whose parts prices are displayed is a machine one can keep for a long time.

What you lose

Twelve minutes per 600 g batch, plus cooling, cap the throughput at around two to three kilos an hour. The manufacturer in fact asks for cooling pauses between consecutive batches. The wall that smooths out the jolts delays corrections: the steel must be warmed or cooled before the bean feels it. At 150 g, the quarter load faces the same hot metal, and the surface burns if the pressure is not lowered. Nothing is automatic: analog thermometer, manual controls, the curve is recorded but not replayed. Cleaning comes up often, because the chaff burns: the chamber is emptied after each batch, the underside of the burner and the fans are vacuumed every ten. Above all, the twelve-month warranty covers only domestic use and lapses at the first professional use. The firm nonetheless sells the gas version as a sample roaster for a business. The workshop is two people, hence the lead times. Parts come only from it, except in the United States, where a reseller stocks them and provides service.