ROEST
Sample roasters, Oslo, Norway.
History
Two brothers, Sverre Simonsen, a mechanical engineer, and Trond Simonsen, founded on March 14, 2014 a company bearing their name, Simonsen & Simonsen AS, which became Røst Coffee in 2017, then ROEST. A Red Dot Design Award and a Best New Product in 2017; more than 500 machines in more than fifty countries in June 2021, when a capital increase of six million kroner brought in the businessman Jan Christian Opsahl and the world barista champion Tim Wendelboe.
This operation has been described elsewhere as a buyout. The Norwegian registry says the opposite: no parent company, no bankruptcy, no liquidation. Thirty employees. In November 2025, the company launches its second generation, S200 and L200, and ends the 100 platform after ten years, acknowledging “the limits of the original hardware platform.”
What it makes
Electric hot-air sample roasters, but whose drum is mechanically stirred by paddles: the air heats, it does not carry the beans. And since 2025 a fully automated 3 kg production roaster with an internal camera.
The models
- S200: 50 to 200 g, 1.6 kg/h
- L200 Plus: automatic first crack detection, protocol between batches
- L200 Ultra: dual bean probe, pressure sensor, counterflow mode, up to 3 kg/h
- P3000: 3 kg, more than fifteen sensors, camera tracking bean color and size, 32,900 euros, pre-orders open March 26, 2025
S100, L100 and L100 Plus discontinued
What you gain
Because the air does not carry the beans, airflow can be varied without losing the stirring, which a fluid bed rules out: reducing the air makes the bed collapse. This freedom brings the machine's behavior closer to that of a production drum, which is exactly what is asked of a sample roaster, that the profile of a hundred grams be transposable. The electric machine installs in a laboratory like a measuring instrument, and first crack detection makes the comparison between lots objective.
What you lose
Fifty to two hundred grams: an analysis tool, not a production one, up to the P3000. A small drum has little inertia, and the result depends on the state of the machine between batches, which ROEST acknowledges by documenting a protocol between batches. And the simultaneous discontinuation of the entire 100 range raises the question of support for machines in service, to which no published answer was found.