Sandbox Smart Technology Co., Ltd.

History

The company is young, and its birth certificate is dated to the day. Taiwan's public company registry records it on December 3, 2019, in Sanchong, in the city of New Taipei. Its legal Chinese name is 木榮科技有限公司; Sandbox Smart is only the trade brand. The word sandbox is chosen for what it designates. The manufacturer writes it on its presentation page: a place where a child can try things without breaking anything. From this it draws its promise, to bring the roasting of the bean back to the person who will drink the coffee. The company was not born from nothing, however. The trade press attributes its founding to Sam Liu, designer of its two machines and its head. He arrives there after twenty years spent making coffee equipment, and more than ten years as a roaster. The first machine, the R1, roasts only a hundred grams. This is not a limit endured but a choice: a drinker's week of coffee, on an ordinary household outlet. The R2, four times larger, is financed by a crowdfunding campaign. The manufacturer announces it on January 10, 2022 on its own site, and the trade press covers it the following February 7. The points-of-sale page today lists fourteen countries and territories, from Lithuania to Indonesia. On August 6, 2025, the company opens a permanent cleaning service, reserved for Taiwan. It covers the front door, the air duct, the chamber and the drum: which tells where the chaff and oils accumulate.

What it makes

Sandbox Smart assembles in Taiwan drum roasters heated by electricity, never gas. The R1 houses a heating tube in the chamber, around the drum, with an adjustable air intake flap beneath it. The drum itself is a removable wire-mesh basket, mounted on an axle and turning at 30 revolutions per minute. The mesh changes everything. Hot air passes through the bed of beans instead of bypassing it. Roasting therefore takes place by convection, heat carried by the air, and by direct radiation from the tube through the mesh. Conduction, the heat transmitted by contact with the wall, plays almost no role here: there is no metal to store it. The manufacturer, moreover, names its two machines “直火式,” of the direct-flame type. In the trade the term designates a perforated drum, where heat reaches the bean through the holes. It is opposed to the solid drum, heated from outside, which transmits only through its wall. There is no flame here, only a heating element, but the path of the heat is the same. The R2 moves the source. The manufacturer writes, in its announcement of January 10, 2022, that it heats with a quartz tube. The trade press specifies a month later that this tube is 900 watts. It places it at the center of the rotating drum, therefore inside the charge itself. Neither machine has a control panel: one button on the front, and everything else by Bluetooth from a phone. Manual mode opens three settings, the air flap, heating power and drum speed.

The models

Two roasters, and five accessories around them. The R1 roasts 0.1 kg per batch, in ten to fifteen minutes depending on the target degree. It draws 550 to 650 watts, on 110 volts or 220 to 240 volts. Its drum is 304 stainless steel and turns at 30 revolutions per minute. It measures 25.5 by 26.0 by 23.0 centimeters, weighs 7 kilos, is controlled by Bluetooth and stays under 70 decibels. It is sold in black or red, with the C1 tray, at 24,000 Taiwan dollars. The R2 roasts 0.2 to 0.55 kg per batch: the minimum charge of two hundred grams is a constraint, not a flexibility. It draws 900 watts and its drum turns at 90 revolutions per minute, three times faster than that of the R1. It measures 38.0 by 27.5 by 32.8 centimeters and weighs 12 kilos. Its body mixes 304 stainless steel and PC/ABS plastic. It announces 65 decibels, an adjustable air flap, and a loading and dumping mode that the manufacturer says is patented. The manufacturer announced it at 68,000 Taiwan dollars on January 10, 2022; its shop displays the same figure in September 2026. The R2 and C1 set is there at 70,000. The C1 cooling tray brings 0.5 kg of beans to room temperature in one minute, on 110 as on 220 volts. It is 316 stainless steel. Its fan draws off the chaff as it passes, which the grate holds under the beans: cooling and winnowing in a single motion. Added to these are the G1 hand grinder and two smoke extractors, the F1 and the F2. The F1 adjusts from 26.5 to 36.5 centimeters in height and is sold with a replaceable collecting cloth. Finally comes the D1, a spare drum for the R1, in 304 stainless steel, 120 millimeters in diameter by 135 long. In September 2026, the G1 grinder and the F1 extractor are out of stock. Nothing above 0.55 kg, and no production roaster.

What you gain

The mesh drum stores almost no heat. The machine therefore reaches its setpoint quickly, and a cold charge does not make the chamber plunge as it would a cast-iron production machine. Cutting the power acts within seconds, because a radiant element cools as fast as it heats. The manufacturer in fact announces for the R2 a rate of rise above 35 at its peak, without publishing the unit. The three settings offered, air, heating and drum speed, are exactly the three of a professional drum, on one hundredth of the charge. Finally each batch is recorded: a successful roast can be replayed identically, which no hand-crank machine allows.

What you lose

The R2 manual itself sets the limit. After first crack, it forbids exceeding 50% power and opening the flap to less than 60%. After second, 30% and 90%. In other words, at full power the element burns the bean instead of developing it. The same manual warns that sparks of burning chaff are normal. The R1 must drop back below its preheat setpoint before each batch. The R2 refuses charges of less than 200 grams. The mesh and the bare element retain chaff and oils. The manufacturer in fact charges for this cleaning, 800 to 2,000 Taiwan dollars per job, and offers it only in Taiwan. Nothing exceeds 0.55 kg: the profile does not transpose to production.